With the 2010 Winter Olympic bid heading into the home stretch, it seems cities are suddenly scrambling for their shot at future Winter Games. The latest announcement comes from New York Gov. George Pataki who said that Lake Placid would team up with Quebec, Canada and launch a bi-national bid for a future Games. But it seems no one is taking the announcement too seriously.
Canadian Olympic Committee President Mike Chambers told reporters that a bi-national Olympic bid would be a “very, very difficult sell” to the International Olympic Committee.
”We’ll examine the idea and we welcome the proposal of Gov. Pataki’s government to submit a bi-national bid,” said Frederic Dube, an aide to Quebec Sports Minister Richard Legendre. “That could involve a sharing of existing infrastructure. It would be a low-cost Games.”
IOC President Jacques Rogge has been rallying behind the idea of a lower cost Games in order to reverse a trend that shows budgets skyrocketing and venues being left unused post-Games. However, the New York-Quebec proposal probably isn’t what he had in mind. In fact, the bid concept ignores a few key fundamentals of the International Olympic Committee.
— In recent years, the IOC has rejected the idea of multi-city bids which recently forced Vancouver-Whistler 2010 and Washington-Baltimore 2012 to drop the hyphenated parts of their bid names.
— IOC members have been demanding more compact venue plans and recent bids have complied. Pataki’s plan would result in unrealistic venue-to-venue travel with distances of up to 225km and an international border crossing between.
— IOC bid “protocol” has no accommodation for bi-national bids. Such a bid would require cooperation between two National Olympic Committees and render the proposal overly complex leading to confusion in the bid process. It will be the first time the USOC has collaborated on a bid with another country.
That’s only where the confusion begins. Late last year the U.S. Olympic Committee nominated New York City to bid for the 2012 Summer Games and now the same State is allocating resources to an uncertain winter bid causing a possible conflict of State priorities. All of this after the United States has hosted Olympic Games twice in the last seven years.
The plan makes even less sense in Canada. The Canadian Olympic Committee has made it crystal clear that they are focusing all efforts on Vancouver 2010 even to the extent of dismissing the possibility of a much-anticipated Toronto 2012 bid should Vancouver fail. Then, imagine trying to convince Montreal taxpayers – who are still paying for their money-losing 1976 Games – that this is a good idea.
There are also several prerequisites for this proposal if a bid is considered for a Winter Games before 2022. Vancouver would have to lose their 2010 bid and then New York, along with Toronto, would have to lose any 2012 bids. Additionally, a national nomination puzzle would have to be worked out. The USOC would have to approve a Lake Placid bid over potential bids from Lake Tahoe, Denver and possibly more, and then the COC would have to nominate the Montreal portion of the bid ahead of other likely suitors if Canada even decides to submit a bid.
Before any of this matters, the bid must receive the support of both National Olympic Committees – and that’s doubtful.
The bid will have “no chance of success whatsoever”, said Chambers. “It seemed frankly to me like a scheme to infuse some government dollars into the Lake Placid community to perhaps upgrade their aging Olympic Venues,” he added.
Indeed, as the announcement was part of Pataki’s State of the State speech to a joint session of the state Legislature, this could all be political hype. Ronald Stafford, a former state senator and member of the Lake Placid 1980 Winter Games Bid was named as leader of New York’s bid.
Lake Placid hosted the Winter Games in 1932 and 1980 and Montreal hosted the Summer Games in 1976.
This was the second U.S. bid announcement of the week that proposed a novel idea of lowering costs. Earlier, Denver suggested that they may bid for back-to-back Winter and Summer Games in order to spread the costs and increase efficiency. Denver won the 1976 Winter Games bid and then “gave it back” when taxpayers voted that it would be too costly.
