to be a tragic one when eleven Israeli athletes were murdered in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists.
1976 – Six years earlier, the IOC named Denver, Colorado as the 1976 winter host as a gift for the U.S.A.’s Bicentennial celebrations. However, the Colorado electorate overturned the award in 1972; so the IOC had to scramble for another host and found that in Innsbruck, Austria once more. The summer had already been awarded to Montreal, Canada. Most of the African nations would boycott the Montreal Games midway through the Games.
1980 – Despite the bitter after-taste that the Denver debacle left in the IOC’s mouth, they returned to an old reliable in the U.S. – Lake Placid, for the 1980 winters. Meanwhile, the IOC flirted with a new frontier by going to Moscow, U.S.S.R. for the summer. It could not be ignored that the athletes of the post-war socialist, Iron Curtain world were the most competitive athletes in the world if all things ‘amateur’ were honest. However, only 80 nations showed up to compete in Moscow.
1984 – The socialist world had gotten a Summer Games, so it was also time to give them a Winter one. That went to Sarajevo, supposedly, if one were to believe the TV commentators,”… in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Yugoslavia.” How they claimed that fact was truly quite puzzling because the kingdom of Yugoslavia of the 20th century was founded after World War I, in 1918. The Summers returned to Los Angeles, USA, and there is a full discussion for that in Chapter 3.
1988 – Winter went to Calgary, Canada, and for the first and only time in history, the American TV rights for the Winter Games sold for more than the Summer Games of the same year. Seoul, South Korea not only hosted the regular summer Olympics but was also obligated to stage a full summer Paralympics as well.
1992 was a Franco-Spanish year. Winters returned to (Albertville), France only because Barcelona, Spain grabbed the summer prize (see full story in Chapter 4).
1994 saw the Winter Games finally gain their own year. In its infinite Olympic wisdom, or actually based upon the advice of its marketers and bankers, the IOC decided to split the traditional Olympic year in 1986. The Winter Games were moved to the ‘off-year’ between the Summer Games (the same year as the football World Cup). Thus, the new Olympic calendar started with Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. The new own-year Winter host was also required to have the Winter Paralympics attached to them (as Seoul did in 1988). Lillehammer’s U.S. TV rights went for $300 million.
1996 – The Centennial year commemoration surprisingly went to Atlanta, Georgia, only a short 12 years after Los Angeles 1984. The U.S. TV rights went to NBC for a low-balled $456 million.
1998 – Japan’s second WOG hosting, at Nagano. This was CBS’ last Olympic coverage for which it paid $375 million.
2000 – The Summer Games returned to Oceania after 44 years at Sydney (who had beaten Beijing, China by only two votes in the selection).
2002 – Once again, the WOGs returned to the U.S., to Salt Lake City which had been plagued by a corruption scandal in its pursuit of the privilege.
[The next three Games’ TV rights had been purchased as a package by NBC for a then record $2.3 billion in an October 1996 preemptive strike to shut out its competitors. Figures in parenthesis are how the IOC broke up the big sum and assigned them:
2004 – Athens (S). After 108 years, the Games finally returned to their land of origin. ($793 million apportionment; and these were the first Games televised in digital HDTV.)
2006 – Torino, Italy (WOGs; $613 million).
2008 – Beijing, China (SOGs; $894 million)]
[The next two Games were sold together as one package to NBC for $2.0 billion, June 2003:
2010 – Vancouver, Canada (WOGs, $820 million apportionment)
2012 – London, GBR; first three-peat summer Olympic host. ($1.18 billion).]
[Due to the global economic downturn, the IOC sold TV rights to the next four Games again as one package, even before the 2018 and 2020 host sites were selected. Favored network NBC again won the rights with a record $4.36 billion, June 2011:
2014 – Sochi, Russia (W; $775 million)
2016 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (S) – first Olympics in South America ($1.226 billion share)
2018 – PyeongChang, South Korea (W; $963 million)
2020 – (S) Still not known; finalists are Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; Istanbul, Turkey; Madrid Spain, and Tokyo, Japan. Host to be selected in September 2013, but eventual winner can count on $1.418 billion to help defray its costs.]
How is an Olympic host city chosen?
At a minimum these days, it takes at least nine years for a city to land an Olympic Games, Summer or Winter. Imagine, if you will, seeking the crown of an international beauty pageant.
First you have to enter and win the domestic primaries, 9 – 10 years out. If you belong to a larger nation with several viable candidate cities (e.g., the USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia, etc.), make that a dozen years. If you are a one major-city country (e.g., the UK, France, Argentina, etc.), you could do it in nine years. Once you triumph over your local peers, your NOC presents your city to the IOC.
Some 16 months before the selection date, the IOC whittles down the list to the Short List: 4 or 5 finalists for the Summer Games; and usually three for the Winter Games. Then the international phase commences. Up against the other foreign finalists, the cities wage a global campaign--bringing their show-and-tell acts to various international gatherings and sports events, chasing IOC members around the world to secure votes, and waging an international PR campaign.
At an IOC meeting seven years before the actual Games, the Olympic “family” comes together for their grand pow-wow (called a Session) and selects the next homecoming queen. At the time of writing, the IOC had just selected the city of PyeongChang South Korea as the host of the XXIIIrd Winter Games of 2018 over Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.
In the previous race for Summer 2016, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro began their immediate quest in earnest around 2002-03. Madrid made the short list for the 2012 race; Rio did not. The two came back and represented their respective continents for 2016 (probably the only selection contest in Olympic history wherein all the finalists were from different continents; representing Asia was Tokyo; and Chicago for North America.) However, Tokyo’s Olympic dream went farther back to 1935 when it was named the original host for the 1940 Games; but those plans were aborted by World War II. In 1964, Tokyo finally got its turn to host.
Chicago, on the other hand, might have seemed like the new kid on the block for the class of 2016--but in reality, the Windy City was seeking to reclaim a century-old lost dream. Remember, it was Olympics founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s original choice for the 1904 Games until it was taken away by St. Louis instead. One hundred years later, Chicago pursued the dream again. So chasing an Olympic hosting dream can actually last more than a century.
What It Costs to Win a Modern Olympic Games
Like anything connected with the Olympics, bidding to win the designation alone is a multimillion dollar venture. Some costs* (est.) of bidding for recent Olympic Games:
•Los Angeles’ three successive bids (1976, 1980 and 1984) – $300,000
•Atlanta 1996 – $7.8 million
•2012: London ($48 million); Madrid and Moscow (about $30 mil each); Paris ($40 mil); New York ($32 mil-- $10.1 mil from Mayor Bloomberg’s and his deputy, David Doctorow’s ($5 mil) own pockets)
•2014: PyeongChang ($21 mil); Salzburg ($8.5 mil); Sochi (est. $90-95 million)
•San Francisco just before it dropped out of the 2016 domestic race - $535,000
•2016: Chicago ($76 million); Madrid ($51 mil); Rio de Janeiro ($48 mil); Tokyo ($150 mil (!)
•2018: Annecy ($26 million); Munich ($42.5 mil); PyeongChang ($31.5 mil)