International Olympic Committee opens door to joint bids and new sports events
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is opening the door to many new possibilities, including holding events in more than one country. The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, made these recommendations as part of his reform agenda, in an attempt to make the bidding process and the games more attractive and less costly. The Winter Games already allowed events to be held in a bordering country, but this change would be a first for the Summer Games. Another one of his proposals includes allowing more events, while still maintaining the same amount of athletes, and medal events. There was pressure for a change to the bidding process because of the troubled race for the 2022 Winter Games. Only a couple cities were left in the running after several others pulled out of the running scared by the reported $51 billion associated with the Sochi Games. Most of Bach's recommendations are expected to be passed.
From how the article is written, I sense that most of Bach's recommendations are very smart and should be put into use. I believe allowing the Olympics to be held in more than one country will definitely make the games and the bidding process more attractive. The reason why a lot of cities backed out of the running for the 2022 Winter Games was because they were scared by the large amount of money that it would cost them to host the games. The marginal costs for hosting the games would far outweigh the marginal benefits so there was no point for them to stay in the running. If events are now allowed to take place in more than one country, then it won't be as expensive for one country to host the games. Granite, there will still be one main location where the games will be held, and that country will have to pay the majority of the costs, but the expenses won't be quite as high if not all of the games are held there. The games will also become more attractive if they are being held in more than one country. It spreads the popularity around more if it isn't just limited to one country. I'm not quite sure how these recommendations will make the bidding process and the games less costly. Like I said, I believe it would make it less costly for the main country that is hosting the games because they don't have to take on the full burden of the costs, but I don't really see how it makes the games any less costly.
I agree with you in saying that allowing the Olympics to be divided to more than one country will definitely appeal to people, especially those living in the countries in the running. The enormous cost of the Sochi Games I'm sure is quite intimidating to countries in the running to host the Olympics, but the possibility of sharing the cost with other countries definitely eases the financial burden of hosting such a major event.
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