Annecy’s new Games concept has propelled the French city’s 2018 Olympic bid back into contention with leading PyeongChang, South Korea and Munich, Germany according to the new release of GamesBids.com’s BidIndex.
But despite the bid’s momentum and declines by the other two candidates, Annecy’s limited budget keeps them behind the leaders with much ground to gain. This BidIndex update is the first since April 2010 and includes information gathered from the IOC evaluation report released last summer.
PyeongChang dropped 0.22 to 62.40 but increased its lead over Munich; the German bid lost 0.85 points and now sits at 61.64. Annecy gained 3.59 points for a total BidIndex score of 55.03.
The South Korean town of PyeongChang built its lead based on the experience of two consecutive previous bids. The bid team has been able to refine its plans; leveraging feedback it has received from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – and in some cases building venues to prepare to host the Games. Much time has been spent creating and maintaining strong relationships with IOC members.
In its evaluation report, the IOC gave PyeongChang the best scores. A compact plan, existing venues, the opportunity for a Winter Games in Asia and strong domestic and government support have caused this bid set the bar in this competition. The recent escalation of tensions between North and South Korea is among the causes of the small drop.
Munich entered this race with a lot of momentum; many believe the German bid is the one to beat. A strong IOC evaluation report, and the Classic winter venues in a central European location with strong leadership have helped create a winnable campaign.
While Munich lost a respected leader when Willy Bogner stepped down due to health concerns – the bid team spun things around and made Katarina Witt the new face of the bid helping buoy domestic support and providing an improved identity internationally.
But recent bad press about a potential “farmers revolt” and land use issues around the alpine ski venues have put a damper on the bid’s growth. Local public support has been falling and the impact has prevented Munich from surpassing PyeongChang in the scoring.
It’s been a roller coaster of a campaign for Annecy, but overall the French bid has improved since April and has an opportunity to leverage its momentum and become a viable choice when the IOC votes in July.
Annecy began the campaign a distant third; the bid leadership admitted that they started too slowly and too late. As a result, the IOC gave the bid an unfavourable evaluation and warned the bid that they must improve in order to compete successfully. But that warning seemed to be exactly what was needed and the Annecy team got back to work and created a much improved plan, gaining the support of key French IOC members and others.
The bid took a recent blow when bid CEO Edgar Grospiron resigned over a budget dispute. Annecy has the least amount of funding among the three campaigns and Grospiron believes that there isn’t enough money to support a proper, winning international campaign. He’s probably right – and that’s another important reason why Annecy sits more than 6 points behind the leaders. French businessman Charles Beigbeder is expected to be named the new CEO.
The BidIndex bid assessment model is a de facto industry standard and is based on technical bid plans, on-site evaluations, and a comprehensive statistical history of International Olympic Committee voting patterns. Because the IOC often does not elect the technically best bids – BidIndex determines which bid “best fits” the way International Olympic Committee members typically vote.
BidIndex has evaluated the past 5 Olympic bid races and has been extremely successful in separating the top contending bids from the cities that the IOC just isn’t interested in. In the most recent evaluation, BidIndex determined that Rio de Janeiro was most likely to host the 2016 Olympic Games among four candidates.
On Tuesday the three candidates will officially deliver their final bid books – three volumes that detail how they plan to organize the Games – to IOC headquarters in Lausanne. BidIndex will issue a subsequent update based on these details and further updates as the campaign progresses until the final vote in Durban, South Africa in July.
Annecy – 55.03 (+3.59)
Munich – 61.64 (-0.85)
PyeongChang – 62.40 (-0.22)
More information and full BidIndex details can be found on the BidIndex results page; or send email to BidIndex(at)GamesBids.com or click on our “contact us” page for more information.
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