There is an exercise that facilitators sometimes run with executives in marketing workshops. It goes like this: “If your brand was an historic character, who would it be and why?”
When you cut through the giggly, the gushing and the grindingly obvious delegate responses, it invariably results in some revealing and helpful insights.
If the Olympic Games were represented by an historic character, one candidate could be Mark Twain, who sent a cable from London to the press in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published. “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” the cable famously ran.
Three years after the much-criticised Rio 2016 Games, western media reports on the demise of the Games seem to have been similarly exaggerated.
The iconic global cities of Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles will host the next three summer editions of the Olympic Games from 2020 to 2028, whilst Beijing and Milan/Cortina line up for the next two Winter Games.
Hardly a brand in its death throes, as the naysayers and doomsters would have had us believe.
Quick decision
Moreover, the early stages of the bid process for the 2032 Olympic Games are nothing short of remarkable. It appears that the race is already on to host the Games over 12 years out.
Southern Queensland (comprising Brisbane, Gold Coast et cetera) is already fast out of the blocks, eager to take advantage of a major change in an IOC bidding process that could see the IOC Executive Board recommending, with the full IOC Session ratifying, a 2032 host city as early as 11 years ahead of the Games.
Unlikely, but now, at least, it is a possibility.
The Australian strategy, reportedly, is to give the IOC a turn-key solution for the 2032 Games as early as 2021 – way ahead of any other bidder – in the hope of a quick decision.
Furthermore, the Australian offer may be put on the table for a limited period in order to force the IOC hand. I call this a bird-in-the-IOC-hand strategy.
This strategy is a fascinating high-stakes poker play straight from the casinos of Gold Coast. And it could pay off. After all, the Sydney 2000 Games are still lauded as one of the best ever, and what’s not to like about another Games down under, complete with direct flights from the North American East Coast and Europe by then?
However, the Australian bid for 2032 looks likely to be joined at the table by an Indian bid. All my meetings with sports and political leaders from that vast nation indicate that this would be no mere stalking-horse bid. There is a real intent to mount a serious bid, thereby offering the Olympic Movement stakeholders tantalising access to 1.3 billion hearts and minds.
Undaunted by the prospect of bidding against these two titans, Jakarta in Indonesia has also been steadily assembling a case for a serious tilt at 2032, having hosted a largely successful Asian Games in 2018. Indonesia is home to nearly a quarter of a billion Muslims – more than any other nation – and, if successful, would be the first Muslim country to host the Games.
Historic initiative
Then of course there is the elusive potential joint North and South Korea bid for the 2032 Games. Many megabytes have been written about IOC president Thomas Bach’s desire to realise this historic initiative. And the signs were promising with the various joint North-South activities during PyeongChang 2018.
The chances of this happening will depend as much on the stop-go peace talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un as on skilful IOC diplomacy. But what a prospect that would be! And from everything my consultancy JTA is hearing, there is a great appetite on all sides for a joint Games.
Add to all this a widely-reported potential 2032 bid from the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany, another likely bid from a North African nation – to be the first ever Games host from Africa – as well as a possible bid from the politically-charged and competitive Gulf region, and there is every reason to believe that the Olympic Games are in rude health. Reports of their early demise seem indeed to have been greatly exaggerated.