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Oslo 2022


kernowboy

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Swiss - no fair trying to get things back on topic.

For what it's worth, in addition to Denver and Reno, SLC is on tract for a possible WOG bid.

As for Portland OR, I can't think of a city less likely to ever bid than Portland. It's the most anti-growth, anti-development anti-commercial city you'll ever see. Plus, Phil Knight.

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One year

Timelines for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games bid process

October 2012: First information circular letter to NOCs

May 2013: IOC invites NOCs to submit the name of an Applicant City and publishes the 2022 Applicant City Questionnaire

14 November 2013: Deadline for NOCs to submit the name of an Applicant City

4-6 December 2013: Applicant City Seminar - Lausanne

7-23 February 2014: Olympic Winter Games Observer Programme – Sochi 2014

14 March 2014: Submission of the Application File

July 2014: Selection of Candidate Cities by the IOC Executive Board

January 2015: Submission of Candidature File & Guarantees

February – March 2015: IOC Evaluation Commission visits

May - June 2015: Evaluation Commission report / Candidate City Briefing to IOC Members

31 July 2015: Election of the 2022 Host City by the IOC Session - Kuala Lumpur

Norway Olympic Committee http://www.idrett.no/nyheter/Sider/IOCss%C3%B8kerprosessOLPL2022.aspx

Circular letter to NOCs http://www.idrett.no/nyheter/Documents/CI%20-%202022%20Timelines%20-%20First%20Information%20to%20all%20NOCS%20-%202012-10-03%20-%20eng.pdf

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Referendum set over Olympic bid

December 5, 2012

Taxpayers in Oslo are going to get a rare chance to vote on an issue that involves billions of their tax money: Whether the city should host the Winter Olympics in 2022. Sports bureaucrats pushing hard to secure funding for an Olympics, who thought they’d won the nod of local elected officials, are not pleased.

Børre Rognlien, president of the national athletics association (Idrettsforbundet), was quick to complain to local media after news broke this week that city politicians had agreed to hold a referendum on the Olympics as part of a budget compromise. Rognlien claims the Olympics (simply called “OL” in Norway) is really a national event with the state likely to contribute the most funding.

“Therefore I think it’s wrong if it’s only Oslo’s population who will get a say,” Rognlien told newspaper Aftenposten for example. He claimed four or five other counties in southeastern Norway will likely be directly involved as well, and then they should have a say in the matter, too.

Oslo taxpayers left with the bill

Rognlien acknowledged, though, that it is the City of Oslo that will apply individually to host the Olympics, and that leaves the city largely responsible for preparing for the huge sporting event and paying for it. And that’s where the political debate arises. The enormous cost of an Olympics, fears the conservative Progress Party, can come at the expense of schools, nursing homes, day care centers and other vital city services that already are under severe budget pressure.

Carl I Hagen, head of the Progress Party’s bloc on the Oslo City Council, thus insisted that taxpayers in Oslo be allowed to vote on the Olympic issue. Referenda are not common in Norway, with most all major decisions left to elected politicians. In this case, though, Hagen’s demand for an Olympic referendum was met in order to help get the city’s budget approved.

City officials have thus set aside NOK 5 million to cover the cost of asking Oslo residents whether they really want to host an Olympics in 2022, with all the new construction it will entail. Some argue it will provide the incentive Oslo needs to improve public transport, build new sports facilities and even housing. Others dread the very thought of an Olympics and the debt it may leave, with future use or need for all the Olympic facilities highly unclear.

Referendum in September

The referendum will be held in connection with national elections next fall. That’s after the Oslo City Council is due to officially decide, in July, whether to apply for the state funding guarantee needed to host the Olympics. A general plan for where arenas and athletes’ housing will be constructed is due in March, along with as firm an estimate of costs as possible. City officials already have approved the millions needed just to carry out all the preliminary work tied to a prospective application.

If voters reject the Olympic project, city officials will be left in an awkward position but would be expected to bow to the majority. Rognlien likely worries that while politicians mostly seem to have embraced the idea of hosting an Olympics, the general public may torpedo the entire project. Some Norwegian websites were already urging Oslo residents to vote “no” in the referendum, arguing the billions needed would be better spent on other projects.

The deadline for potential host cities applying to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is in March of 2014, with candidates to be chosen in July 2014 and a decision on the host set for July 31, 2015.

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2012/12/05/referendum-set-over-olympic-bid/

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Fewer back an Olympics in Oslo

January 4, 2013

A new survey indicates that just 42 percent of Oslo’s residents are now positive towards the prospect of the city organizing the Winter Olympics in 2022. Public support for an Olympics has fallen markedly during the last 20 months.

The survey, conducted by polling firm Respons for newspaper Aftenposten, shows that 33 percent of Oslo residents questioned are negative towards the city’s plans for an Olympics, simply called “OL” among Norwegians. The 42 percent who said they’re positive is down from 58 percent in a similar survey conducted in March 2011.

That was when Oslo was caught up in euphoria over its successful hosting of the Nordic Skiing World Championships at Holmenkollen, and just after Gerhard Heiberg, a Norwegian member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), had planted the idea of another Winter Olympics in Norway. Heiberg claims Norway has the financial resources and winter sports expertise to carry out a successful “OL” like the one mounted in Lillehammer in 1994, where he played a leading role.

The costs of organizing an Olympics have become enormous, and it’s in the IOC’s interests that wealthy and willing organizers come forward to carry out such an ambitious project. Few countries are as wealthy as Norway, given its oil and gas resources that have pumped up the economy in recent years, so it’s not surprising IOC members like Heiberg would encourage cities like Oslo to bid. Heiberg has even suggested that Norway almost has an obligation to organize an Olympics, at a time when other countries, not least many in Europe, are financially strapped.

The new survey, though, indicates Oslo residents have sobered up since the gold rush of the 2011 world championships, where Norwegian skiers also dominated. In addition to the 33 percent now negative towards the prospect of an “OL” for which they’d be financially responsible, 25 percent are unsure. That leaves them ultimately in a decisive role, since city officials agreed to listen to the public and hold a rare voter referendum on the issue. It’s scheduled to take place in connection with national elections in September.

The OL application process, which city politicians went ahead and approved last summer, may hit a roadblock before then, however, Aftenposten reported on Friday. The launch last month of preliminary plans for what an OL-application committee calls “Games in the City” didn’t set off any major new “Olympic Fever,” given an initial lack-lustre response and, now, the decline in support for an Olympics. The city government must decide in June whether it will apply for a state guarantee to help finance an OL. If they decide against that, given the costs and investment required, the application process will end.

OL plans from the application committee call for a “compact” Olympics that mostly will be carried out within the city limits, with Nordic events back up at Holmenkollen, snowboarding at Tryvann, new skating facilities built in and around Oslo and some surprises, like biathlon events held around the Ekeberg plateau on the city’s east side and freestyle skiing at Grefsenkollen.

Officials still haven’t agreed on whether downhill skiing events will be held back up around Lillehammer, most likely at Kvitfjell, or at Norefjell, closer to Oslo, and no costs have been estimated. Sports officials in communities close to Oslo, meanwhile, have expressed disappointment that not more events were delegated to their areas.

Eli Grimsby, head of the committee working on a potential OL bid, remains optimistic and thinks Oslo has a good chance of winning the games in 2022. She realizes, though, that “we have to have the people behind us,” as she told Aftenposten last week. “We just have to make even more clear what we can inherit from an OL, what we’ll still have when the Games are over,” including, for example, new housing, arenas, improved infrastructure and “”memories that bind a nation together.”

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/01/04/fewer-back-an-olympics-in-oslo/

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Another Step towards Olympic and Paralympic Games in Oslo

The City of Oslo and the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports has presented the application for a Financial Shortfall Guarantee for a possible Norwegian bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games to the Ministry of Culture.

In a ceremony at the office of the Hon. Minister of Culture, Ms Hadia Tadjik, in Oslo today, the joint application for a Financial Shortfall Guarantee to the Norwegian Government from the City of Oslo and the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee (NOC), regarding a possible bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Oslo was presented.

– The hosting of Olympic and Paralympic Games in Oslo, will, if the plans pan out, have great implications for the whole country, stated the Minister of Culture.

The application is the result of more than a year of comprehensive evaluations and recommendations organised by the Municipality of Oslo in collaboration with the NOC. The choice of a total concept including analyses of various models and venues, economical impact for society, and a separate process of external quality evaluation, is the base of the joint application presented today.

– This is an important day for Norwegian sports and indeed for the City of Oslo and the whole country, concludes Mr Børre Rognlien, the President of the NOC. All Norwegian summer and winter sports federations – representing over 12000 local sports clubs - supports a possible bid, and we recognize the tremendous opportunities for the younger generations by linking Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2022 Norway with the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lillehammer in 2016. By being the host for YOG 2016, we aim to further develop a modern and youth oriented content of Olympism and to underline the importance of a holistic approach to the development of a new generation of athletes. This approach will be an important component in the work leading up to possible Olympic and Paralympic Games in Norway in 2022. We are also proud to present a top class venue concept where half of the venues already exists, states Rognlien.

– This represents a unique opportunity to create and take part in something great, with implications way beyond our national boundaries and for a whole new generation. The Winter Games in Oslo will allow us a rare opportunity to present Norway as a destination for winter sport, as a modern knowledge based society, and as an attractive partner. These will be Olympic and Paralympic Games for the whole nation, states the Governing Mayor, Mr Stian Berger Røsland, Head of the Oslo City Government.

The Mayors of the co-operating municipalities of Lillehammer, Øyer, Ringebu, Lørenskog and Bærum, in addition to the host city itself and the NOC, were all present at todays ceremony.

If the inhabitants of Oslo approves the plans to go ahead with the application in the referendum on 9th September 2013, the Government will continue its work with the evaluation of the application. The Norwegian Parliament will make its decision on the Financial Shortfall Guarantee during the autumn of 2014.

National Post

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The article says that the Norwegian Parliament will make a decision on the financial guarantees in the fall of 2014. But the deadline for cities to submit their interests' for 2022 is in November of this year. So is that a typo, perhaps.

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The article says that the Norwegian Parliament will make a decision on the financial guarantees in the fall of 2014. But the deadline for cities to submit their interests' for 2022 is in November of this year. So is that a typo, perhaps.

Not necessarily. American financial guarantees have been secured well into the bid process. Perhaps the Norwegians are planning to follow suit by applying first and securing funding later. Or it's a typo.

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Not necessarily. American financial guarantees have been secured well into the bid process. Perhaps the Norwegians are planning to follow suit by applying first and securing funding later. Or it's a typo.

Yeah, but the United States is the only country that doesn't get financial backing from the federal goverment for an Olympics. And remember, many cite Chicago's late stage in the game to get the financial backing from City Hall & the State that it didn't do their 2016 bid any favors. I can't see the Norwegian's befitting from a simliar approach, espeically if Munich bids & they have all their T's crossed & I's dotted.

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Popular support in Oslo is very low. I don't think they'll be able to bid for the games if that keeps going. *sigh* it seems most countries of northern europe seem to hate the olympics because they see them as a threat for their relatively peaceful lifes (and it's kinda true. The winter olympics have gotten much bigger since Lillehammer).

Still, I really had hopes to see Oslo hosting. Norway, for me, has a special charm when it comes to host these kind of events, since it feels like a very winter destination.

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. Do you think the IOC could do what they did when they elected Denver, but they had not bid?

What are you talking about. Denver actually did bid & won the 1976 Winter Games back in May 1970. But then renounced them in November 1972. The IOC then had to find a replacement the following year.

And wouldn't that throw everybody's "rotation" theories out the window. I'd almost like to see it just for that!

Well, that would be a given. But if Munich were to be in the race, the "rotation theories" would be in full swing in favor of the Germans.

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