SASCOC Preparing South Africa Bid

[Sir Rols]

Hot on the heels of Zuma's comments:

SASCOC to bid for 2024 games

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic
Committee's (Sascoc) Chief Financial Officer Vinesh Maharaj is confident
if South Africa gets to host the 2024 Olympic Games it would give the
country a huge economic injection.

The local Olympic body is putting together a bid for the global
showpiece which it will present to government soon.

South Africa pulled out of 2020 bid because government felt the time
wasn’t right, but Sascoc believes the country is perfectly placed to
host the 2024 edition.

Nairobi in Kenya and Casablanca in Morocco have also expressed interest
in the sporting spectacle, creating great competition for South Africa’s
chosen city.

Maharaj said, “Financially it would be positive because there would be
infrastructure development.”

Bidding will begin in 2015 with the committee set to announce the host
in 2017.

The Olympic body is confident the government will back its desire to
host the 2024 Olympic Games.

Maharaj added that it’s important to devise a strong business plan to
entice government to back the bid.

“If we have a long term strategy, this is the kind of interest that
investments need to make periodically so that we can arrive at the end
goal which is the Olympic Games.”

Eye Witness News

[baron-pierreIV]

Well, Baku and Doha would make good sacrificial lambs. Durban's gotta run vs.someone.

[Lord David]

What sacrifical lamb? If Baku proves it can host big scale events when it hosts the 1st European Games in 2015 and the 2024 bidding field is low, then it's a shoe-in as Candidate (or at least score more than 6, but fail due to a good number of other better bidders),

As for Doha, they will forever be plagued by their insistance of hosting in October, or maybe they'll propose September this time, but still, they probably won't make the cut, despite having a good technical score.

[ofan]

What sacrifical lamb? If Baku proves it can host big scale events when it hosts the 1st European Games in 2015 and the 2024 bidding field is low, then it's a shoe-in as Candidate (or at least score more than 6, but fail due to a good number of other better bidders),

As for Doha, they will forever be plagued by their insistance of hosting in October, or maybe they'll propose September this time, but still, they probably won't make the cut, despite having a good technical score.

But the 2024 bidding field is going to be anything but low as it stands right now.

[Athensfan]

But the 2024 bidding field is going to be anything but low as it stands right now.

I don't know about that. I'd be seriously weighing my options if I were the USOC right now.

[Lord David]

^^ Not to mention the fact that a USA win for 2024 would definitely remove any notion of Reno for decades to come!

But seriously, just because you raise your hand up saying you'd like to bid, doesn't mean you actually will end up bidding.

If Durban does place a bid, I doubt that other African cities will bid as not to compete with a city that they'll definitely be lacking behind.

[baron-pierreIV]

[Athensfan]

What I mean is, that if I'm the USOC, I might be wondering if 2024 could be more trouble than it's worth.

[baron-pierreIV]

The USOC is a lost cause as far as I'm concerned. Stupid mgmt now.

[ofan]

I don't know about that. I'd be seriously weighing my options if I were the USOC right now.

I said the field is going to be highly competitive. So what are you saying?

[Iceman]

I said the field is going to be highly competitive. So what are you saying?

I think he's saying that if the field is as competitive as it looks right now, with cities like Paris and Durban, among other major world cities, looking like they want to bid, it lowers the chances of an American bid, and as such, it may be better for the USOC to wait to bid until 2028 or 2032. Especially if they don't have a very compelling option.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Athens.

[Athensfan]

I said the field is going to be highly competitive. So what are you saying?

I'm saying that if Durban is in the race the USA's chances of winning drop precipitously and the USOC has to think long and hard about whether they want to fight that fight or whether they might do better to wait for the next cycle. I think many candidates will ask themselves the same question. I don't know how any of them (including the US) will answer it.

[ofan]

I'm saying that if Durban is in the race the USA's chances of winning drop precipitously and the USOC has to think long and hard about whether they want to fight that fight or whether they might do better to wait for the next cycle. I think many candidates will ask themselves the same question. I don't know how any of them (including the US) will answer it.

Yes, but the US not bidding doesn't necessarily weaken the field. There are already many other strong candidates that may bid.

[Athensfan]

I think he's saying that if the field is as competitive as it looks right now, with cities like Paris and Durban, among other major world cities, looking like they want to bid, it lowers the chances of an American bid, and as such, it may be better for the USOC to wait to bid until 2028 or 2032. Especially if they don't have a very compelling option.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Athens.

You're right. We posted at almost exactly the same time. You just beat me to it.

Yes, but the US not bidding doesn't necessarily weaken the field. There are already many other strong candidates that may bid.

That's not my point. If you re-read my post you will see that I think other bids will ask themselves the same question. It's possible most of them will choose not to bid. We don't know yet. Have to wait and see.

Personally, I hope the US doesn't bid.

[FYI]

If most of the heavyweights come out & play for 2024, 'as it looks right now' (which even now is still fuzzy), then really the only ones that I could see give Durban a good run for their money are Paris & Rome, & perhaps Berlin (if Munich doesn't go &/or doesn't win 2022). Beyond those, the remaining others are the ones that are gonna have to prove themselves harder as to why they think they should get it instead.

[intoronto]

You're right. We posted at almost exactly the same time. You just beat me to it.

That's not my point. If you re-read my post you will see that I think other bids will ask themselves the same question. It's possible most of them will choose not to bid. We don't know yet. Have to wait and see.

Personally, I hope the US doesn't bid.

..If South Africa bids. If they don't I am sure you will want a USA bid.

[baron-pierreIV]

..If South Africa bids.

When...not if. They are going to bid. I don't think those first salvos are carelessly released. And they are 4 years ahead of the selection year of 2017 for 2024. So they are pretty much letting the world know...we're on our way. Bid if you like; but so will we.

[Texas]

An Olympics is perfect for Durban to get out of the shadow of South Africa's two more internationally known cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg.

[Iceman]

An Olympics is perfect for Durban to get out of the shadow of South Africa's two more internationally known cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg.

That does make me wonder though. Johannesburg is the biggest city in South Africa and probably the most well known. Why don't we ever hear about them in terms of the Olympics.

Just a nagging question.

[baron-pierreIV]

/\/\ Sigh. http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/22801-is-durban-too-ugly-to-be-the-2024-host/

[Athensfan]

..If South Africa bids. If they don't I am sure you will want a USA bid.

No. I don't want the USA to bid for 2024 or 2026. I don't think it makes sense. If the US bids anyway, I might support the bid or I might not,

I don't think the IOC will want to return to the US until 2028 or 2032 at the earliest. I see no point in bidding until then.

[olympiaki-agones]

These are great news!!! However, I loved a lot Durban and all that Zulu culture, the Drakensberg mountains and great Safari parks like Imfolozi Reserve as well as St. Lucia's beaches and its crocodile farms, all my South African friends, including the ones from Kwazulu-Natal affirm that if they want to become the first African "Olympic" country, it should be in the most appealing city of the continent, and we all know it's Cape Town. So I think the South African authorities will bid with the capital of Western Cape and for sure it'll be a piece of cake to win the right to host the Olympic for the first time in African soil.

What else would the IOC ask for if their sceneries for the games are the Guanabara Bay, Bosphorus (if that police-riots-Erdogan problem doesn't delude the Olympic plans) and now the Table Mountain and the Cape of the Good Hope!

[Sir Rols]

What else would the IOC ask for if their sceneries for the games are the Guanabara Bay, Bosphorus (if that police-riots-Erdogan problem doesn't delude the Olympic plans) and now the Table Mountain and the Cape of the Good Hope!

They'd probably want to ask for better weather in their hosting window, and not to have to go through the hassles and potential criticism of asking a country with a huge question mark over its social problems and priorities hanging over it, and that already has a lot of its more Olympic-visible big ticket items established in one city (Durban), to build it all again in another city.

Anyway, I guess SASCOC will probably thrash all that out in some sort of domestic process. One of the problems they had with their 2020 "bid" was that they just launched it pre-emptively without a domestic bid process or approval by the government. They'll go through the motions this time to make sure they don't get embarassed again. Cape Town (and Johannesburg and whoever else) will get the chance to put their case.

[baron-pierreIV]

Lord David exposed and caught red-handed! From a sage on SSC...on why he (LD) doesn't support or believe 2024 will go to Durban!

This expose is completely logical and is the bare-butt, naked truth of LD's thinking.

No one else bid for 1984 when LA got it a 2nd time....regardless of the circumstances! Lightning strikes 2x, 3x. So this would be a more logical reason for other cities to stay away...if they knew what was good for them. You just want to see the bidding so you can have the Bid Books, LD. That's the ONLY reason why you don't want it to be a slam dunk for Durban or ANY one city.

[Lord David]

And he's (Knitemplar, hardly a sage) is wrong.

I don't mind for say Durban winning on its first try, but given that Istanbul is highly likely to win in spite of a absurd and weak bid, well that's probably going to knock out Durban in 2024.

He also mention that Durban will GET the games in 2024. By that logic, why waste the bidding process and give them the games already.

Think about it. The technical stuff proposed on paper usually ends up getting changed by architects anyways, etc, etc. Oh and we can avoid a crappy actual logo, because whatever logo Durban proposes WILL be the logo!