On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is set to release its Evalution Report that will analyze three cities vying to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The anticipated document will be released from the IOC Website at 11:00am CET (5:00am ET) and will provide an important insight on how the IOC Evalution Commission, chaired by Sir Craig Reedie, perceives the technical aspects of the bids.
Although detailed, the lengthy document attempts to summarize data gleaned from bid books submitted by the cities in January, as well as four-day site visits conducted throughout this past March. The report will be delivered to IOC members who will gather in Luasanne next week for a special session that will include 40-minute bid city presentations plus question-and-answer periods.
If the IOC follows tradition, the highly technical report will not include any scores or rankings, but might contain hints as to which city the Commission feels will be the best host. But that opinion will be almost irrelevant as it will be up to the 100-or-so members to use the data as they see fit, and then cast their ballots accordingly at their next session in Buenos Aires on September 7.
In the past, the quality of a city’s evaluation has seldom lined up with the final voting result, especially when the winning bid was driven by a compelling mantra or theme. For recent Summer Games, both Beijing and Rio de Janeiro weren’t considered technically superior but won on the argument that they would enable new vast markets for the Olympic movement.
Though the report is published Tuesday, all data was captured as of the completion of each bid city visit. That means any subsequent events and data are not factored including the recent presentations made in St. Petersburg and Lausanne as well as the national demostrations that erupted across Istanbul and Turkey this past month.
The 14-member evaluation team travelled to Tokyo from March 4 to 7; Madrid from March 18 to 21 and then Istanbul from March 24 to 27.
Watch GamesBids.com for details of the report and bid city reactions (Twitter: @gamesbids and Facebook: Facebook.com/gamesbids).
