Salzburg Continues To Lead BidIndex 2014 Ahead Of Bid Book Release

Today GamesBids.com released an update to BidIndex for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The original, widely acclaimed Olympic bid measurement system rates current Olympic bids against successful past bids to determine their likeliness for success. This most recent update comprehends campaign changes made by the applicants over the past six months and comes just before the final bid books are released.

Wednesday is the deadline for the final three bid cities to submit their bid books which will be used by the IOC to evaluate the proposals and select the winning bid. PyeongChang Korea, Salzburg Austria and Sochi Russia have already submitted the required documents and await IOC approval before making them available to the public.

Salzburg continues to lead with the highest BidIndex score of 65.35, up 4.22 from the previous release. With lots of event hosting and bidding experience, this dominant winter sports country has a compelling offer for the IOC.

Sochi is second best with a score of 62.98, up 5.47. A continuing strong campaign, increased public support numbers and more infrastructure improvements are keeping the Russian city in the running.

With a BidIndex score of 62.01, PyeongChang marked the largest increase - 5.77 points. While political uncertainty remains on the Korean Peninsula, the bid that almost won the last Winter Olympic host city election is still a serious contender. But with less active IOC members and reduced influence, the small Korean town will need a strong finish to win.

After the final bid books are released later this week, BidIndex will be recalculated using the new data - and updates will be posted on GamesBids.com.

BidIndex breaks up a bid into over 100 fundamental components then determines how much of a factor each has been in past successful bids. The more important a component is, the higher the weighting it receives in the scoring model. The formula is then applied to current campaigns to determine a score.

The 2014 bid marks the fourth installment of BidIndex - measuring the acceptability of bids since the 2008 campaign. For more details, visit the BidIndex Web site or send us a question. Write or read comments about this article