A reception that was to be held by TO-Bid for IOC officials and the media Monday at a posh hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva had to be cancelled because IOC officials were told not to attend.
According to new IOC rules, strict limits have been put on contacts of any kind between Olympic bid cities and those voting for the host city.
The IOC also alerted bid officials that rules governing overseas promotion of 2008 bid cities precluded the Toronto 2008 advertisements on the streets of Lausanne, where the IOC executive members and representatives of the 28 summer sports federations will meet this week. The ads had the TO-bid logo displayed, which is against IOC rules.
TO-Bid president John Bitove said he told the IOC that the next time they advertise the bid overseas, they’ll remove the TO-Bid logo.
