Kevin Wamsley, the director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at London’s University of Western Ontario, said that Gerhard Heiberg’s eventual report on the 2010 bid cities may be less important to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) final decision than issues of North American TV rights and politics.
According to the National Post, Wamsley, whose group focuses on independent study of various aspects of the Olympics, said, “you can’t have so many (Games) in a row that are in poor time zones for American television and then ask for American money, so they are going to have to deliver one or two sites that are North American”.
The IOC is preparing to negotiate U.S. television rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics and the rewards could be higher if the Games were held in North America because they would be in a time zone well suited to generating high ratings from North American viewers.
Wamsley also said politics will work against Salzburg and Pyeonchang, noting that pending Games are to be held in Europe and Asia.
Wamsley says “it doesn’t make sense to go to Salzburg in 2010. I am sure they could rationalize it if Salzburg was a much, much better site. If it wasn’t even close, they could rationalize it”.
“But the Vancouver bid and the Salzburg bid are so close on paper and with respect to the votes that I would say the nod still has to go to Vancouver”, said Wamsley.
Wamsley said he is “betting on Vancouver at this point”.
And how is Vancouver 2010 reacting to Heiberg’s comments about Salzburg? Vancouver 2010 bid spokesman Sam Corea said it was nice to hear all these comments made about other cities, but there were great comments made about Vancouver”. The National Post reports that the corporation is more preoccupied with a master plan to win the Games in July, when the IOC votes on the host city for the 2010 Games.
Corea said, “of course we care about what is said about other cities. However, we are remaining focused on our particular bid. We can’t be concerned about what the competition is doing”.
For now Corea said Vancouver 2010 is trying to make sure its story gets out to the international sports community, in part, by attending several looming international events such as the World Figure Skating Championships in Washington, D.C.
