Selling a City: About Olympic Bidding

The International Olympic Committee will meet in Singapore this July to award the Olympic rings to the winning city.  Historically, the IOC elected host cities behind closed doors, veiled from the prying eyes of the public.  The IOC election committee operated relatively free of scrutiny; candidate cities kept the elements of their bids secret so as not to lose competitive edge.  That changed with the Olympic scandal of 1988, when allegations surfaced that IOC members were bribed to favor Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games.  Subsequent investigations by the IOC exposed a corrupt bid process that questioned the legitimacy of past elections: Atlanta in 1996, Nagano in 1998, and Sydney in 2000.

Livingstone began studying the subject of Olympic bidding in the late 1980s, at a time when there was little to no unbiased information available.  Before the Salt Lake City scandal broke, most cities would play the gift-giving game with members of the IOC because it was the only way they could compete, Livingstone said.

The scandal produced significant reforms within the IOC.  Severely embarrassed, the IOC changed its policies.  Interaction between IOC members and candidate city representatives are now greatly restricted.  Moreover, the entire bidding process is now open to public view.  In
1989, Livingstone started the Web site GamesBids.com to provide a neutral source of information about Olympic bidding and the site has
been growing by leaps and bounds every year.  Recently, the site has logged thousands of hits per day, reflecting a considerable increase in public interest in Olympic bidding.

Although the 117 members of the IOC who elect host cities now work under much stricter guidelines, Livingstone says that candidate cities
still campaign by appealing to the individual interests of each voter. 
The IOC members all represent different Olympic organizations and interests (one member might be the head of a swimming federation, another might be a winter sports coach) and are likely to vote based
on what is important to them – on which bid provides for the best swimming facilities or outdoor venues, for instance.  Such things as candidate city visits and bid books, with all their pomp and circumstance, are relatively powerless in swinging votes.  In the end, Livingstone said, “It’s just campaigning, convincing – it’s just sales.”

Next: Elements of New York's Bid >>