The Cape Town Bid company will be rolling out the red carpet for the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission this week. But not everybody in the city welcomes the bid
Julian Drew
THE International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Evaluation Commission is due to fly into Cape Town at 7.35 on Friday (December 6) – its last port of call on an 11-city whirlwind tour around the globe. The commission has to whittle down the 11 cities bidding for the 2004 Olympic Games to a more comfortable four or five cities for the final phase of the bid next year.
The commission will spend five days in the Mother City, ending its nearly three-month- long investigation.
The commission has already visited St Petersburg, Stockholm, Lille, Seville, Rome, Istanbul, Athens, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
The 15 members of the commission have been appointed by the IOC and are led by 1976 Olympic fencing gold medallist Dr Thomas Bach of Germany. The rest of the commission is made up of three other IOC representatives, three from the international sports federations, three from the ranks of the Association of National Olympic Committees, an athletes’ representative and four specialists covering the fields of environment, finance and Olympic organising committees. Several members of the IOC’s administration might also accompany the commission.
What they will be looking for is strong public and government support for the bid along with a safety net in the form of government guarantees should the whole venture spiral out of control. A sound, modern city infrastructure and a sizeable proportion of Olympic facilities already in place are also vital elements along with a realistic financial plan.
The bid should also be environmentally friendly.
Although Bach’s commission wields considerable power in its ability to halt the lofty ambitions of six or seven of the present 11 candidate cities, it is a relative newcomer to the Olympic bidding process. It owes its existence to the recent transformation of the Olympic Games into the single biggest commercial event on the planet.
Following the calamitous financial deficit produced by the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal – it ran to $1,8-billion – Los Angeles was the only city brave enough to make an offer for the 1984 Games. Using television revenues and private funding, the city returned a handsome profit of $250- million.
God bless American free enterprise, chorused the IOC. Those Games provided the blueprint for all future Olympic Games which now attract an increasing number of candidates with each successive Olympiad.
The forerunner to the present commission was appointed in 1993 during the campaign for the 2000 Olympic Games when seven cities entered the race. The inquiry commission – as it was then called – was chaired by Swedish IOC member Gunnar Ericsson. It visited the six candidate cities – Milan dropped out before the commission began its work – and compiled a report which was given to each IOC member.
The document contained charts comparing each city against the themes covered in the candidature files as well as separate chapters highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each bid.
It was prepared to assist IOC members in the vote to nominate the host for the 2000 Olympic Games.
Although it is debatable how much attention was paid to the document’s contents, Sydney’s narrow victory met with widespread approval as it was regarded as the best technical bid. The majority of IOC members chose the best deal for the athletes rather than back the political favourite, Beijing, which was supported by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and the big corporate sponsors of the Olympic Movement who were eyeing China’s vast, untapped markets.
For the 2002 Olympic Winter Games there were nine candidates and for the first time the IOC decided on a pre-selection process to reduce the number of entrants before letting its full membership loose on the cities. The IOC established an 11-strong evaluation commission – also chaired by Bach – which undertook the same task as the previous inquiry commission. Its report was submitted to the IOC’s 10-member selection committee which chose four cities to go forward to the final lobbying stage.
Salt Lake City won the election at the IOC session in Budapest last year after falling at the final barrier four years earlier.
In the little over 80 days since the current commission began its journey in the Russian city of St Petersburg on September 16, Bach and his colleagues have achieved considerably more than Phileas Fogg in the same period. Not only have they travelled the world but they have also toured the sites of existing and proposed Olympic facilities and worked painstakingly through each of the 532 questions covering 19 themes in the candidature files of the 11 cities in four continents.
This workload is made more tolerable, however, by the convivial surroundings of the world’s best hotels along with top-class entertainment, gourmet dining and meetings with royalty and heads of state.
While the commission will carry out its task in Cape Town until Tuesday, it is an almost foregone conclusion that the Mother City will feature among the four or five cities to be chosen by the IOC selection college on March 7 next year. Stockholm, Rome and Athens have the strongest bids in Europe and the IOC, in an attempt to make the contest a global affair, is also expected to opt for one South American city – most likely Buenos Aires – and Cape Town, which is Africa’s only representative. The Games have yet to be staged in Africa and the closest they have got to South America was Mexico in 1968.
>From April until the final secret ballot on September 5 in Lausanne, the real fun and games will begin for the Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid company. Cape Town and the other cities will have to wine, dine, entertain and shower gifts upon the IOC members. Air fares are paid by the IOC.
Each one of the 110 members of the IOC has the right to visit Cape Town and the other remaining candidate cities – at the expense of the cities.
The members might also bring spouses and other family members or friends along for the ride. They are not supposed to – only a “single companion” is allowed in terms of the rules – but it has been a common practice.
For the 2000 Olympics the IOC introduced strict new rules governing the visits of members and the presents and other benefits that could be given to them. But there is strong evidence in the book The New Lords of the Rings written by Andrew Jennings and published earlier this year, to suggest that these rules were ignored.
The rules have been tightened even more for the 2004 campaign and restrict each IOC member and a companion of choice to a three- day visit to each city contesting the final stage of the bid. Gifts are restricted to a value not exceeding $50 for this first phase of the bid and will increase to $150 for the final stage beginning in April. It remains to be seen whether the IOC has the will to enforce these rules.
It has often been said that many an Olympic vote is cast in favour of the city where an IOC member’s wife would most like to spend her holidays in seven years’ time. If that is true then Cape Town will have to hope that the prospect of dancing the Kaapse Klopse is more appealing than doing the tango or samba or that Table Mountain proves as attractive as the Acropolis, the Colosseum or Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Unfortunately for Cape Town there are many within the ranks of the IOC who also take the technical requirements of the bid very seriously. After the problems experienced by the far more developed city of Atlanta this year -tacky American free enterprise, chorused the IOC – Samaranch is unlikely to risk awarding the Olympics to an African city with very little infrastructure in place.
Despite the strong political considerations in giving Africa its first Games – it is the only one of the five continents represented by the Olympic rings which has not yet staged the Games – and supporting President Nelson Mandela’s South African miracle, it may be 2008 or even 2012 before the IOC gives a South African city the nod.
Cape Town is, meanwhile, going ahead bravely and confidently.
Greetings and meetings
Friday:
Commission to be met at airport by the mayor of Cape Town, Nocsa president Sam Ramsamy and the city’s bid chief Chris Ball. The members will stay at the five-star Mount Nelson hotel. The morning will be spent at leisure with trips available up Table Mountain by cable car or to Robben Island. Lunch at the Mount Nelson. Members hold their own preparatory meeting. Private informal dinner at the Mount Nelson.
Saturday:
Photo session (five minutes) for the media after breakfast at the Mount Nelson. Introduction to leaders of the regional and local governments, Nocsa and the bid team. President Nelson Mandela might also meet the commission. First bid meeting with the Cape Town delegation. General overview of the bid proposal followed by a detailed presentation on national, regional and candidature city characteristics; legal aspects; customs and immigration formalities; and environmental protection. Light lunch at the Waterfront. Afternoon session to discuss meteorological and environmental conditions; security; medical/health services; and Olympism and culture. Visit to Newlands cricket ground. Helicopter trip to view local geography and location of facilities. Dinner in Stellenbosch.
Sunday:
Discuss programme for the Games; general sports organisation; and competition and training facilities. Visit venues. Lunch at Sports Science Institute in Newlands. Visit Khayelitsha to look at windswept, sandstrewn earthworks that will soon become a boxing venue. Then on to Wingfield to view a disused aerodrome that will undergo a magical transformation into a 2km lake for rowing and canoeing, 75 000-capacity athletics stadium and living accommodation for 15 000 people – if the commissioners and IOC members select Cape Town next year. Discuss Olympic Village and hotel accommodation. Dinner at Cape Town Castle.
Monday:
Discuss transport, technology and the media. Discuss finance, marketing and guarantees. Lunch at Parliament. Visits to other venues if required and meeting of commission. Dinner at Constantia Uitsig.
Tuesday:
Media photo opportunity. Closed session of commission members followed by the only planned press conference of the visit. Lunch at Mount Nelson. Afternoon of relaxation. Departure.
Commission members
Dr Thomas Bach (IOC): chairman of the evaluation commission and an IOC member in Germany since 1991. A member of the IOC athletes’ commission until 1988 and currently a member of the juridical commission and the commission for new sources of financing.
Chiharu Igaya (IOC): an Olympic slalom silver medallist at the Winter Games of 1956, he was appointed as an IOC member in Japan in 1982. Major-General Henry Edmund Olufemi Adefope (IOC): Medical doctor and ex-government minister in Nigeria, he became an IOC member in 1985.
Fernando Ferreira Lima Bello (IOC): Portuguese businessman became an IOC member in 1989.
Denis Oswald: a 49-year-old lawyer and president of the International Rowing Federation.
Hein Verbruggen: president of the International Cycling Union from Holland.
Els van Breda Vriesman: secretary general of the International Hockey Federation from the Netherlands.
Mingde Tu: member of the Chinese National Olympic Committee.
Dr Julio Cesar Maglione: president of the Uruguayan National Olympic Committee and treasurer of the International Amateur Swimming Federation.
Carol Anne Letheren: secretary general of the Canadian National Olympic Committee and a marketing expert.
Mark Tewksbury: Canadian swimmer who won gold in 1992 and silver and bronze in 1988 and 1992. Represents the interests of athletes.
Charles Battle: former director of international affairs for the Atlanta committee for the Games.
Petter Ronningen: Former deputy director general of the organising committee for the Lillehammer Winter Olympic Games.
Olav Myrholt: Norwegian environmental specialist.
Francisco Elizalde: financial specialist appointed as an IOC member in the Philippines in 1985.