Switzerland 2038

[StefanMUC]

5 minutes ago, iceman530 said:

If Switzerland falls I reckon IOC would get Sapporo quickly back involved again.

Or maybe…

“Hello, is that the beautiful SOK from the charming city of Stockholm?“

“Who‘s speaking?“

“Thomas from Lausanne. Remember me? Was lovely talking to you over last summer…would like to keep in touch…do you already have plans for February 2038? There‘s a gap in my calendar and it would be great for both of us if we could finally have a proper date!“

(beeping sound at other end of line)

[Sigh]

At present the opinion in Sapporo and Japan is very much anti-Olympic games. In four years that may change but the Sapporo bid is very much a one man affair.

The then 71 year old Akimoto Katsuhiro will be up reelection in in 2027, if he choses to run. He was badly rocked by anti-olympic candidates in 2023 despite being backed by ALL the major parties. In politics a wounded politician attracts sharks.

[iceman530]

Thats very true........was hoping it might be water under the bridge by that point but that might be hoping for too much.  The IOC doesn't seem to be keep on Sweden's  "this is how we are going to do it, and you're going to like it" style, and as you've emphasized before, Sweden is kinda lukewarm anyways (despite this last go around seeming the most open to it by far of any previous attempts).  I've got a hunch, and it is literally nothing more than a hunch with nothing to back it up, but I get the feeling China is waiting to make an excuse to make Harbin a thing at an opportune time (......yes, even though they have Beijing)

[Booville]

Where the Swiss have previously failed is in Canton referendum, where the canton woud be liable for the costs albeit supported by the national government. A 'Swiss games' encompassing a large number of existing venues and cantons would likely draw sufficient national support.

Alpine events at Wengen and Crans-Montana

Jumping in Engelberg

Sliding events at St Moritz

Indoor events in Zurich, Bern, Lausanne and Lugano

Even the massive PalaExpo in Geneva could be converted for speed skating. 

And end to end, the distance is still shorter than Stockholm to Are, and include all linguistic groups.

 

[iceman530]

Id love to see it, given the new nuances of the winter olympics especially, it would be a great games.  Spread out is no longer scary.

[StefanMUC]

7 hours ago, Booville said:

Where the Swiss have previously failed is in Canton referendum, where the canton woud be liable for the costs albeit supported by the national government. A 'Swiss games' encompassing a large number of existing venues and cantons would likely draw sufficient national support.

Alpine events at Wengen and Crans-Montana

Jumping in Engelberg

Sliding events at St Moritz

Indoor events in Zurich, Bern, Lausanne and Lugano

Even the massive PalaExpo in Geneva could be converted for speed skating. 

And end to end, the distance is still shorter than Stockholm to Are, and include all linguistic groups.

 

Uhm no. There need to be a few clusters and not spreading everything out thinly across the country because it would then be less of a burden to one canton. Spreading out means more traffic, more security, more logistics etc. in total.

St Moritz/Pontresina have excellent alpine structures too, no need to go to Wengen. If you want to do jumping in Engelberg, you need to do all nordic sports there and possibly biathlon as well. Just when Lenzerheide has a new nordic/biathlon centre (not sure about the jumps). The (preliminary) ice hockey matches can be a bit spread, though Zürich and Bern are the logical indoor choices indeed.
 

[FYI]

2 hours ago, StefanMUC said:

Uhm no. There need to be a few clusters and not spreading everything out thinly across the country because it would then be less of a burden to one canton. Spreading out means more traffic, more security, more logistics etc. in total.

I think many fail to realize that by spreading out too much, you create other hurdles with all the points you just mentioned. You can't spread out for the sake of spreading out just because one thinks that would make things more cost-effective somehow. You have to take into equation all of the other things you would need by doing that. I would also add that additional villages would be needed by spreading everything all over there place. And then when you add all that up, that is precisely when a too spread-out Games can get "scary" to even consider.

[Booville]

16 hours ago, FYI said:

I think many fail to realize that by spreading out too much, you create other hurdles with all the points you just mentioned. You can't spread out for the sake of spreading out just because one thinks that would make things more cost-effective somehow. You have to take into equation all of the other things you would need by doing that. I would also add that additional villages would be needed by spreading everything all over there place. And then when you add all that up, that is precisely when a too spread-out Games can get "scary" to even consider.

I think if you look at Milano-Cortina here we already have 4 clusters - this will likely be the way to go rather than building new facilities and a fifth if the sliding track becomes non-Italian. 

[FYI]

We should be looking at this as a case-by-case basis, rather than trying to determine a template as a likely path forward. For 2026, the two final options were both spread-out plans, so obviously one of them had to be picked. And who says about building new facilities? SLC 2034 has everything it already needs in a very *compact* plan, for example.

As far as track goes, thus far, plan A is still in effect for building the track in Cortina. As even the Milan 2026 CEO said "financially, having events abroad would be expensive for the organizing committee" - underlined as another reason to continue with the construction of the (Italian) track.

[iceman530]

I am curious to see how a country-wide bid shapes the paradigm and swiss voter reaction.  I have a strange feeling that could play as an advantage to the Swiss bid in a sense that everybody is both feeling a part of it and "sharing the load" all at the same time.  Its a reasonably smart play because isolated cantons clearly are not the way to go.

[stryker]

On 2/27/2024 at 2:03 AM, iceman530 said:

I am curious to see how a country-wide bid shapes the paradigm and swiss voter reaction.  I have a strange feeling that could play as an advantage to the Swiss bid in a sense that everybody is both feeling a part of it and "sharing the load" all at the same time.  Its a reasonably smart play because isolated cantons clearly are not the way to go.

It still doesn't solve the political conundrum. You are almost certain to get individual cantons holding referendums. If Zurich which is suddenly hosting ice hockey or figure skating says no, then the bid is scrambling. All it takes is for a couple of cantons to say no and the bid is dead and I imagine this is something that was going through the IOC when contemplating the most recent bid.

 

[venuedesignlover]

Here's the IOC feasibility assessment for Switzerland 203x including venue plans!!!

https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/3155065/ioc-feasibility-assessment-olympic-winter-games-switzerland-international-olympic-committee

[Bear]

Sports Parliament / Swiss Olympic gives official green light to pursue 2038: https://www.swissolympic.ch/news/news-details-sow?pageId=d60b0cb8-e9bf-44fe-9d6e-e423ddfced54&entryId=S198415

A total of CHF 6.9M will be contributed to the effort, with 6.7M coming from Swiss Olympic. The project has until December 2027 to develop its candidacy.

[StefanMUC]

First, Switzerland has to shuffle together quite a few Fränkli to host next year’s Eurovision 

https://eurovoix.com/2024/05/31/eurovision-2025-details-about-bidding-process-revealed/

Full bidding process, this will get some excited in these dire times for Olympics bids!

[Sigh]

Came across a mention in Swiss media that the Swiss government will meet in mid-September to take an "in principle" position on the 2038 games.

[sebastien1214]

The Swiss Federal Council (their government, basically) has just declared itself in favour of preparing their "bid" for 2038 and has just set up a working group to prepare the "bid".

https://www.admin.ch/gov/fr/accueil/documentation/communiques.msg-id-102622.html

(technically it is an "bid", but since they are in privileged dialogue with no competition, it is difficult to speak of an "bid" in this context... again the miracles of the New Norm...)

[stryker]

It will still have to survive a referendum first. I cannot see the IOC giving an Olympics to Switzerland only to see a referendum go against it 

[Sigh]

If you read the latest inteview with the latest head of the bid organisation it's not a question of surviving a referendum. If a referendum is held the time plan will be shot to pieces regardless of outcome.

Having said that, it appears that Swiss Olympic has not used their time very well.

On the other hand I find it unlikely that IOC will not try to smooth the road. Possibly even accepting something very close to the original Swiss olympic bid. 

Prestige and uncertainty about any possible bidders for 2038 leads me to believe this.

Elsewhere there has been som talk about the weak pro-games marketing and the anti-establishment factor. I find it compelling that in almost all reports I've seen about both the Swiss Olympic bid and the SOK one the representatives for the respective bids talk a lot about relations with businessmen and politicians and never about promoting the idea of olympic games among the population, i.e. very establishment focused thinking.

[cfm Jeremie]

Here is the link to Switzerland 2038 website. Not much yet to see but I don't think it was posted here yet.

[Sigh]

I have been following what is written about the 2038 on Swiss media available on the net.

There are some points that have struck me.

 

·       * How little is written about it.

·      *  That Swiss Olympic still features the old feasibility study prominently. The IOC basically trashed it (too many sites, no Olympic villages, no guarantees …)

·       * In the few interviews the bid leadership (whoever is there at the moment) talks about relations with business and politicians and never about creating interest in the general public.

·       * When talking about politicians it’s to grumble about the slowness of them. Politicians quite unreasonably want a firm plan with venues and predicted costs before moving ahead.

·       * Swiss Olympic is supposed to present such a plan later this year, some two years after the “special offer” from IOC and their trashing of the original plan. Last Fall it was supposed to be presented in late Spring this year.

·       * The present issue is that the government and Swiss Olympic have very different opinions about the time plan for the bid and more specifically federal approval of guarantees.

·      *  I’m not a Swiss constitutional specialist but it appears it’s not automatic that there will an opening for a federal referendum. The bid leadership has stated that the time plan will be impossible with a referendum.

 

Having said that I’m still convinced that the 2038 games will be held in Switzerland. Anything else would be too problematic for the IOC so a way will be found regardless of stumbling blocks.

[stryker]

On 9/26/2025 at 4:44 AM, Sigh said:

I have been following what is written about the 2038 on Swiss media available on the net.

 

There are some points that have struck me.

 

 

 

·       * How little is written about it.

 

·      *  That Swiss Olympic still features the old feasibility study prominently. The IOC basically trashed it (too many sites, no Olympic villages, no guarantees …)

 

·       * In the few interviews the bid leadership (whoever is there at the moment) talks about relations with business and politicians and never about creating interest in the general public.

 

·       * When talking about politicians it’s to grumble about the slowness of them. Politicians quite unreasonably want a firm plan with venues and predicted costs before moving ahead.

 

·       * Swiss Olympic is supposed to present such a plan later this year, some two years after the “special offer” from IOC and their trashing of the original plan. Last Fall it was supposed to be presented in late Spring this year.

 

·       * The present issue is that the government and Swiss Olympic have very different opinions about the time plan for the bid and more specifically federal approval of guarantees.

 

·      *  I’m not a Swiss constitutional specialist but it appears it’s not automatic that there will an opening for a federal referendum. The bid leadership has stated that the time plan will be impossible with a referendum.

 

 

 

Having said that I’m still convinced that the 2038 games will be held in Switzerland. Anything else would be too problematic for the IOC so a way will be found regardless of stumbling blocks.

 

In terms of the timeline, this the IOC we are talking about, they can bend it if need be. We've seen them be flexible on timelines before such as the French Alps bid in 2030 and financial guarantees. I cannot see, given the recent less than stellar public support for a series of failed bids, that Swiss politicians would try to sneak a bid past the public without a referendum only then to have public opinion swell against a potential Swiss game. It would be political suicide. The IOC also does not want to award an Olympics to Switzerland only for a public referendum to say no to hosting. It would be a PR nightmare. And there's nothing to stop individual cantons from conducting their own referendums. The fact that most of the PR is as you pointed focused on the business and political sectors, and nothing with the general public (I'd add along with the anti-establishment fever sweeping across Europe) does not shape up well for the public being on board with an Olympics.

All that said, if the Swiss bid does fall apart, there's still enough time prior to 2038 to secure another host.

[iceman530]

If Switzerland doesn't go the way we hope, is Sapporo/Hokkaido the obvious backup plan to try and persuade to get in?  Cant say that I see Stockholm/Sweden making another go after recent engagements.  

[yoshi]

I think Pyeongchang would be the more likely & obvious backup, unless the IOC can get Japan back on board. Have we had any progress from Switzerland yet, I know there's obviously no hurry but since they'll have a referendum to prepare for, they'll need some kind of concrete plan. 

(Although if Kirsty really wants to make a break with the past, then chasing Sweden as the backup would be a very symbolic way to do it. Norway too)

[Sir Rols]

Well, according to global warming predictions, Sapporo’s the only previous winter host that is forecast to still have the conditions to host by the latter part of the century.

[iceman530]

Yup.......aware of that too.  a few cycles ago, I labelled SLC as the emergency parachute.  Even in hindsight, we are very lucky things with Italy and France shook out the way they did to deploy the parachute at the last possible moment (arguably right on schedule).  Given the climate change situation, Sapporo/Hokkaido might be the new emergency parachute insurance policy