[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

How does the "bidding" process and selection process work exactly?

As for Toronto in 2016, I don't know. This would give Canada two Olympics within 6 years. What is the 2014 Winter games shaping up to be? I wonder if a city like Dubai would bid.

As for Africa, don't forget South Africa will get the World Cup in 2010. Does the World Cup play a role at all in the bidding process?

Well, the Winter Olympics bidding process in recent years has been really obscure cities. Vancouver almost lost out to this remote Korean resort city for 2010.

Basically, cities will put together a bid. Then, the olympic committees of their respective countries will sift through the bids and choose one to the their "official bid."

Then the IOC will visit those cities, eventually weeding to get down to 5 candidate cities.

Cape Town last bid for the 2004 Olympics and came in 3rd behind Athens and Rome. So they've got a strong shot to get them in 2016 if they want to put up a bid..and most think it's not a matter of "if" Africa gets it, just when.

Buenos Aires bid during 2004, as well. But look at the vote from that year:

Rounds 1 2 3 4 5
Athens 32 38 52 66
Buenos Aires 16 44
Cape Town 16 62 22 20
Rome 23 28 35 41
Stockholm 20 19

Clearly, if Buenos Aires and Cape Town tied in the 1st round, forcing a runoff between the two...it means that the IOC voters are going to choose either South America or Africa, but it won't be a final vote between the two. I guess that's probably 3rd world voters putting their weight behind one or the other.

The fact that South Africa will get the World Cup in 2010 is a good thing, because the IOC wants to see that your country has the capacity and experience of hosting a large scale, worldwide international event. They've previously hosted the Rugby World Cup not too long ago, as well.

So it'll be an interesting battle.

Here are some Wikipedia articles about the 2014 and 2016 games, that are really interesting:

2014 Winter Games candidate

The deadline for submitting preliminary bids is July 28, 2005.

The following cities have officially announced their intentions to submit an application to the International Olympic Committee.

* Borjomi or Bakuriani, Georgia
* Östersund, Sweden
* Pyeongchang, South Korea
* Salzburg, Austria
* Sofia, Bulgaria
* Tromsø, Norway

Östersund, along with the leading ski resort of Åre, will be making its fourth bid to the International Olympic Committee since 1994. Pyeongchang and Salzburg, which both competed for the 2010 games, will present their second bids. Sofia's bid will incorporate the ski resorts of Borovets and Bansko, which are undergoing major improvements and expansion efforts. The Sofia bid got the needed government support on July 23. Tromsø is located above the Arctic Circle and that city's bid plans to use cruise ships as the Olympic Village. Since Tromsø's ski slopes on the mountains end in the sea, it would be a unique venue. However, as the Norwegian government has not guaranteed money to the bid, its status is currently in jeopardy. Georgia announced on June 22, 2005 that the resorts Borjomi and Bakuriani has applied for the games. President Mikheil Saakashvili has signed the Georgia’s official bid at the ceremony held in the office of the Georgian Olympic Committee.

In December 2004, the International Ski Federation issued an official report saying that Muju in South Korea does not have the ability to host an Olympic Games due to environmental and technical reasons. This leaves Pyeongchang, the country's 2010 Winter Olympics candidate, as the lone viable Korean candidate for the 2014 games. On December 22, the Korea Olympic Committee unanimously selected Pyeongchang as the Korean candidate for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Other potential bids are possible from Annecy or Grenoble in France, Erzurum in Turkey, Harbin in the People's Republic of China, Reno, Nevada and South Lake Tahoe, California (jointly) in the United States, Jaca in Spain and Sochi in Russia.

Andorra la Vella announced in December that it would not seek to host the 2014 Olympics. The Parishes of Ordino and Escaldes-Engordany had showed interest in bidding.

There will be no bid from Switzerland as Zürich withdrew its bid on September 14, 2004. Also Munich, Germany will not bid for the 2014 games.

2016 Summer Olympics Potential cities

On this list apparently include:

# Busan, South Korea (Busan's Mayor announced on 2 October 2002)
# Delhi, India (IOA announced 27 December 2003)
# Dubai, United Arab Emirates (According to 1 March 2004 Report)
# Hamburg, Germany (According to 17 February 2004 Mayor's Announcement)
# Japan (Sapporo or Fukuoka) (JOC announces 19 May 2005)
# Kenya (GamesBids.com Reports 12 January 2005)
# Naples, Milan or Rome, Italy (GamesBids.com Reports Feb. 18, 2005)
# Madrid, Spain (According to Spanish Authorities, reported in BBC News)[1]
# Minneapolis-St. Paul, USA (According to 7 August 2003 Report)
# Moscow, Russia (Announced intention to bid again after failure of its 2012 bid [2]
# Portugal (GamesBids.com Reports 7 January 2004)
# Rotterdam, Netherlands (Under investigation)
# St. Petersburg, Russia (According to Vice Governor, 29 December 2003)
# San Diego USA, Tijuana Mexico (Binational bid study underway according to 24 January 2005 report.)
# Santiago, Chile (Announced Chile's NOC President on 15 October 2002)
# Tel Aviv, Israel (conducting feasibility study, admits challenges.)
# Thailand (According to 15 September 2004 Report)

And there was this note.

However, with the election of London to host the XXXth Olympiad in 2012 it is considered extremely unlikely that the 2016 Games will be awarded to a European city. This would rule out several of the above potential bids. It is widely expected that in 2016 the Games will return to the USA, due to an unwritten convention that every 20 years the IOC reciprocate for the vast payments by the NBC media group for Olympic coverage - funds that largely bankroll the IOC.

You can rule out all the European cities for 2016. Also, you can rule out Russia. But Dubai is a really, really interesting opportunity (as has been mentioned here..) The bi-national bid thing won't work, because even though they're close in location..the IOC will take the nod from FIFA that said after the joint Korean/Japan world cup they'd never allow another two-nation bid again.

Plus Tijuana is a dump.

Other cities will emerge, but of all the cities on that list..you have to like Dubai as an early favourite. St. Paul could make a nice darkhorse, too. Though why wouldn't they try to host the winter games? Seems more logical to me.

Fast forwarding to 2020, is this interesting note.

Denver, Colorado (USA) is conducting a feasibility study for either the 2018 Winter Olympics or 2020 Summer Olympics. However, Denver has the dubious distinction of being the only city to reject hosting duties (in 1976). This is widely viewed as a huge hindrance to the bid effort, if not killing it completely.

I think 2020 seems to be Cape Town's year to bid.