Although the high crime rate was the worst feature of the Olympic evaluation commission’s report, Cape Town still has a good chance of making the final five, writes Julian Drew
THERE were no real surprises when the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) evaluation commission released it’s report in Lausanne last Thursday on the 11 candidate cities for the 2004 Olympic Games. Cape Town was praised for its “very well thought out” general concept for the Games and was commended on many other aspects — but it also drew fire on several fronts.
However, although the report was not perhaps as kind to Cape Town as it was to most of its rivals there is no need for despair. Geopolitical considerations will almost certainly ensure that the Mother City makes it onto the short-list of five cities when the IOC’s selection college meets next Friday to trim the field down for the final race to the finish line on September 5.
The commission was given the onerous task of assessing the technical merits of each city across 19 different themes detailed in the more than 500-page candidature files submitted by the cities to the IOC last August. The 350-page report produced by the commission contains a four-page summary on each city together with detailed tables comparing the cities against specific points in each of the 19 themes from the candidature file.
The report does not single out any favourites and simply presents the facts as the commission saw them. It will be used by the 14 members of the selection college to inform their choice of the five cities and also by the IOC members when they choose the host city in September. But the deliberations of the report will by no means be the only factors influencing these decisions.
The report’s summary of Cape Town provides details of many of the sports facilities which will be built for the Games and highlights several other issues which are important features of the bid. It says public support for the bid, which is considered essential if the Games are to be awarded to a city, is “inconclusive” and that “the extent of public support for the candidature is difficult to assess” from the several newspaper surveys that have been undertaken.
“Opponents to the candidature who expressed that they are not against the Olympic Games themselves or hosting the Olympic Games in South Africa, consider a candidature for 2004 premature, indicating that other priorities should prevail,” says the report.
It goes on to say that “the general concept for the organisation of the Games is very well thought out, making particular use of the expertise of the business community. There is, in several areas, impressive depth of analysis and planning which even could be improved more by closer cooperation with sports experts.”
This last remark could account for the hastily arranged meeting at Johannesburg Airport last weekend between the Bid Committee and the local Olympic sports federations, the first of its kind since the bid got under way.
In terms of the proposed sports facilities most were considered to be adequate, although the rowing and canoeing venue next to the Olympic Village at Wingfield, while described as “a very good facility”, was problematic in terms of “security, noise, access and accreditation which require further consideration.”
Cape Town’s environmental programme is described as “ambitious” but the report says that some environment and community- based organisations dispute the effectiveness of the bid’s strategy in achieving certain environmental goals and it also says that certain issues need to be researched more thoroughly.
The city’s transportation plan demonstrates an “impressive awareness of Olympic needs” but “many improvements are required, in particular to the airport and rail system”.
Although Cape Town and its surrounding region currently has fewer hotel rooms than any of the other bidding cities the commission believes its accommodation plan to be feasible “based on the great potential the city development plan offers”.
The most notable criticism, and certainly the one which has been highlighted in the international media, relates to the high level of crime in South Africa in general. Although the report says that significant plans to combat crime have been drawn up by the responsible parties it also says “the full implementation of these plans over the coming years will be a challenge”.
Athens, Buenos Aires, Rome and Stockholm, who have long been considered Cape Town’s main rivals for a place in the last leg of the bid, all received favourable reports although the opening paragraph in the summary for Stockholm highlights the results from an opinion poll which showed only 32% of the population in favour of the bid with 52% against. The report said that this negative perception was based mainly on environmental and economic concerns and that the bid committee was confident of turning this around with a major educational and information campaign.
In a covering letter accompanying the report the commission’s chairman, Thomas Bach of Germany, says “all the cities and regions we have studied have proved that they are capable of organising the Olympic Games.”
He adds a note of caution, however, saying that some of the candidates need more time before they are really ready to stage the Games, a comment which has been interpreted internationally as directed specifically at Cape Town and which echoes the sentiments attributed to bid opponents in the Cape Town summary.
That the commission should announce such a high overall standard of candidature is not so surprising, considering the vast amount of expertise and documentation that now exists on bidding for the Olympic Games in what has become a highly refined industry all of its own. Just to ensure that this industry doesn’t suffer any future hardships Bach encourages those cities which fail to win this time around to continue with their noble efforts and bid again.
While the commission’s report has thrown a more sober light on Cape Town’s shortcomings and its chances of winning, the bid’s chief executive officer, Chris Ball, and his team have remained upbeat and positive. “If you look at the reality of Cape Town’s situation, because of our history we do not have all the facilities required to host a major sports event. But we have prepared in detail and you should have seen how complimentary they (the evaluation commission) were about the quality and overall detail of our planning,” says Ball.
“If you look through the report you’ll see how many compliments there are and we feel that we’ve done all that South Africa and an African city could have done. The real question should be can we put on a great Olympic Games, and the answer to that is of course we can.” Ball also doesn’t believe that the crime issue is a major stumbling block. “We don’t actually view it as a criticism at all.
It’s a statement that indicates how seriously the matter’s being taken, how much work is being done and how many parties are involved. There is a plan of action and most importantly crime is beginning to drop,” claims Ball. “There is a big difference between crime and security. Security of venues is a very different matter to crime and we ranked very highly on security. Crime in Cape Town won’t be an issue during the Olympic Games just as it wasn’t in Atlanta which has the highest crime rate in America.”
Ball of course is paid to look on the bright side, but he also understands better than most the vagaries which accompany the decisions of the IOC when it comes to bidding for the Games. He will realise only too well that the report alone will not be the deciding factor. Africa has never staged the Games and the IOC is keen to broaden its horizons to include all members of the Olympic Family in its activities.
The major activity of the Olympic Movement is the hosting of the Olympic Games and if the IOC is to deny Cape Town the opportunity of hosting them simply because it is less prepared than some of its First World rivals then it will be admitting that it will never award them to a developing nation.
Cape Town is very capable of hosting the Games and is in fact a good example of how the Olympic Games can be used to assist a developing country. It is this message which will still make Cape Town a realistic contender against the more technically advanced bids of Rome, Stockholm and Athens when the bid enters its final stage and, coupled with votes from the African lobby, could still swing the decision Africa’s way for the first time in history.