After the embarrassment that was the "race" for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC thought they had recovered. Sure, there was the USOC's Boston misstep, but Boston was replaced by Los Angeles and, when the time came to submit final bids, the IOC had five quality bids. And not only were there five bids, they were from major cities in areas that are very important to the IOC--Western Europe and the United States.
On the surface, it looked like IOC President Thomas Bach's Agenda 2020 reforms had worked. The $51 billion price tag for Sochi that scared off all of the bidders for 2022 was no longer preventing Western democracies from throwing their hats into the ring. They even got a bid from Budapest, which is the type you wouldn't normally expect to see go up against the big boys like Paris and LA. When the IOC announced that there would be no cuts prior to the final vote in 2017, most people were fairly certain we were looking at a choice between all five cities.
Except things are never that easy. In Hamburg, they put it up to a public referendum. The vote was held over the weekend, and 54 percent of the people (at least those that bothered to show up and vote) said no. As a result, Hamburg had no choice other than to withdraw its bid. And just like that, after seeing the candidates for 2022 drop one-by-one until it was left with a head-to-head matchup between Beijing and Almaty, the candidates for 2024 have gone from five to four. It'll most likely stay at four (the others all have plenty of public and/or governmental support), but this is still a black eye for Bach and the Olympic Movement.
Make no mistake, the Olympic brand isn't what it used to be, and the IOC definitely has a crisis on its hands. Barcelona romanticized the Olympics and the idea of hosting them to transform your city into a tourist destination. Then Athens happened and Greece went into debt. Then Beijing and Sochi went so over-the-top that everyone thought you could only host the Olympics if you were willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money. And with that money coming from taxpayers, those that don't want the Olympics in their city are either vocal enough in their opposition to turn everyone else off or get the chance to kill the bid on their own at the ballot box.
That's no more apparent than in Germany. Munich finished second to Pyeongchang in the voting for the 2018 Winter Games and likely would've been among the favorites for 2022. Except they never even submitted a bid because of a public referendum (since Munich never actually bid, theirs doesn't count as one that was withdrawn). If they had, it probably would've been Munich and not Beijing that became the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Now another German city has withdrawn from the bid process due to the public's unwillingness to commit to spending the necessary funds. Except this one's got to hurt more. Everything about Thomas Bach is German. Yet, even though the IOC President is one of their own, the German people have said a giant "Nein" to hosting the Olympics twice in recent memory. And it's gonna be a long time before another German city tries again, which is bad for the Olympics and one of its most successful teams.
I have no idea why the citizens of Hamburg voted against moving forward with the city's Olympic bid. Various reasons have been proposed, including the recent doping scandals and concerns about the Syrian refugee situation. Of course, there were also concerns about money and security, especially in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks (which did nothing to affect the Paris bid and may have even strengthened it). Then there's the 2006 World Cup, which was controversially awarded to Germany over South Africa, possibly as a result of bribes.
One or all of these things may have contributed to Hamburg's removal from the race. And it really doesn't matter. All we know is that another public referendum led to the people of a potential Olympic host city saying "Thanks, but no thanks." First Boston. Now Hamburg. Not to mention all of the 2022 cities. It's clear that the IOC has a problem. And I'm not sure how to fix it.
The Olympics are incredibly popular in the U.S. and Western Europe, which are also the most successful nations at each edition of the Games. Except people in those countries only like to watch the Olympics. When it comes to hosting, they can't be bothered. And that's a shame. Because the Olympic Movement needs these countries and the revenue their TV contracts brings in.
Unfortunately, though, when it's left up to the public, nobody sees the benefit of hosting the Olympics. They only see the cost, which will come out of their pockets with money they'd rather spend on something else. Even after London staged arguably the best Olympics of all-time just three years ago, Western nations are still turned off. This is just another example of that.
If there's a silver lining here, it's that Hamburg, unlike Oslo 2022, was unlikely to win. This is still viewed as a three-horse race between Paris, Rome and Los Angeles, with Budapest coming along for the ride. But it's still a black mark for Germany. And Thomas Bach. And the Olympic movement as a whole. The 2024 Olympics will be glorious, wherever they end up.
Hamburg's out. So what? We've still got four. And it doesn't look like any of them are going anywhere. At least we hope. Because the IOC really needs all four to still be in the running come September 2017 and the host city election in Lima.
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