According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Boston 2024 is working with two renowned international communications agencies, known for their expertise in Olympic bidding, to help move the bid forward.
Continuing to implement bid process reforms as laid out in the approved Agenda 2020, on Thursday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revealed the bid city consultants registry that is now available online at Olympic.org.
Simply stated, all consultants who wish to contract with a city engaged in bidding for an Olympic Games must be listed and “approved” on the IOC curated registry. In order to be listed, the consultant must adhere to specific policy and ethics regulations that they agree to upon registration.
A quick review of the registry site reveals that any potential consultant can already choose from four 2024 cities to work with – Boston, Hamburg, Rome and Paris – even though Paris has yet to officially declare its candidacy, but is likely to do so soon.
At time of publishing, only two agencies are already listed in the registry – both said to be working for Boston 2024. They are Britain’s JTA led by Jon Tibbs, recently known for work on bids for Istanbul 2020, Sochi 2014 and Munich 2018 and current work with The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC); and Teneo Sports from USA led by managing director Terrence Burns who helped with many bids including PyeongChang 2018, Madrid 2020 and currently Almaty 2022.
The Register and Rules of Conduct form part of Recommendation 3 of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement that was unanimously approved at the 127th IOC Session in Monaco in December 2014. Recommendation 3, which aims to reduce the cost of bidding for the Olympic Games, states: “The IOC to create and monitor a register of consultants/lobbyists eligible to work for a bid city. Formal acceptance of the IOC Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct by such consultants/lobbyists as a prerequisite for listing in the register.” – IOC Announcement
Last December Jon Tibbs told GamesBids.com that JTA supports the registry.
“JTA totally supports the concept of an Olympic consultants register for which we have been pushing for several years,” he said.
“At the moment potential Olympic clients are confused by the wide and overlapping range of consultants’ services and conflicting claims of experience and expertise.
“There is also a huge discrepancy in ethical values and fees charged by consultants for similar services simply because the clients, such as bid cities, have no clear understanding of the average market rates.”
Both JTA and Teneo Sports had no comment on the Thursday disclosure of the registry.
