Oslo bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics

Bids for the
2022 (2022) Winter Olympics and Paralympics
Overview
XXIV Olympic Winter Games
XIII Paralympic Winter Games

Almaty · Beijing
Details
City Oslo, Norway
Chair Stian Berger Røsland (President)
Eli Grimsby (CEO)
NOC Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NOR)
Previous Games hosted
Hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics

Oslo 2022 was a campaign by Oslo and the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports for the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.[1] This bid was cancelled on October 1, 2014, after the parliamentary caucus of the Conservative Party had voted to not support the bid.[2] Already, the Progress Party (Norway),[3] Centre Party (Norway)[4] and Socialist Left Party (Norway)[5] were opposed to the bid. Thus, it was no longer possible to get a parliamentary majority for a state guarantee.[6] The IOC selected Beijing as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics from the two remaining bids at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31, 2015.

Background

Holmenkollbakken, Oslo

The Norwegian Olympic Committee (governed by the identical board of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports) originally planned a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Three cities announced interest: Tromsø, Trondheim and Oslo. After assessing the plans and a technical evaluation, the NOC board voted 7-6 in favor of Tromsø.[7] However, 30 September 2008 an external revision demonstrated the games would cost far more than originally suggested, the total public net cost being estimated at 19,1 billions NOK.[8] This prompted the Norwegian Olympic Committee to withdraw the bid 6 October 2008, citing inter alia responsibility to avoid unwarranted public spending.[9] The decision caused strong negative reactions.[10] Then board member and later president, Børre Rognlien, recognized in 2014 that citing responsibility of public spending was unwise.[11]

In January 2010, Gerhard Heiberg, IOC member from Norway, announced that the IOC would welcome a bid from Norway to host the Winter Olympic Games.[12] Lillehammer, host of the 1994 Winter Olympics, and the area Stavanger-Bergen-Voss were considered contenders.[13][14] Tromsø also showed interest.[15] However, Oslo was selected without much public deliberation in October 2011 after the seven major winter sports organizations decided to back the capital.[16] There were negative reactions from several supporters of the Tromsø 2018 bid. MP Anne Marit Bjørnflaten suggested that Tromsø 2018 was cancelled not due to timing or costs, but geography.[17] On 9 June 2012, the annual assembly of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports voted in favor of the Oslo 2022 bid with a majority of 142-15.[18]

Oslo City Council decided to hold a local public referendum on whether or not the city would move forward with the bid. This was held in Oslo on 9 September 2013.[19] The bid was supported by a majority of 55%.[20] Around the same time, the Socialist Left decided not to back the bid, the first political party to adopt a position on a national level.[5]

Application for state funding and financial guarantee

The pivotal issue in pushing the bid forward was obtaining state funding and an unlimited state financial guarantee, as required by the Olympic Charter. 19 June 2013, the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Oslo had put forward their application for funding and guarantee to the Ministry of Culture (Norway).[21] Eventually the cabinet would have to present the issue to the Norwegian parliament, Storting, as the constitution gives the parliament power of the budget.[22] The application for state funding was put through a legally required quality assurance review. DNV GL conducted the assessment. On December 20, 2013 they presented their conclusion in which they concluded that the bid was without significant weaknesses, and that the public net costs would probably end on 21,7 billion NOK,[23] and with 85% certainty below 25,8 billion NOK.[24] The next step following the review of DNV GL was to have the Ministry of Culture forward the application to the parliament. Before this was executed, the bid had been withdrawn.

Applicant city phase

12 November 2013, Oslo sent their formal letter to be an "applicant city" in the bidding for the 2022 games.[25] Oslo was joined by five other cities: Beijing, Almaty, Stockholm, Kraków and Lviv.[26] However, Stockholm dropped out of the race two months later due to lack of local political support.[27]

Børre Rognlien had originally stated that the Norwegian Olympic Committee required public support of 60% of the population to move forward with the bid.[28] This was also presented as a requirement from IOC.[29] However, building public support proved hard. Just prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, support was lagging at 38%.[30] Despite being a success in medals, the Sochi games was a further hit for the Oslo bid. Controversies around IOC reprimanding the Norwegian cross country skiers for wearing mourning bands,[31] as well as general criticism concerning costs and other issues made support drop even further. Shortly after Sochi, a poll suggested that support had dropped to 32,6%.[32]

9 March 2014, former leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports, Hans B. Skaset, explained how the Olympic Charter secured IOC control of the event, while leaving the financial risk with the host city.[33] The minister of culture, Thorhild Widvey, responded by declaring that the Norwegian government would reserve itself against the relevant provisions of the Olympic Charter. Oslo sent the candidate application file March 14.[34] The Norwegian minister of culture, Thorhild Widvey, did not - as IOC require - provide a full guarantee of respecting the Olympic Charter. Instead, Widvey wrote that their guarantee should "not be understood to mean that the Government has agreed to comply with all provisions of the Olympic Charter".[35] However, this was withdrawn by the end of April after a short exchange of letters with the IOC, who rejected such a reservation.[36]

4 May 2014, the Progress Party (junior coalition partner in government) voted no to provide a state financial guarantee for the Olympic bid at their annual conference.[37] Prime Minister Erna Solberg declared the following day that this did not affect the governments assessment of whether or not to support the bid.[38] In response to the decision of the Progress Party, Thorhild Widvey went public with her support of the bid 15 May 2014.[39] By summer, two other applicant cities (Kraków and Lviv) had withdrawn their bids, leaving Oslo, Beijing and Almaty as the only applicant cities.

Candidate city phase and withdrawal of bid

Oslo, Beijing and Almaty were accepted as Candidate Cities by IOC on July 7, 2014.[40] The IOC working group report gave Oslo the highest technical ratings. The Norwegian capital led in eight of the 14 categories and was tied with Beijing in three.[41]

With pollings in June 2014 running as low as 29% and 24%,[42] the requirement of 60% support Børre Rognlien previously had stated was called off.[43] During the summer, the bid was able to get backing from key public figures: Leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, Gerd Kristiansen, as well as the leader of Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, Kristin Skogen Lund, went public with their support of the bid.[44] Oslo 2022 also got the support of Norwegian Young Conservatives. However, the youth division of the other seven major political parties opposed the bid.[45]

Thorhild Widvey had not informed the public that the reservation towards the Olympic Charter had been withdrawn. In the beginning of august, this became known and caused considerable reactions.[46][47][48][49] In an attempt to drum up support, both in public and in parliament, Oslo 2022 presented a cheaper option to hosting the games 4 September 2014.[50] This would reduce the net cost of the public from 21,7 billion NOK to 17,4 billion NOK.[51] However, Oslo 2022 still recommended and stood by their original proposal.

As an alleged strategic move to establish a "yes" in the caucus of the Conservative party to facilitate for the cabinet to support the bid, the caucus set to discuss the bid prior to the cabinet taking a position.[52] This was set to occur early in October.[52] According to several media sources, the parliamentary caucus had a solid majority in favor of the bid at this point.[53] However, the last couple of days leading up to the deliberation in the Conservative Party consisted of a series of negative developments for the bid. Those negative developments included the Centre Party saying no through a grass root vote,[4] a poll showing that even within the Norwegian Confederation of Sports the majority of members opposed the bid,[54] an external revision which clarified that the newly suggested cheaper budget was unrealistic[55] and public scrutiny on IOC´s 7000 pages of demands.[56] The discussion of the caucus were held in private. After the discussions, the parliamentary leader Trond Helleland explained that the caucus was divided roughly on the middle. The conclusion of the caucus was that this was not an adequate basis for moving forward with the bid. Thus, their recommendation to the cabinet was to turn down the application for a state guarantee and state funding.[57] Various members of the Conservative party cited lack of public support and enthusiasm, high costs and unreasonable IOC requirements as the main reasons for the caucus´ negative decision.[58] The conclusion meant that a majority of the members of parliament were now opposed to the bid, leading Oslo 2022 to withdraw its application for state funding and financial guarantee.[6] No party had supported the bid at the national level, but the Labour Party (Norway),[59] Liberal Party (Norway) and Christian Democratic Party (Norway) remained undecided through the process.[60]

Aftermath

Immediately following the bid withdrawal, IOC released a statement on Oslo 2022 calling it a "missed opportunity" for Norway. The statement also included strong criticism of the bid leadership and government, claiming that "neither a senior member of the bid team nor a government official" attended a meeting held by IOC to clarify important issues concerning the games. IOC claimed "senior politicians in Norway appear not to have been properly briefed on the process and were left to take their decisions on the basis of half-truths and factual inaccuracies".[61] Bid chair Stian Berger Røsland rejected these claims, calling IOC "arrogant".[62] Thorhild Widvey dubbed the IOC claims as "very sensational", stating that the IOCs claims were not genuine. "We have not been invited to a meeting", Widvey added.[63] Conservative MP Svein Harberg, a prominent supporter of the bid,[64][65] commented the attack from IOC stating "I was quite shocked about this at first (...) I was angry when I looked at it. But now I realize that it just shows we made the right decision."[66]

The Oslo City Council was presented with an evaluation of the bid process December 2014. CEO of Oslo 2022, Eli Grimsby, presented the evaluation with the main conclusion that the distance between the spirit of the Norwegian people and the olympic movement was too large. Grimsby further stated that the major challenges were in connection with the Host City Contract, which she labelled unbalanced, and as putting too much a burden on the host city.[67] The Norwegian Confederation of Sports also initiated an evaluation on its own. The results were presented 25 March 2015. The evaluation concluded among other things that the bid suffered from poor communication, bad organization, and lack of support on the grass root level of the sporting confederation.[68]

Technical details of the bid

Financial details

In the application for state funding and financial guarantee, Oslo 2022 calculated gross total costs at 33,7 billion NOK.[69] The external quality control review increased the estimate to up to 35,1 billion NOK[70] with 50% certainty, and up to 41,0 billion NOK with 85% certainty.[24] Those numbers may not accurately reflect what would have been the final number. Generally, the Norwegian quality control system have shown a bias at underestimating costs.[71] In addition, a study at Saïd Business School showed that the Olympics had a 100 percent consistency of cost overruns in the period 1960-2012, with the average cost overrun in real terms at 179%. In the period 1999-2012, the average cost overrun is lower, in real terms at 47%.[72]

The 21,7 billion net cost was based on 7 700 million NOK in income, and a total of 29 360 million NOK in public expenditure. The public expenditure included an organizational budget for the organizational committee of 17 510 million NOK, of which 2 800 million NOK was costs of renting the olympic village, media center and media village. 5 070 million NOK were budgeted spent on construction investment. 2 050 million NOK were budgeted in non-organization committee operational costs. 1 330 million NOK were budgeted to cover wage increases, while 3 420 million NOK were set aside to cover uncertainty of cost overruns.[24]

DNV GL also conducted a socio-economical assessment, concluding that for the economy overall the games overall led to a negative net result of 15 890 million NOK in monetary terms. Of the positive non-monetary effects, enjoyable events and the predicted nationwide enthusiasm was considered the most significant.[24] Non-monetary effects aside, the games would leave a legacy with a socio-economical worth of 2,45 billion NOK.[24][73] This included mainly sporting venues (1 100 million NOK), infrastructure improvement (510 million NOK) and investment in security equipment (660 million NOK).[24][74] Aside from the legacy, the difference between the public net cost of 21,7 billion NOK and the overall negative net result of 15,89 billion NOK consisted mainly of discounting the future cost to present value (3 930 million NOK) and positive effects for the tourism industry valued at 1 780 million NOK.[24] The review considered the socio-economic costs of tax financing the event to 3 000 million NOK.[24] The effects for the tourism industry were contested in the public debate, as research gives little support of a correlation between hosting the olympics and increased tourism.[75][76] In the socio-economical assessment, the quality control review removed an alleged 4,9 billion NOK in positive effects of improved health in the population, finding no basis for the claim that hosting the olympics increases physical activity in the population.[24]

Venues

The Oslo 2022 proposal included existing venues around Oslo itself, with a goal of hosting as many events as possible, including snow events, within Oslo's city limits. Certain Alpine events would be held in Lillehammer, which had hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics. Several new venues would also be constructed, and Valle Hovin would be renovated into an indoor arena.[77][78] The following is the list of proposed venues for both the "Oslo Zone" and "Lillehammer Zone".[79]

Oslo Area
Lillehammer Area

Accommodation

IOC requires 23,300 beds for accredited people (such as participants, leaders, journalists). This requirement is a little more than the hotel overall capacity of Oslo, Lillehammer and their surrounding areas. Since spectators and other Olympic-related visitors would have to be accommodated, more rooms would be needed. As a result, there were plans to arrange for their to temporarily be at least an additional 3,000 beds for visitors.

Transport

Olympic visitors would arrive at Oslo Airport, which receives intercontinental flights. Road and rail connections to all venues in the Lillehammer area would be provided, including a four-lane motorway between Oslo and Lillehammer (route E6).

Previous bids

Oslo bid to host the 1932 and 1944 Winter Olympics but lost to Lake Placid and Cortina d'Ampezzo respectively (the 1944 games were cancelled because of World War II). Oslo went on to successfully bid to host the 1952 Winter Olympics. The city later bid to host the 1968 Winter Olympics but lost to Grenoble.

Previous bids from other Norwegian cities

Lillehammer bid to host the 1992 Winter Olympics but lost to Albertville. Lillehammer successfully bid to host the 1994 Winter Olympics. The city also bid to host the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics but failed to become a candidate (the games were ultimately awarded to Innsbruck). Lillehammer went on to submit an uncontested bid for the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics.

References

  1. ↑ Exclusive Oslo confirm they will bid for 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
  2. ↑ http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/ol-2022/hoeyre-sier-nei-ikke-ol-i-oslo-2022/a/23307282/
  3. ↑ "Frp sier nei til OL i 2022". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. 1 2 "Senterpartiet sier nei til OL i Oslo 2022 - Senterpartiet". www.senterpartiet.no. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  5. 1 2 NRK. "SV sier nei til Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  6. 1 2 "Oslo stanser OL-arbeidet etter Høyres nei". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  7. ↑ Lepperød, Trond. "Tromsø vant 7-6". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  8. ↑ NRK. "Milliardsprekk for Tromsø 2018". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  9. ↑ Hanstad, Dag Vidar (6 February 2009). "Det olympiske maktspillet - Hvordan Tromsøs triumf ble snudd til nederlag". Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift 1/2009.
  10. ↑ "Skammelig, uverdig, skittent". www.nordlys.no. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  11. ↑ "Dette skjedde da Tromsøs OL-søknad ble stoppet". www.nordlys.no. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  12. ↑ "Må ikke bli skuddredde og grave oss ned – sport". Dagbladet.no. 22 January 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  13. ↑ "Lillehammer vil søke OL på ny – VG Nett om OL 2010". Vg.no. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  14. ↑ ""Stavanger bør søke vinter-OL i 2022" – Stavanger Aftenblad". Aftenbladet.no. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  15. ↑ NRK. "Tromsø vil ha vinter-OL i 2022". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  16. ↑ "Tromsø raser etter enstemmig støtte for Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  17. ↑ NRK. "OL–søknaden skaper reaksjoner". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  18. ↑ NRK. "Idrettstinget sa ja til OL". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  19. ↑ "Folkeavstemning om OL-søknad". Oslo kommune.
  20. ↑ "Oslo sier ja til OL i 2022". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  21. ↑ "Oslos OL-drøm er overlevert til kulturministeren". Dagbladet.no. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  22. ↑ "The Constitution". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  23. ↑ NRK. "OL-søknaden fikk ståkarakter". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Kvalitetssikring av søknad om statsgaranti og -tilskudd for OL/PL i Oslo 2022" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  25. ↑ NRK. "Nå går første søknad om Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  26. ↑ "6 cities in running for 2022 Winter Olympics". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  27. ↑ "Stockholm drops out of 2022 bidding". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  28. ↑ "Ikke akkurat OL-feber". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  29. ↑ "Rognlien: - Må ha begeistring og støtte - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  30. ↑ NRK. "Fortsatt stor motstand mot Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  31. ↑ "Norge fikk IOC-reprimande etter sørgebånd-markering". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  32. ↑ "Ny meningsmåling sier klart nei til Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  33. ↑ NRK. "Kritiserer OL-prosessen nord og ned". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  34. ↑ "Oslo 2022 Application File" (PDF).
  35. ↑ NRK. "Widveys klare beskjed til IOC". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  36. ↑ "Regjeringens garanti til IOC". Minerva. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  37. ↑ "Frp-landsmøtet sier nei til Oslo-OL - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  38. ↑ "Solberg krever bred politisk støtte bak nytt vinter-OL - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  39. ↑ "Widvey står fram som OL-entusiast". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  40. ↑ "Kazakh city Almaty eyes 2022 Games". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  41. ↑ "2022 Winter Olympics host city down to 3 contenders". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  42. ↑ "OL-stemningen". Minerva. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  43. ↑ "Endrer påstått krav om OL-støtte". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  44. ↑ "LO-Gerd gir OL-støtte". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  45. ↑ "Ungdoms-nei til Oslo-OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  46. ↑ "Widvey anklages for knefall overfor IOC". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  47. ↑ "Knefall for OL-pampene". Dagbladet.no. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  48. ↑ "En svært tung oppløpsside - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  49. ↑ "Sitter igjen med ingenting". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  50. ↑ NRK. "Kutter åtte OL-milliarder". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  51. ↑ "OL-kutt på 8,8 milliarder - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  52. 1 2 "OL- rigget". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  53. ↑ "Solid OL-flertall i Høyre". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  54. ↑ NRK. "Idrettsmedlemmer splittet om OL". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  55. ↑ NTB. "Billig-OL dyrere enn antatt". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  56. ↑ "The Olympics that no-one wants?". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  57. ↑ AS, TV 2. "Høyre sier nei til Oslo-OL - TV2.no". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  58. ↑ NRK. "Høyre knuser OL-drømmen". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  59. ↑ "Støre kalte Høyre "patetisk" - nå beklager han". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  60. ↑ "Sp sier nei til Oslo-OL etter SMS-avstemning - Aftenposten". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  61. ↑ "IOC Statement on Oslo 2022". www.olympic.org. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  62. ↑ NRK. "– IOCs tankemåte fremmed for Norge". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  63. ↑ "Widvey om OL-nederlaget: - Alle løp for å finne ut hva problemet var". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  64. ↑ NRK. "OL-flertall i Kulturkomiteen". Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  65. ↑ "Hemmelig Høyre-notat anbefaler OL". Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  66. ↑ "Oslo 2022 bid hurt by IOC demands, arrogance". Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  67. ↑ "Avstanden mellom den norske folkesjelen og den olympiske bevegelse ble for stor". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  68. ↑ "Idretten får skarp OL-kritikk". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  69. ↑ NRK. "I dag kommer OL-rapporten". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  70. ↑ NRK. "OL-søknaden fikk ståkarakter". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  71. ↑ NRK. "Dyr og tidkrevende kvalitetssikring med liten effekt". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  72. ↑ Flyvbjerg, Bent; Stewart (1 June 2012). "Olympic Proportions: Cost and Cost Overrun at the Olympics". Saïd Business School working papers.
  73. ↑ NRK. "OL gir ikke penger i kassa". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  74. ↑ "- OL i Oslo gir en brøkdel i varige verdier". www.nordlys.no. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  75. ↑ "Minimale turisteffekter". Minerva. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  76. ↑ Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Study for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: Post Games Report (23 October 2013), University of British Columbia, Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Study
  77. ↑ "IOC's 2022 Winter Olympic choice could be made today". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  78. ↑ Games in the City
  79. ↑ Venues

External links

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