GamesBids.com presents the third annual Top Ten list of Olympic Bid Stories for 2010. These stories impacted the course of Olympic bids, or the Olympic bid process, and formed interesting plotlines for the year. We’ll run them down from 10th to 1st during the holiday season.
Top Olympic Bid Stories of 2010: #10 South Africa Makes “Premature” Bid Announcement
After a series of miscommunications and missed emails, the South African Olympic Committee (SASCOC) declared in September that Durban would likely be the country’s nomination to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.
At the organization’s annual meeting SASCOC CEO Tubby Reddy said that Durban was the only city to accept an invitation to bid and that no response was received from three other invitees: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg.
Responses to an invitation were requested by the end of July but Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth officials denied having received invites and the Cape Town Mayor claimed that no deadline had been communicated.
SASCOC denied any lack of process claiming that they had properly communicated to the four cities
Now it seems SASCOC has backpedalled as the three missed cities have since requested consideration in the bid process and the governing body has explained that they will make an official nomination from among the four prospects in January or February of 2011.
Watch for Top Ten story #9 coming soon on GamesBids.com
