The 2014 Commonwealth Games were predicted to cost £472m to host, but the organising committee has announced that around £25m of previously committed public funds have not been required.

While the final budget will not be confirmed until the organising committee’s closing accounts are completed early in 2015, its chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin said that Glasgow 2014 was set to conclude its operations significantly within budget.

“It gives me considerable pride to now be able to say that Glasgow and Scotland have made Games history…. and have done so well within budget,” he said. 

The surplus will be invested into physical, economic and social regeneration, said Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond. “We have already announced that £6 million will go into Scotland’s first ever para-sports centre and £2 million will support our successful Legacy programme. 

“The remaining funds will be invested back into Scotland’s health service. It is clear that the benefit of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will be felt in Scotland for generations to come.” 

1.3 million tickets were sold for Glasgow 2014, with an attendance record of 171,000 reached for Rugby Sevens. 

Around £400m of Games contracts were awarded during the delivery of the Games, with more than two thirds of these contracts going to Scottish companies. More than £1 million of contracts were awarded to social businesses. 

“Glasgow 2014 and Games Partners are to be warmly congratulated on their prudent and responsible approach to the delivery of what was an outstanding and joyful Commonwealth Games,” said HRH Prince Imran, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation.

“Glasgow and Scotland’s Games has set bold new benchmarks, energised and inspired the Commonwealth sports movement and invested in developing a long-term legacy which will benefit a wide range of people and communities for many years to come.”

The event set new standards in sustainability management, being the first Scottish event or Commonwealth Games to be awarded the ISO 20121 – the gold international standard in sustainable event management.

“The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games raised the bar in so many ways, from preparing the venues, hosting the competitions, ceremonies and cultural programme and on to the legacy that we are currently enjoying,” said Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader, Glasgow City Council.

“So it’s no surprise to find that all the previously-committed public funds were not required. Once again we have been shown to be a world-class city capable of organising events in the best possible fashion.”

HOST CITY: Having hosted the biggest and best event in the world in 2012, what type and scale of events is London aiming to host over the next 10 years? 

Iain Edmondson: We have secured a calendar of championships for Olympic sports, such as European Hockey 2015, World Track Cycling 2016 and the World Athletics 2017 in the permanent Olympic venues. 

And there’s the Rugby World Cup next year, which takes place in existing venues and the new assets we have, including the Olympic stadium. Complementing that are events where London provides the opportunity to globalise, like the NFL. 

What was once termed a decade of sport has now been rounded off with the announcement that the 2020 European football championships will be finishing here, with the semi-finals and finals. 

What we are doing now is to see how we can bring our reputation from sport and major events into the cultural content that we have. People visit London largely because it is a diverse city with great attractions in a number of different ways – not just museums and galleries but the performing arts that appeal to people throughout the year.

You see some great examples of light festivals in cities around the world in the winter. The idea of a London Light Festival is something that we are looking at seriously.

HOST CITY: How seriously are you considering a bid for the 2025 World Expo?

Iain Edmondson: Very seriously. Our experience of delivering major international events over the past decade means we now have the capability to evaluate the practicalities as well as potential benefits of hosting the biggest and the best, like a World Expo. 

Ten years or so ago we wouldn’t have had the same degree of understanding and intelligence to look at its potential to deliver our strategy and aims for London. We are better placed to consider whether or not the World Expo is right for the city and whether we want to enter the race. 

If you are going to host something of that scale you need certain infrastructure, so we have looked into that as well. We are looking at the assets in the city that we have now, like Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, what the situation might be for London in ten years’ time and how this might align with an Expo. 

The good thing is that the Mayor understands the power of major events and wants to hear recommendations as to whether we should bid or not.

HOST CITY: What do you think the owners of major events are most looking for in a host city?

Iain Edmondson: There are basic factors that you’ve got to be able to demonstrate, such as transport and security, but one the biggest is the ability to reach an audience. Rights holders are interested in the markets where the events are hosted. If you’ve got partners that are proactively investing in engaging with and marketing events, then that is appealing to rights owners.

HOST CITY: How can London compete with emerging markets in this space?

Iain Edmondson: We are one of the best in the world in terms of an event-going public, so there is an appetite to attend and physically spectate. We are also one of the best from a media perspective, to be able reach people who aren’t seeing an event in person, but through media channels and the press. 

Our challenge compared to some competitors is the ability to justify large sums of investment up front from public funds, because the business case for investing multi-millions in destination marketing for a city that is already established is different to a new city that needs to make a mark. 

But we are working with the Mayor and all the difference agencies in the city to demonstrate that you don’t necessarily need that. We can still work to provide a commercially successful event, without having a large cash downpayment where there isn’t necessarily an audience behind it. However, there are often other grounds for justifying public investment, such as the long term business benefits where London has proven to have invested wisely over the past decade.

HOST CITY: What do rights holders need to do make bidding more attractive to cities?

Iain Edmondson: Transparency is a must-have for public democratic processes where big money is open to scrutiny. We work in an environment where we expect to be asked awkward questions and justify the answers. 

If a bid process is open and transparent, you can choose to engage or not. It’s just a minimum requirement that everyone can see up front the basis on which they are making decisions. 

Another thing that is important is recognising the ability for rights holders to work in partnership with hosts. The city staffs the event and puts together commercial deals – they often become the people with the most invested in the success of it, so if the rights owner can work closely with the city and understand its aspirations for hosting it, it’s more often going to be a win-win on both sides. 

For example, the ASO are very well resourced; they have looked after the Tour de France for a hundred years. We’ve had some good experience of working with them in 2007 and 2014 and they understand what the host brings.

But some smaller federations often don’t have the capacity to do a lot of detailed planning. The more they can work together and align the events with the expectations of host cities, the better.

For more information about London’s event plans visit www.londonandpartners.com/events

Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe rounded up his visit to London with an audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where he stated his ambition for Tokyo to use its own Olympic legacy to overtake London. He led a delegation that last week took in a tour of the Olympic Park and a reception at Host City Bid to Win conference.

On arriving in London on the evening of 27th October, Masuzoe met with Sir Craig Reedie – keynote speaker at Host City Bid to Win – and sent a senior representative to a Host City reception. All members of the Tokyo delegation received a copy of Host City’s first Japanese edition, which includes an interview with the President Mori of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic Games.

The following day the Tokyo delegation visited the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where Masuzoe met with his London counterpart, Boris Johnson. 

“This was the first time for us to meet, and we got along very well. Maybe we have a lot in common, except in our hairstyles,” Masuzoe told the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 

Masuzoe said that he wants the 2020 Games to be not only the best ever: he wants the Olympic effect to transform Tokyo into a more competitive city than London.

He cited a Japanese think tank, Mori Memorial Foundation, whose Global Power City Index has ranked London top and Tokyo fourth.

He said a major priority is to use the Games to revive the economy, drawing in people, money, and information from around the world and making the Japanese capital “the number-one city in the world” within six years. 

The aim is to make Tokyo a global financial centre to rival the City of London and New York’s Wall Street. “I said to Boris, I will be at London. Sorry about that. That’s the reason for my visit.”

He said he and Boris Johnson had agreed to further strengthen the partnership between London and Tokyo cemented by a possible visit by Boris to Tokyo next year. 

He said Tokyo wanted to find out how London managed to sustain its economic development in the aftermath of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Masuzoe said he was impressed to see such a packed programme of events in facilities built for the highly successful Games in 2012. He said it was important for the Tokyo Games to leave an equally palpable legacy.

He said the 2012 Games had changed London significantly and Tokyo would also change after 2020. Abenomics started the process of Japan’s economic recovery, said Masuzoe, a positive shift that quickened further after winning the bid to host the 2020 Games.

However, the language barrier has hampered Tokyo’s growth, with a perception that a small number of foreign nationals live in Japan, he said. This would be rectified by increasing the number of multi-lingual signs and improving accommodation and services for the international community. These shortcomings would be addressed, he said, with the aim of making Tokyo a “people-friendly city”.

The Governor also said Tokyo would follow London’s example in creating a festival of culture as well as sport in 2020. 

Emissions would also be reduced, he said. “At the 2020 Games we hope to attract attention to the advent of a hydrogen society by providing visitors with a fleet of vehicles running on hydrogen.

“I understand that here the use of bikes increased after the 2012 Games, the so-called Boris bikes. Tokyo would also create a better environment for bicycle use and promote bicycle sharing.”

Reaching out to world cities

Tokyo has also established partnerships with other world cities including Beijing, Berlin, Moscow, New York, Paris and Seoul. 

“I plan to build a win-win relationship with cities around the world and thereby strengthen Tokyo’s appeal,” Masuzoe said.

If relations between China and Japan have historically been tense, visitors from Beijing to Tokyo are most welcome in the modern age. 

“It is one of the good achievements of my visit to Beijing,” he said. “They buy many things in Ginza department houses and big shops, and they pay much money, and these shops pay much tax to me, and I can use this money to make our Games successful, right?”

This report includes information from Global Travel Industry News

Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) Television has secured exclusive rights to broadcasting the Baku 2015 European Games in Japan. 

The 17-day coverage will include the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as highlights packages across all of their domestic platforms.

“This is the first deal we have announced with an Asian broadcaster and represents a significant step in achieving our aim of ensuring the inaugural European Games is broadcast in all five continents around the world,” said Charlie Wijeratna, Commercial Director of Baku 2015.

The agreement follows on from recently announced deals with the Arab States Broadcasting Union, which will see the European Games broadcast in 20 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, and L’Equipe 21 which will show the event throughout France.

“The Baku 2015 European Games will be an historic event and we are proud to begin what we are sure will develop into a long and fruitful partnership,” said Masamichi Amano, Executive Vice President of TBS Sports. 

“We look forward to presenting the inaugural European Games to our viewers across Japan and also introducing all that Baku has to offer the world.”

TBS, a free-to-air commercial broadcaster, has exclusive rights to the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Japan and is part of a consortium of Japanese broadcasters that covers the Olympic and Olympic Winter Games, the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games. 

The broadcaster also has rights to The Masters, The PGA Championship, Major League Baseball and the FIVB World Volleyball Championships in Japan.

Simon Clegg, Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015, said: “We are delighted to have confirmed this deal with TBS Television to ensure the European Games will receive exposure in the Japanese market.

“As a keen sporting nation, we are sure there will be significant interest in Baku 2015 so it is extremely pleasing to know fans will be able to tune in to the best of all the action.”

Just as a FIFA taskforce met in Zurich on Monday to review options for the timings of the 2022 World Cup, it emerged that Emirates airline would not be renewing its sponsorship contract with football’s international governing body. 

“This decision was made following an evaluation of FIFA’s contract proposal which did not meet Emirates’ expectations,” Emirates said in a statement on Monday.

A FIFA spokesperson said Emirates had informed them two years ago that Brazil 2014 would be the last World Cup it would sponsor, as the airline was changing its strategy to focus on more frequent smaller events around the world instead of a mega-event every four years. 

Qatar Airlines is said to be waiting in the wings to take over the role of official carrier for FIFA. Sony are also reported to be putting an end to their sponsorship, with Olympic TOP sponsors Samsung being mentioned as likely contenders to occupy this space.

Emirates chose to make the news public at a time when FIFA is tackling the tricky issue of how to host the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 without risking the health of players and fans, while also minimising disruption to national league fixtures. 

“We are getting closer to narrowing the dates for the FIFA World Cup to two options – January/February 2022 or November/December 2022 – but FIFA has also been asked to consider May 2022,” said FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke. 

Hosting the World Cup in January/February would almost certainly result in the event clashing with the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, for which Almaty and Beijing are currently candidate cities. 

The May option was put forward by the European Club Association, who have proposed that the tournament could take place from April 28 to May 29 without disrupting domestic fixtures.

However, FIFA’s chief medical officer Professor Jiří Dvořák highlighted medical concerns relating to player safety and fan safety if the FIFA World Cup were to be held between May and September. Valcke also pointed out that the month-long period of Ramadan would begin on 2 April in 2022, which would impact on preparations for the tournament.

Hassan Al Thawadi, CEO of the local organising committee said the preferred scenario was for the World Cup to be held in the winter, while affirming that it remained fully committed to delivering what was promised in its bid and organising the best possible event whatever is decided.

The taskforce is due to hold its next meeting in early 2015 after further consultation. 

“The objective of today’s meeting was to receive feedback from all parties and to work on narrowing the options,” said Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

HOST CITY is following on from the success of its inaugural Bid to Win conference by supporting the Host Cities And Sports Events conference, which takes place in Geneva within the International Sports Convention (ISC) on 10th-11th December.

A number of speakers who featured in HOST CITY Bid to Win will be making an appearance at Host Cities and Sports Events, including David Grevemberg, CEO, Commonwealth Games Federation; Ric Birch, Managing Director, Filmmaster Special Events; and Nick Varley, Founding Partner and CEO, Seven46.

HOST CITY shares sponsorship of the conference with sports PR firm Calacus, insurer AON and TV production company Actua. 

The ISC features 18 conferences with a total of 150 speakers, including FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne and former Manchester United FC Manager David Moyes.

The four Event Partners for ISC are UNICEF, ASPIRE, MAPEI and the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFC). 

“We are very proud to work with UNICEF in assisting them to achieve their goals,” said Nigel Fletcher, Chief Executive of the International Sports Convention.

“The ISC focusses on the business of sport, and many are there to grow their businesses, which is what we set out to facilitate but we as organisers wanted to have a balance and re-emphasize the power of sport in today’s world.”

MAPEI supplies adhesives and chemical products for building sport facilities, such as the installations of swimming pools and running tracks, for Olympic Games and numerous international sports events. 

The host of the 2006 Asian Games, Qatar’s ASPIRE Zone offers a unique sports medicine, research and education destination for the international sports industry among some of the world’s finest sport venues.

The QFC Authority is the commercial and strategic arm of the Qatar Financial Centre, a thriving jurisdiction for global and regional financial services firms looking to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the region.

“It is an exciting time for Qatar, now and especially the road to 2022 and we look forward to working with Qatar Financial Centre,” said Fletcher.

For information about the ISC please visit www.geneva2014.com

The IAAF evaluation commission left Doha on Friday, having completed their inspections of all three cities bidding to host the 2019 World Athletics Championships, having visited competitors Barcelona and Eugene earlier in October.

The IAAF’s group of experts is producing reports evaluating the bids to host the 2019 IAAF World Championships. The host city of the flagship biennial athletics event will be elected at the IAAF council meeting in Monaco on 18 November.

Qatar's biggest city officially submitted its candidature file to host the Championships on September 25 and is competing against bids from Barcelona and Eugene in the US state of Oregon. 

Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee and Dahlan Hamad, the president of the Qatar Athletics Federation, welcomed the evaluation commission, chaired by IAAF Vice-President Sebastian Coe, on Thursday. 

The Doha 2019 Bid Committee and its partner, the Aspire Zone presented to the IAAF at Khalifa International Stadium. 

“It is an honour to welcome the IAAF Evaluation Commission on their inspection tour of Doha and we hope to demonstrate Doha’s true character as a sporting hub for the region and the world,” said Hamad. “We are committed to continuing our work with the IAAF to develop athletics and ensure a lasting legacy from the World Championships for generations to come.”

Ali Saeid Al Fhaida, acting director of Aspire Logistics, took the Evaluation Commission on a tour of the Aspire Zone’s facilities, which have played host to several international sporting events including the 2006 Asian Games, the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2011 Arab Games.

Doha is also hosting the 2015 Asian Youth Athletics Championships.

The commission also saw the ongoing renovation of the Khalifa International Stadium, where they were greeted by members of the Qatar National Athletics team as well as Russian hurdler and Doha 2019 Ambassador Sergey Shubenkov. 

“I am supporting Doha 2019 because I believe that it would inspire a whole new region to participate in athletics,” Shubenkov said.

“The Middle East has never hosted the World Championships before and 60 per cent of this region’s population is under the age of 30. This brings an unrivalled opportunity to showcase athletics and introduce a new generation to track and field.” 

Another bid partner, Msheireb Properties, gave a presentation to the commission at its Enrichment Center on Doha’s Corniche waterfront, giving more information about its ambitious plans for an “Athletics City” that would replace the traditional Athletes’ Village concept.

A single, brand-new 35 hectare mixed-use development called Msheireb Downtown Doha, in the heart of the city, will be handed over in its entirety for the dedicated use of the 2019 Championships.

The commission also visited the Qatar National Convention Centre, which would host the IAAF’s Congress in 2019 in the event of Doha overcoming Barcelona and Eugene in its bid to host the World Athletics Championships.

After the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, the IAAF World Championships is the third largest sporting event in the world, with more than 200 participating nations, more than 2,000 athletes and an estimated global TV audience of 6 billion over 200 territories and 9 days of competition.

The next IAAF World Championships will take place in Beijing in 2015 followed by London 2017.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has officially thrown its hat into the ring for the 2024 summer Olympic Games by confirming that either Berlin or Hamburg will bid for the event.

The DOSB had been expected to make a solid decision on its Olympic bid strategy at a meeting on December 6.

However, president Alfons Hörmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper earlier this month that the organisation had wanted to determine the results of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ‘Agenda 2020’ initiative as well as gain a stronger insight into the strength of local support in the two cities, before proceeding.

This was expected to delay any formal announcement on a German bid for the 2024 Games until next year, but the DOSB has now committed to pursuing the Games with a final decision over its candidate city due on March 21.

The DOSB has added that it is likely to re-enter the bidding for the 2028 Olympics should its attempt at 2024 fail in what is expected to be a strong field.

“Olympic and Paralympic Games are the most important events for German sports,” Hoermann said.

“Sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games are a chance for the entire country and especially for the city hosting the Games and its region. From Munich 1972 to London 2012 it becomes clear what they can trigger in the economy and society if well conceived and executed.

“We are confident that it will be a big opportunity for one of the cities and a big opportunity for the entire sport. We are also confident that an Olympic project can be – and will be – good for our country. We have two excellent candidates in Berlin and Hamburg.”

Germany last hosted the summer Olympics when Munich staged the 1972 Games, while Berlin was the setting for the 1936 Games. Berlin failed to land the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney and Leipzig was defeated in the race for the 2012 Games in London.

The latest bid process comes with Munich’s failed effort to land the 2018 winter Olympics still fresh in the memory. The bid was rejected in a local referendum and the DOSB insists it has learned lessons from this experience.

Both Berlin and Hamburg plan referendums once it is known which of the two will be the candidate for the 2024 Games. The DOSB said that its latest polls indicate a narrow majority is against the Games in Berlin, while the project has the support of 53 per cent of the Hamburg population. 

“We have to promote the product and convince the citizens,” Hoermann added.

The inaugural Host City: Bid to Win conference has provided a thought-provoking and timely debate on bidding procedures for major events.

The conference examined engaging themes central to the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events.  

Speaking at the one-day conference at the St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel in London, IOC Vice-President, Sir Craig Reedie, said the IOC is determined to change its approach in response to the current bidding climate around major events.

“The evidence of the 2022 winter bids shows us that this is necessary. The IOC is right to look at its processes and try and correct the current situation. It wants to adopt a partnership approach and start a dialogue with bid cities.

Reedie also called for the communications gap to be plugged between the IOC and Host Cities.

“The IOC faces a communications gap. There has been a failure to get Host Cities and members of the public to understand that there are two budgets, an organising committee budget for staging the games, and a non-organising committee budget which looks at infrastructure and legacy for the host city.”

“Sochi was certainly not encouraged by the IOC to make the scale of investment that they did. It was for the future of the city not the two weeks the games were hosted.”

Stefan Lindeberg, President, Swedish Olympic Committee, agreed a breakdown in communication had occurred during Sweden’s recent attempts at bidding for the Winter Olympic Games.

Lindeberg, said: “The public has to understand the costs and the risks. The process needs to be transparent and this needs to be communicated much earlier in the bidding process.

“We want much more cooperation from the IOC. We want a situation where we start with a discussion about our city, our legacy, what we want from the Games then work with the IOC to create a host city contract that we understand not something that is imposed on us.”

On declining to bid for 2022 Winter Games, Lindeberg said: “If we could do it again our answer would be yes. At the time we needed a much clearer statement from the IOC about exactly what it means to bid. If we had had the discussion we are having now in January, our answer would have been yes.”

Speaking on the same panel, Alexander Koch, FIFA Corporate Communications Manager, discussed how rights holders choose host cities:

“We need to be asking the countries why they are bidding. In the media it is quite often reduced to the economic value but if you ask this question to each country you will get vastly different answers. If we take Germany, for example, they had a very clear vision for why they wanted to host the 2006 World Cup – to present a unified Germany to the world. The decision to host has to make sense for that country. That is why 2018 went to Russia and 2022 went to Qatar because their bids made the most sense for their countries.”

In a later panel which looked at evaluating bidding and hosting around the world Mario Andrada, Executive Director of Communications for Rio 2016, said:

“The venues will be ready on time; we are 100% confident of that. Our focus will be on transport, accommodation and getting the people ready so they have confidence in the legacy for Rio.

“We will, of course, learn lessons from London 2012 but Rio 2016 will be a different Games, it will have a Brazilian soul. We have to show it is good for the city, good for the country and good for the population. We want to focus on the self-esteem of our people and to deliver an intelligent and efficient Games with a clear and tangible legacy.”

WPP Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell, on the issue of the cost of hosting major events, said:

“The argument has not been as made cogently as it could be, bidding just accelerates the investment which is necessary anyway, be it airports, rapid transport or other city infrastructure.  The benefit of the legacy is not being articulated as strongly as it could be by cities.

“Communicating the legacy of hosting these events, the intangible side of it, is critical to engaging the public. In order to achieve success you have to articulate clearly the benefits of staging an Olympics, a World Cup or a Grand Prix.”

Host City: Bid to Win brought together experts and decision makers to explore the challenges and benefits of bidding for major global events. At a time when the bidding process for events is under the spotlight Host City: Bid to Win has engaged expert insight into the heart of the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events. 

For further information on Host City: Bid to Win please visit: http://www.bidtowin-hostcity.net

Members of the panel “Bidding Processes Under Review” at Host City: Bid to Win in London on Tuesday highlighted the first stage of the bidding process for the Olympic Games as being too long and raising expectations and costs at too early a stage.

“It is the first process that needs to be reduced and then six months before the decision the bid should be formally placed,” said Stefan Lindeberg, president of the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Stockholm dropped its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic in January 2014 when senior politicians and city officials baulked at the rising estimated cost of hosting the games.

“The bid process has become an expensive competition and not because of the IOC requirements but because the bidding process is too long,” said Antonio Fernandez Arimany, director general, International Triathlon Union and former bid leader of Madrid 2016. 

“The bidding process is too long and you spend the maximum resources on that bid – this could be reviewed,” he said.

The panel included Sir Craig Reedie, vice president of the International Olympic Committee. “It is possible to revise the bidding process, but is difficult to tell cities what they may and may not do and then enforce this, because if the city is determined to win a prize they will go beyond what the IOC requires,” he said.

“The value of the prize is so enormous.”

Members of the panel identified non-organising committee costs, such as civic infrastructure projects that are often associated with a Games bid, as a source of unwelcome spikes in expenses. These infrastructure projects often bring benefits beyond the Games.

 “It seems to me the IOC faces a communication gap,” said Reedie.

“We seem to find it impossible to get anyone to understand that there are two separate budgets; one for the organising committee and one for the non-organising committee.

“The organising committee [of London 2012] made a modest surplus but the non-organising committee cost is the result of the Games being used as a catalyst to develop the host city.”

The cost of hosting the Games has come under unprecedented scrutiny since revelations about Sochi’s expenditure on infrastructure projects associated with hosting the Games. 

“At no time did we invite Sochi in Russia to make a USD 51bn contribution,” said Reedie.

The bidding procedure for the Olympic Games is currently under review, through the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative. 40 recommendation have been made to the IOC Executive Board. The recommendations will be presented, discussed and voted upon by IOC members at the 127th IOC session in Monaco on 8 and 9 December.

Host City: Bid to Win was held in London on 28 October 2014 and acted as a unique dialogue platform between cities and rights holders.