Paris Shines In Latest BidIndex Update

GamesBids.com today released an update to BidIndex for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games bid. The update comprehends new information released in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) technical evaluation report on May 18, and fundamental changes since. Four cities - Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig and Rio de Janeiro - were not accepted as candidates by the IOC and have since been delisted from BidIndex 2012.

Paris continues to own the top BidIndex score - up 3.06 to 66.63 - well above the other cities in the field. Top marks in many evaluation categories and a strong, experienced bid organization are likely to appeal to IOC members next year. Paris finished the 2008 campaign with a BidIndex of just 58.71 when it placed third behind Beijing and Toronto in the host city election. Beijing won that election with a wide BidIndex margin of its own.

The biggest gainer in this release is Moscow, up 4.06 to 49.88 after qualifying to the shortlist and receiving better-than-expected scores on the IOC evaluation report. Moscow "straddled" the IOC benchmark and barely made the short-list, scoring even less than eliminated Leipzig - so it sits with the lowest current BidIndex score.

The next highest increase belongs to Madrid, up 3.73 to 61.31 bolstered by the support of a strong evaluation report. Madrid has the second-best evaluation score among the nine applicants and has proven itself to be a strong contender in the race. London sits only one basis point ahead with 61.32, down 0.16 partially due to lower than expected results in an IOC public support poll and other scores.

New York dropped marginally, down 0.35 to 59.80 based largely on the evaluation report results and comments.

BidIndex is a model developed by GamesBids.com that when applied to an Olympic Bid, produces a number that can be used to rate a bid relative to others in the past - and possibly gauge it's ultimate success. Further updates to BidIndex will occur as new information becomes available.

BidIndex is not intended to rate the bids based on technical quality, but on how the bids will perform based on IOC voting patterns. History has proven that the best technical bids often do not win but other factors such as geo-politics usually have a significant impact.

Full BidIndex details can be found on the BidIndex page or contact BidIndex@GamesBids.com for more information. Write or read comments about this article