Now it gets serious. The bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games has over a year to go but this week marks an important milestone for the 8 applicants. The IOC requires that all applicants respond to an 8-page, 22-question questionnaire by May 31 covering topics from the bids’ motivation to the environment and meteorology. Oh, and all applicants are asked to attach a cheque for US$100,000 – thank-you very much.
The IOC Executive board has outlined a strict format for the responses that include 2 languages, 8 specific attachments and enough detail to make an actuary’s head spin. Every answer is limited to a single page of a specific size paper that will make the final document 44 pages in length. The IOC even goes as far as detailing what colors to use in the map legend. All this follows the notation “the IOC is interested in the facts, not the presentation”
The Bid committees have been encouraged to provide accurate information in their replies. The introduction to the questionnaire suggests that the IOC may “carry out certain independent studies” and use these results as part of the overall assessment. During the 2008 Olympic bid campaign, the IOC ran independent public opinion polls and used these results to corroborate information provided by the bid cities in their final candidature file. The IOC poll of Osaka’s public support was 24% below what the Osaka bid reported, and similarly, Paris was 13% short.
In its Candidature Acceptance Procedure, the IOC gives the Executive Committee free reign in determining the qualification criteria and ultimately which bids will be selected as candidates. For 2008 “OlympLogic” – a decision making model developed for the IOC – was used to score the bids based on their questionnaires. This model determines the average score of the questions and calculates the level of uncertainty associated with the bid. A high uncertainty would be the result of one or two critical factors that are scored low but may be masked by averaging them with higher scores. As a result, one poor score could derail the entire bid.
Jacque Rogge has been stressing a smaller scope and limited growth for future Games so that less developed nations in Southern continents will have the ability to bid competitively – on one hand. On the other hand, the IOC is now asking for an additional US$500,000 from bids that qualify for candidate city status on the basis of their completed questionnaires. IOC sports director Gilbert Felli says the fee will cover costs that the committees would have to pay for anyway, but adds that its also a method for stopping “non-committed” bids.
Once the questionnaires are in, the bid cities will have to wait until August 28 for the results, when the IOC will narrow down the bid city list to any number they feel appropriate. In the meantime, the confident bids will begin work on the full bid books that will be due to the IOC in January 2003. International marketing of the bids cannot start until after that date.
