Now that the Paris Olympics are over, let’s think a little about the future of the Olympic movement.
What if, to reduce costs for hosts, the world’s biggest sporting event were held not in one city, but in an entire country?
I am not talking about holding some events outside a host city, as has been done for decades, but about distributing the competitions among the main cities of a country. Like at the soccer World Cup.
Canada would thus be well positioned to host the Games, in the summer but especially in the winter. For example, for a Winter Games, alpine skiing could take place in Lake Louise, curling in Western Canada, long track speed skating in Quebec City, and the other sports in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. Since there would be no need for new sports infrastructure, Canadian taxpayers would only have to pay for security. It would still be a multi-billion dollar bill, so think about it…
For the Olympic movement, there would be three advantages to presenting the Games in a country rather than a city.
First, it would reduce costs for host countries, which is in line with the philosophy advocated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with its Agenda 2020. The IOC wants cities to use existing sports infrastructure, instead of building new ones at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. In Paris, only two permanent venues have been built, at a total cost of 300 million euros. For 2028, Los Angeles will not build any new sports infrastructure.
What is costly for taxpayers is not the organisation of the Games as such. The revenues generated by the Games (TV rights, sponsorships, tickets, etc.) cover the organisational expenses.
Rather, it is the construction and renovation of sports infrastructure and the Olympic village (net cost of 2.2 billion euros in Paris), as well as security (cost of 3 billion euros in Paris)1These expenses are borne by the governments of the host countries, mainly the central governments.
A city rarely has all the sports infrastructure to host the Games. A country does. No need to build new infrastructure and put taxpayers into debt.
In an ideal world, the IOC would also help, with the revenues from the Games, to cover some of the security costs of the host countries. Unfortunately, it has not reached that point.
Second, the host country concept would allow taxpayers across an entire country, the very people who foot the bulk of the Olympic bill, to benefit from the Games.
Third, small and medium-sized countries, such as Canada, would have a better chance of hosting the Games.
Do you think this idea of a host country is far-fetched? Don’t laugh too quickly. The day may not be far away when the IOC will award the Games to countries.
The next Winter Games, in 2026, will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, two Italian cities located 400 kilometers apart.
The 2030 Winter Games will be held in the French Alps. There will be four competition regions and five Olympic villages.
That’s not all.
The IOC is continuing a “privileged dialogue” with Switzerland for the organisation of the 2038 Winter Games.
If it works, it won’t be the Geneva, Lausanne or Zurich Games. Switzerland is proposing to hold the Games in… about fifteen cities. These would be the first Games to be held in a whole country.
“We want decentralized Games, using existing sports infrastructure. Most of our potential venues are hosting world championships or European championships,” Urs Lehmann, co-chair of the Switzerland 203X bid, tells me. The IOC and Switzerland have until 2027 to agree on the details. I am confident they will get there.
Today, the Games are made for television. For viewers, a host city or country makes no difference.
Montreal-Toronto bid on ice
For the Winter Games, few Nordic cities have all the sports infrastructure. Almost all Nordic countries would have them.
For the Summer Games, only a few metropolises (Paris, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Rio, Los Angeles) already have the infrastructure. Dozens of countries have them.
A concrete example? Alone, Montreal or Toronto cannot host the Summer Games without costly new infrastructure. Together, it is possible.
It is not for nothing that the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) studied, in early 2021, the possibility of a joint Montreal-Toronto bid for Summer Games in the 2030s, revealed at the time my colleagues Alexandre Pratt and Simon Drouin.2.
The file was however put on ice at the end of 2021 by the COC, which prioritized Vancouver for the 2030 Winter Games. While discussions were being held with the IOC, British Columbia said no in 2022. End of the project.
Since then, the COC has not reopened the Montreal-Toronto file. There have been no discussions with governments in years. “We are interested in bringing the Olympic Games back to Canada, but we want to take the time to think about a bid,” says Andrew Baker, the COC’s head of external relations.
First step in this reflection: do we want to host the Winter Games or the Summer Games, which are more difficult to obtain but more prestigious?
For the Summer Games, the earliest would be 2040, where London is the favourite. More realistically, we are talking about 2044 or 2048. For the Winter Games, the earliest would be 2042.
What if Canada proposed a Games across the country, like Switzerland? For now, that option is not in the COC’s plans. “It could be accepted by the IOC, but it’s not something we’ve looked at,” says Andrew Baker.
1. Read the column “The Paris Olympics, cheaper than a third link?”
2. Read “Olympic Games: Montreal and Toronto together in the adventure?”
What do you think? Join the dialogue