When Graz, Austria, withdrew from the race to host the 2026 Winter Olympics last week, I did a post about it. Then yesterday I saw an article pretty much confirming something that has been generally understood for several months. While not official yet, the 2023 IAAF World Championships are all but guaranteed to be held in Budapest, with an African city likely to be chosen for the 2025 edition.
After the criticism the IAAF received when it decided to award the 2021 Worlds to Eugene without going through a formal bid process, they changed the bid process moving forward. Now, instead of cities submitting bids to host IAAF events, they're doing it the other way around. The IAAF identifies a particular area and invites cities to apply. And if the city's interested, the IAAF chooses a host and works with that city throughout the process. It's an informal collaboration, not a competition.
The rationale for doing this actually makes a lot of sense. First and foremost, it makes the whole process much cheaper. No more months of wining and dining the voters and endless deadlines for submitting bid documents, etc. It also makes things a lot more transparent. The next two editions in Doha and Eugene mark the first time in the event's history that the IAAF World Championships will be held outside Europe twice in a row. They wanted to get back to their European base in 2023, so others need not apply.
Likewise, the senior World Championships have never been in Africa. And, after a successful World U-18 Championships last year in Nairobi, they know that an African city can handle an event of this magnitude. So, they want the 2025 Championships in Africa. If a city on another continent was considering a bid, now they know to wait until 2027. (BTW, one of the reasons they went to Eugene without the formal bid was because the World Championships have never been in the United States and they wanted to make sure they changed that.)
Budapest did a tremendous job hosting the Swimming World Championships last year, and I'm sure they'll do a tremendous job hosting the 2023 Track & Field World Championships. Just as I have no doubt that when Budapest finally does host an Olympics, it'll be an amazing Games.
It was Budapest, of course, that indirectly did the IOC a huge favor by dropping out of the race for the 2024 Games, leaving them the opportunity to do the Paris/LA dual-awarding last September. And it was Budapest that gave me an idea for what could solve the IOC's current predicament...mainly, the fact that no one wants to host the Winter Olympics!
IOC President Thomas Bach hoped his "Olympic Agenda 2020" reforms would put cities at ease about the costs and encourage more bidders. It hasn't worked. So maybe it's time to try something new. Maybe it's worth taking a page out of the IAAF's book and reach out to cities/countries/regions instead of the other way around. I'm not saying it'll work. But it's a way to avoid being stuck having three straight Games in the same part of Asia.
With the next Summer Olympics not being awarded until 2025, this is the perfect time to implement such a system. The four Olympics from 2016-28 will have been on four different continents (South America, Asia, Europe, North America). Maybe for 2032, you shoot for Australia before coming back to Europe in 2036, then Asia and the Americas again in 2040 and 2044, with the next Olympics in Europe following in 2048. And Africa could also cycle in their at some point, which it should.
In the Winter, things are tougher, but the rotation starting in 2026 could go Europe-North America-Europe-Asia-Europe, etc. That wouldn't entirely alleviate the problem of cities not wanting to host. But it would make for a much simpler, much more transparent system. And it would give cities (especially those in Europe) plenty of time to drum up the money and necessary support to pursue a bid.
Of course, there's one element of this plan that wouldn't work. You can't take the vote away from IOC members. For many of them, choosing the host city is the one significant contribution they make. They enjoy all the perks that come with IOC membership, and that host city vote is the best perk of all.
I'm not suggesting they don't vote on a host city, though. I'm simply suggesting that you narrow the field of candidates to those from a specific region. That's easier said than done when getting cities to bid period has been a tough task. But concentrating the bids on a certain area could actually go a long way in taking some of the politics out of it, too.
This isn't that crazy an idea, either. After Germany edged South Africa by one vote for the rights to host the 2006 World Cup, FIFA implemented a similar system for future World Cups. Only African countries were able to bid for the 2010 World Cup, which obviously went to South Africa, and the 2014 World Cup was limited to South American bidders. Although, when Brazil ended up being the only candidate, they changed it to the current system where the last two continents to host can't bid (for the 2030 World Cup, Asia and CONCACAF aren't eligible).
So maybe that's actually the solution. The IOC has always tried to rotate between continents until they were left with no choice for 2022. There's nothing in writing, though. If something was in writing, however, then they could potentially avoid the embarrassment of the last two Winter Olympic bid cycles.
Although, "guaranteeing" the Olympics will be in Europe in a given year doesn't guarantee there will be bidders. But, like I said the other day, make it a collaboration, not a competition. Make cities (and their residents) see the benefit. And one way to do that is eliminating the costly bid process that doesn't even ensure your success.
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