The first GamesBids.com BidIndex update since the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games reveals an increasing gap forming between the frontrunners and the other applicant bid cities. Vancouver Canada, Salzburg Austria and Berne Switzerland all posted strong gains while the others weakened.
Vancouver (BidIndex 58.13) boasts the largest gain largely due to their announcement of proposed improvements to the Sea-To-Sky Highway, the so-called “achilles heal” of their bid. Salzburg (52.93) and Berne (58.27) owe their gains to the aggressive organization they’ve shown early in their candidacies.
The five others cities fell further behind. Andorra (45.45) had the steepest decline due partly to further evidence that they won’t be prepared for 2010 and may resort to a 2014 bid. Harbin China (36.58) and Sarajevo Bosnia-Herzegovina (28.91) weakened due to the apparent lack of organization of their respective bids. Internal politics is causing Pyeongchang, South Korea (40.44) to lose momentum as two provinces fight over hosting venues. Jaca, Spain (46.04) had the smallest change of the applicants. There is concern that Spain may be focussing its efforts on a joint Madrid-Seville 2012 bid instead.
BidIndex is a model that when applied to an Olympic Bid, produces a number that can be used to rate a bid relative to others – and possibly gauge it’s ultimate success.