IOC Announces Next Host Cities

Ahead of the lighting of the torch which signals the official opening of the Olympic Games in Paris for 2024 the IOC had their general assembly and a few things are discussed, among them, of course, what cities will be hosting the next Olympic Games. Here’s where we’re currently at, after Paris:

• 2026 – Milano/Cortina – Winter Games
• 2028 – Los Angeles – Summer Games
• 2030 – French Alps – Winter Games
• 2032 – Brisbane – Summer Games
• 2034 – Salt Lake City – Winter Games

A few years ago there the IOC really struggled with finding host cities and needed to make some serious adjustments in expectations around environmental stewardship amidst ballooning costs and other factors. Especially for the winter games this has become a serious concern as few locations are still suitable to even host the games and provide reliable snow cover. But while many of these concerns don’t go away, the net positive in global goodwill by fostering a peaceful gathering of the human community on this planet still outweighs, but doesn’t wipe out, the other issues. The point I am trying to make here though when looking at the selection of upcoming host cities is that it seems to me that the IOC has resorted to picking “save” locations. Countries and cities it can trust to deliver. Those that can clearly afford it, have proven track record and of sable governments (or so one hopes) to deliver a reasonable comfortable experience for all participants. There was a time when the IOC seemed to either choose to try to engage in politics making or there was too much dark money flowing that some of the host cities just felt straight up wrong. Especially Sochi and Beijing for the winter games come to mind.

But there was another announcement, and maybe that one is meant to appease the countries with questionable governments but plenty of cash:

IOC announces Olympic Esports Games to be hosted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

I had mentioned this Esport thing with the ICO before, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. My best take is that the IOC is really trying to be ahead of the trend here and sees the potential, not necessarily of athletic excellence, but for them to milk a cash cow. Esports are huge business, and clearly the IOC wants a piece of that action. If they can build an event around it and therefore own the “olympics of …” for this market segment then it’s a big win for them. But beyond engaging marketers and players/athletes and spectators they can engage with a new series of host cities/countries interested in hosting an Olympic event but one that doesn’t quite require the complexities and scale of a full blown “real world” Olympic Games. I used a lot of air quotes and insinuations in this paragraph and I don’t mean to diss anyone one playing, or any city interested in hosting these events, I am merely trying to look at it from a strategic point of view of how the IOC might view these events:

At the same time, the IOC will have to create a new dedicated structure within its organisation, clearly separated from the organisational and financial model for the Olympic Games. In order to address the specific nature of the Olympic Esports Games, the IOC will also have to take a different approach with regard to the financing and organisation of these Games.

Just take a look at the Wikipedia article of the Olympic Esport Games and you can see how this all will play out. Fascinating.

As a personal aside: I have been endlessly fascinated with this host city selection process since I was younger. One of my big dreams has been to work for a city on their “bid book” in securing the nod to host the events in their town. I would be such a crazy, and dreamy project. I digress…