Today as part of the 128th IOC session held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Beijing, China was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The vote was 44-40 in favor of Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Beijing will be the first city to host a summer and winter games. Beijing's Olympic budget is 1.5 billion dollars. Beijing has most venues in place so costs are low and reflects the IOC Olympics Agenda 2020 of sustainability. Almaty was seen as the riskier bid.
The Beijing bid has venues in Yangqing and Zhangjiakou which are 40 and 90 miles away, respectively. A high speed rail line will be built to cut travel time to these venues. China's mountains require man made snow, which was seized upon by Almaty as a Beijing weakness during the two cities 45 minute presentations to the IOC held before the vote.
The IOC saw Beijing as more reliable based on the delivery of the 2008 summer games.
Also at the IOC session, the bid selection process has been streamlined. From now on all bid cities will be considered as candidates and there will be no shortlist(which meant that cities could be dropped before the final vote).
There will be three phases. All cities that get their bid in before the deadline(which is Sept. 15) will go through these phases.
The three phases are:
Vision, Games Concept and Legacy (September 15, 2015 to May 2016).
Governance, Legal and Venue Funding (May to December 2016).
Games Delivery, Experience and Venue Legacy (December 2016 to September 2017).
So far Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest are bidding on the 2024 summer games. Los Angeles and Toronto are expected to bid as well.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
USOC drops Boston 2024 bid
The Facts
Today, Monday July 27, 2015 marked a watershed day in the Boston 2024 bid. First, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh held a press conference saying that he couldn't sign the financial taxpayer guarantee today to the IOC as the USOC requested. Mayor Walsh said he would give up the Boston bid because he could not mortgage the city's future. Mayor Walsh wanted more time to study the insurance and to see how Massachusetts taxpayers were going to be protected from cost overruns. The USOC wanted to get the support of the Boston Mayor and the Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. Governor Baker said he couldn't say he would support the games until a $250,000 feasibility study done by the Brattle Group comes back in mid August. Boston 2024 said they were confident poll numbers were moving in the right direction and they just needed more time.
The bid was still alive at that point but in early afternoon there were discussions between Boston 2024 and the USOC. Boston Mayor Walsh said he could not support the bid if the taxpayer guarantee had to be signed today. The USOC said they could not support the bid without Boston Mayor Walsh and Massachusetts governor Baker. The USOC also could not support the bid because of low poll numbers and support. July polls put support in the low 40's with opposition about 50%. The numbers did not move much in the past three months. A joint decision was made between Boston 2024 and the USOC to end Boston's 2024 Olympics bid. The USOC said they were under a strict timeline and couldn't give the bid any more time. IOC president Thomas Bach blamed Boston 2024 for not keeping promises to the USOC while Boston 2024 blamed the USOC for pressuring them to sign the bid contract.
The USOC has expressed interest in finding another US city to host the games. Speculation is on Los Angeles but the USOC did not pick a city today, instead the USOC will make an announcement when they have negotiated a bid with the selected US city. The deadline for the USOC to submit a bid to the IOC is September 15, 2015. The IOC will pick the 2024 Olympics host city in 2017. Host cities bidding on the 2024 summer games are Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest, Toronto and Los Angeles are likely bid cities as well.
My take
Clearly, the USOC made a mistake in picking Boston. I wanted the USA to get the 2024 games so I backed Boston's bid because the USOC selected Boston as our bid city. There was a few periods of time in May 2015 where I thought Boston 2024 made some big mistakes and my bid support wavered but had to keep quiet. The biggest mistake was not being transparent enough on bid 1.0 so the Boston media released the bid while some of Boston 2024 were overseas meeting with the IOC. The other major mistake at that time in May 2015 was major shoutdowns by Boston 2024 supporters to opposition groups. I tweeted then later deleted the tweets saying I was no longer in favor of the bid. Later I noticed No Boston groups were disrespecting Boston 2024 staff, supporters and USOC employees so I started supporting the bid again.
I was also trying to get employed with Boston 2024 so I blogged the Boston 2024 from a neutral stance. I presented both sides. In late March I contacted Boston 2024 and was about to send them my resume but rumors that the USOC might pull Boston's bid surfaced so I waited until June 30. June 30 was the day Boston 2024 released bid 2.0. On that day the USOC showed support for Boston's bid. I submitted my resume in early July and within two weeks I was told they weren't hiring. In March and April 2015 Boston hired several community relations positions at $42,000 a year. That was the position I was trying to get but by early July 2015 those community positions disappeared from the Boston 2024 website. Those were 3 month positions. Good thing I didn't relocate to the Boston area as I was considering doing.
Ultimately, I was supporting a USA 2024 Olympic games. If Boston didn't work out I would support a Los Angeles 2024 bid. I was thinking the longer the USOC waited on Boston 2024 poll numbers to turn around the harder it would be for the USOC to pick another city. The USOC pulled Boston's bid at the right time. Any later I didn't see the USOC having enough time to find another city and to finalize another bid by the September 15, 2015 IOC deadline.
It turns out that Los Angeles and San Francisco may be working together on a joint bid. The USOC will officially announce the US bid city later in August.
Today, Monday July 27, 2015 marked a watershed day in the Boston 2024 bid. First, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh held a press conference saying that he couldn't sign the financial taxpayer guarantee today to the IOC as the USOC requested. Mayor Walsh said he would give up the Boston bid because he could not mortgage the city's future. Mayor Walsh wanted more time to study the insurance and to see how Massachusetts taxpayers were going to be protected from cost overruns. The USOC wanted to get the support of the Boston Mayor and the Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. Governor Baker said he couldn't say he would support the games until a $250,000 feasibility study done by the Brattle Group comes back in mid August. Boston 2024 said they were confident poll numbers were moving in the right direction and they just needed more time.
The bid was still alive at that point but in early afternoon there were discussions between Boston 2024 and the USOC. Boston Mayor Walsh said he could not support the bid if the taxpayer guarantee had to be signed today. The USOC said they could not support the bid without Boston Mayor Walsh and Massachusetts governor Baker. The USOC also could not support the bid because of low poll numbers and support. July polls put support in the low 40's with opposition about 50%. The numbers did not move much in the past three months. A joint decision was made between Boston 2024 and the USOC to end Boston's 2024 Olympics bid. The USOC said they were under a strict timeline and couldn't give the bid any more time. IOC president Thomas Bach blamed Boston 2024 for not keeping promises to the USOC while Boston 2024 blamed the USOC for pressuring them to sign the bid contract.
The USOC has expressed interest in finding another US city to host the games. Speculation is on Los Angeles but the USOC did not pick a city today, instead the USOC will make an announcement when they have negotiated a bid with the selected US city. The deadline for the USOC to submit a bid to the IOC is September 15, 2015. The IOC will pick the 2024 Olympics host city in 2017. Host cities bidding on the 2024 summer games are Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest, Toronto and Los Angeles are likely bid cities as well.
My take
Clearly, the USOC made a mistake in picking Boston. I wanted the USA to get the 2024 games so I backed Boston's bid because the USOC selected Boston as our bid city. There was a few periods of time in May 2015 where I thought Boston 2024 made some big mistakes and my bid support wavered but had to keep quiet. The biggest mistake was not being transparent enough on bid 1.0 so the Boston media released the bid while some of Boston 2024 were overseas meeting with the IOC. The other major mistake at that time in May 2015 was major shoutdowns by Boston 2024 supporters to opposition groups. I tweeted then later deleted the tweets saying I was no longer in favor of the bid. Later I noticed No Boston groups were disrespecting Boston 2024 staff, supporters and USOC employees so I started supporting the bid again.
I was also trying to get employed with Boston 2024 so I blogged the Boston 2024 from a neutral stance. I presented both sides. In late March I contacted Boston 2024 and was about to send them my resume but rumors that the USOC might pull Boston's bid surfaced so I waited until June 30. June 30 was the day Boston 2024 released bid 2.0. On that day the USOC showed support for Boston's bid. I submitted my resume in early July and within two weeks I was told they weren't hiring. In March and April 2015 Boston hired several community relations positions at $42,000 a year. That was the position I was trying to get but by early July 2015 those community positions disappeared from the Boston 2024 website. Those were 3 month positions. Good thing I didn't relocate to the Boston area as I was considering doing.
Ultimately, I was supporting a USA 2024 Olympic games. If Boston didn't work out I would support a Los Angeles 2024 bid. I was thinking the longer the USOC waited on Boston 2024 poll numbers to turn around the harder it would be for the USOC to pick another city. The USOC pulled Boston's bid at the right time. Any later I didn't see the USOC having enough time to find another city and to finalize another bid by the September 15, 2015 IOC deadline.
It turns out that Los Angeles and San Francisco may be working together on a joint bid. The USOC will officially announce the US bid city later in August.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Boston 2024 Update
A week after Boston 2024 released its 2.0 bid, a new poll was released. The poll was conducted July 6-8 by WBUR/Mass Inc. Polling group. 500 Registered voters were polled.
In the state of Massachusetts, 42% approved of bid while 50% opposed it, that is a 3 point improvement from June.
In the Boston area, 40% approved of bid while 53% opposed it. That's virtually unchanged from June numbers.
In this 2.0 bid that was released on June 30, 28 of 34 venues were accounted for, while 6 venues location has not been figured out yet. Yet to find a location are the Media Center, Aquatic Center, Velodrome and 3 others. Some of these venues have to be built from scratch. The Olympic Stadium will be a temporary stadium and seat 69,000.
Boston 2024 will purchase 128 million dollars of Insurance to safeguard the games against cost overruns from construction delays to extra construction costs. The 2.0 bid has a 4.8 billion dollar budget and 4.595 billion in expenses. Boston 2024 says there will be a 210 million dollar surplus. Opposition groups are still skeptical.
On July 23, 2015 there was a televised Olympics debate between Boston 2024 Chairman Steve Pagliuca/USOC Board Member Daniel Doctoroff and No Boston Olympics head Chris Dempsey/Smith College Economist Andrew Zimbalist. They sparred over cost overruns, financial guarantees, traffic, the Olympic budget, surpluses, ticket prices and tax breaks. I watched the debate online and I'm hoping that because Boston 2024 had the majority of the speaking time that the poll numbers will move more in Boston 2024's favor.
Boston 2024 has released the entire 1.0 bid on July 24. There were two chapters that were not released to the public because Boston 2024 said it was private information that only the USOC should see. Bid 1.0 was scheduled to operate at a 500 million dollar deficit, at taxpayer expense. The 1.0 bid did not count on any major opposition. The rest of the 1.0 bid was released ahead of a subpoena threat from Massachusetts legislators.
On Monday, July 27 the USOC will meet with Boston 2024 to determine the fate of the bid. USOC officials wanted Massachusetts governor Baker's decision to endorse or not endorse the bid on Friday July 24, which he did not do. The USOC also wanted Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to say he was going to sign the financial guarantee that the IOC requires for a city to host the games. Mayor Walsh has not promised to sign the guarantee. The IOC General Assembly Meets in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia this coming week. The USOC may pick Los Angeles as the USA 2024 bid city. Stay Tuned.
In the state of Massachusetts, 42% approved of bid while 50% opposed it, that is a 3 point improvement from June.
In the Boston area, 40% approved of bid while 53% opposed it. That's virtually unchanged from June numbers.
In this 2.0 bid that was released on June 30, 28 of 34 venues were accounted for, while 6 venues location has not been figured out yet. Yet to find a location are the Media Center, Aquatic Center, Velodrome and 3 others. Some of these venues have to be built from scratch. The Olympic Stadium will be a temporary stadium and seat 69,000.
Boston 2024 will purchase 128 million dollars of Insurance to safeguard the games against cost overruns from construction delays to extra construction costs. The 2.0 bid has a 4.8 billion dollar budget and 4.595 billion in expenses. Boston 2024 says there will be a 210 million dollar surplus. Opposition groups are still skeptical.
On July 23, 2015 there was a televised Olympics debate between Boston 2024 Chairman Steve Pagliuca/USOC Board Member Daniel Doctoroff and No Boston Olympics head Chris Dempsey/Smith College Economist Andrew Zimbalist. They sparred over cost overruns, financial guarantees, traffic, the Olympic budget, surpluses, ticket prices and tax breaks. I watched the debate online and I'm hoping that because Boston 2024 had the majority of the speaking time that the poll numbers will move more in Boston 2024's favor.
Boston 2024 has released the entire 1.0 bid on July 24. There were two chapters that were not released to the public because Boston 2024 said it was private information that only the USOC should see. Bid 1.0 was scheduled to operate at a 500 million dollar deficit, at taxpayer expense. The 1.0 bid did not count on any major opposition. The rest of the 1.0 bid was released ahead of a subpoena threat from Massachusetts legislators.
On Monday, July 27 the USOC will meet with Boston 2024 to determine the fate of the bid. USOC officials wanted Massachusetts governor Baker's decision to endorse or not endorse the bid on Friday July 24, which he did not do. The USOC also wanted Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to say he was going to sign the financial guarantee that the IOC requires for a city to host the games. Mayor Walsh has not promised to sign the guarantee. The IOC General Assembly Meets in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia this coming week. The USOC may pick Los Angeles as the USA 2024 bid city. Stay Tuned.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
400 Days until Rio games!
Today marks just 400 days until the Rio summer games in 2016, held Aug. 5-21. I usually do posts at one year, six months and 100 days but I decided to start at 500 days for Rio. Next time update will be one year out on August 5!
Also Boston 2024 revealed bid 2.0 on June 30 and was given the stamp of approval by the USOC.
Also Boston 2024 revealed bid 2.0 on June 30 and was given the stamp of approval by the USOC.
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