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Hein Verbruggen is a Dutch honorary member of the International Olympic Committee. As an IOC member, he was Chairman of the Coordination Commission for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Verbruggen was also the President of the International Cycling Union between 1991 and 2005 and remains its Honorary President – and he was President of SportAccord (the umbrella organisation for all Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations) between 2004 and 2013.
The 2024, 2026 and 2028 Olympic Games host city crisis solved in a stroke
In my previous blog, I argued that the IOC needed to adopt a totally different approach to selecting host cities for the Olympic Games. My key recommendations were, first, to put an end to the current open bidding system. Instead, the IOC should proactively approach potential host countries/cities and negotiate directly with them. Second, no taxpayers’ dollars should be spent on hosting any future Games (except on security requirements). Importantly, all decisions relating to future host cities should be made in a rational way, including the...
read moreA new bidding strategy for the Olympic Games
In my previous blog, I said that the lack of a long-term strategy and vision has blinkered the IOC in its ability to anticipate the current dearth of viable host cities for the Olympic Games. We should have seen this crisis looming some 10 years ago… It is not just an issue around the quantity of potential host cities, but also of the quality of these candidates. Although the IOC would not admit it publicly, we have seen a great many candidate cities where the Olympic Games governing body would very much prefer not to host its flagship event....
read moreResolving the Olympic host city crisis with professional long-term marketing
Just after I graduated, in 1964, I worked for the marketing departments of a number of US food companies, where I soon learnt that “good marketing” had everything to do with (long-term) anticipation. As a Brand Manager, I was responsible for marketing brands or products and I was tasked with improving both sales and profitability year-on-year. I needed to develop plans for the long term (more than 10 years) medium term (5-10 years) and short term (1-5 years), being mindful of any trends that might take place during each period. I had to...
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