Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland - The Bid Experience
Under the auspices of newly elected president Dr. Thomas Bach, the IOC initiated a broad debate on the future of the Olympic Movement. The main focus of the IOC is to foster youth through sport while strengthening sustainability and credibility. It has therefore set up 14 working groups to gather reactions, criticism and suggestions from both members of the Olympic Movement as well as the public. Their contributions will be incorporated in the Olympic Agenda 2020, the strategic roadmap of the IOC which is expected to be finalised by the end of 2014. Last week, the working groups commenced work: from 16th to 20th June, all 14 working groups were invited to the IOC headquarter in Lausanne.
Besides their engagement in several working groups, the four NOCs of Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland contributed to this process by preparing a Joint Paper. Their paper Olympic Agenda 2020 The Bid Experience (download here), gives an insight into the personal experiences the committees recently made with bidding for Olympic Games. All four committees were planning Olympic bids in the recent past but all bids failed due to a lack in national or at least regional public or political support. As members of the Olympic Movement, the four NOCs however feel it is their responsibility to support the IOC in keeping the Olympic brand attractive and to strengthen the confidence of the public in the Olympic Movement.
The paper, coordinated and compiled by German bidding experts PROPROJEKT / AS&P, identifies eight major challenges within the IOC requirements and the bid process and proposes possible approaches how to tackle these challenges. All eight theses can be subsumed under three topics that the involved committees deem relevant, i.e. the process of bidding, the costs of the Games and the scale of the Games. Briefly summarised, the four NOCs ask the IOC for more dialogue and support in bidding, with a clearer focus on sustainability, more of an open partnership with regards to the costs and the risks of hosting the Games and more flexibility with regards to the scale of the Games. The authors hope that the paper offers a basis for discussions and an impetus for new ideas valuable for the development of the Olympic Agenda 2020.
The signees Dr. Peter Mennel, Secretary General of the Austrian Olympic Committee, Dr. Michael Vesper, Director General of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, Stefan Lindeberg, President of the Swedish Olympic Committee and Jörg Schild, President of the Swiss Olympic Association clearly state: We are all part of the Olympic Movement. We strongly believe in the Olympic values, the uniqueness of the Olympic Games and the huge potential of Olympic Games for the sustainable development of cities, regions and sports. The overall aim of our paper is to focus on the Olympic Values to achieve sustainability, reduce complexity and increase transparency and flexibility for potential bid cities. It is necessary to ensure that the requirements and the procedures in place allow for more nations to successfully put forward bids in the future.
