IOC Wants More Change in Bidding Process

(ATR) The IOC wants to introduce even more flexibility when it comes to choosing hosts for both the Olympic and Youth Olympic Games.

"We have been looking into the evolution of this revolution," IOC President Thomas Bach said during a press conference after the IOC executive board met in Lausanne on Wednesday.

Agenda 2020 reforms were superseded by the launch in February 2018 of a fresh package of reforms to revamp the IOC’s Olympic bidding and delivery model. Labeled ‘The New Norm’, it was a set of 118 reforms designed to slash Games delivery costs for candidate cities.

But the new bidding rules have left the IOC with only two potential hosts for the 2026 Winter Games, the same number as for 2022 and 2024, the last two run under the old system. A handful of potential 2026 bidders withdrew, including one from Calgary even after the IOC included it as a finalist along with Milan-Cortina and Stockholm-Are.

"We have seen and analyzed the advantages and challenges of the recent procedures," Bach says. "This is why we had established this working group chaired by John Coates and they have already today in this executive board meeting made some proposals which the EB decided to take forward to the IOC session."

Bach says the following six changes will help "avoid producing too many losers, as we had it in the past candidature procedures":

--To establish a permanent ongoing dialogue to explore interest among cities, regions, countries, and National Olympic Committees for Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games

--To create two future host commissions, one for summer, one for winter, to oversee interest in future Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games

--To give the IOC session more influence from the very beginning of this procedure by having these future host commissions involved from the very beginning of the dialogue with any interested party

--Based on the input from these two commissions, to set a strategic framework for the host election for specific games editions

--To make it clear that the host does not necessarily refer to a single city but can also refer to multiple cities, regions and countries

--To have more flexibility with regard to the timing of the elections, and to adjust this timing to local opportunities, context and needs

The IOC president says these changes will be proposed for discussion and then a decision will be made at the IOC Session in June in Lausanne.

Written by Gerard Farek

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