Dick Pound: IOC needs to review bidding process

Dick Pound doesn't want to take too much credit for predicting a situation which has left the IOC with only two choices for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

"Yes and no," Pound, the former IOC vice president, said from his Montreal law office on Thursday.

But he saw it coming more than a decade ago — sort of.

In 2003, Canada's long-time IOC member chaired the Olympic Games Study Commission. Its purpose was to examine the growing size of the Olympic Games and suggest ways to control them.

In a conclusion that seems prescient in the wake Oslo’s withdrawal from bidding for the 2022 Winter Games — leaving only Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan as viable candidates — Pound wrote:

"The Games have reached a critical size, which may put their future success at risk if the size continues to increase. Steps must be undertaken and serious consideration given to manage future growth, while at the same time preserve the attractiveness of the Games. If unchecked, the current growth of the Games could discourage many cities from bidding to host the Games."

On Wednesday, Oslo, Norway, considered the front runner to win the 2022 Games, abandoned its pursuit of the Games citing cost — estimated at around $5 billion — for its withdrawal.

"A big project like this, which is so expensive, requires broad popular support and there isn't enough support for it," said Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

"I'm disappointed about Oslo," says Pound.

But Pound won't gloat about his 2003 findings.

Here's why.

His commission was just looking at the Games; the events, the number of athletes, the venues, the things that made up the sports program.

"But we never tackled  the issue if a country wants to invest in infrastructure that it will use or it thinks it will use in the future that they're not allowed to do that," said Pound.

Problems in the making

Maybe they should have, according to Kevin Wamsley, a Western University professor who has been studying the IOC for almost two decades.

He said the IOC has done nothing but convince cities to spend more money — above the cost of the Games themselves — in order to win the right at becoming Olympic host.

"The problem is the level of expectations," said Wamsley. "They created a massive infrastructural problem for host cities and really did nothing to scale it back. They said that is the city's problem and we have nothing to do with that."

It's not just Oslo that bailed on the 2022 Olympics. Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv, Ukraine all abandoned bids after adding up all the costs. Although in Lviv's case, when you're at war with Russia, you might want to re-think that bid anyway. St. Moritz and Munich also briefly considered bidding, but decided against it amid public opposition.

"What it represents," said Wamsley, "is a shifting public opinion and the appetite of the usual Olympic boosters is waning, and that's a big problem."

Ed Hula, editor of the popular Olympic online magazine Around the Rings since 1990, agrees.

"It's a reflection of the critical need of the IOC to change the way it approaches cities to bid for the Olympic Games," Hula said from Atlanta.

Pound adds that the optics are not good, and the IOC needs to change.

"It's the kind of thing that is going to dog us for a while unless there is a major shift in how we organize bids and communicate what the real requirements are.”

So far, it does not appear Lausanne — IOC headquarters — is getting the message. The IOC admonished Oslo on Thursday, saying its decision to withdrawal is a "missed opportunity" and "a pity.”

"It's a big disappointment for them," said Hula. "For them to express it in the way they did today in their statement, [it’s] very unusual in the change of style for the IOC."

However, the IOC will no doubt take a look at this problem at a special meeting in December when the bidding process will be reviewed.

"This is an opportunity to get something right that we don't have right now," said Pound. "Because if we had it right, we would not be in this situation."