(ATR) IOC officials will hold video conference meetings with the four 2024 candidate cities this week to discuss concerns and highlight areas for improvement.
Last week the IOC executive board advanced Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome to the second phase of the bid race. President Thomas Bach told a press conference Friday they were embracing Agenda 2020 reforms and didn’t flag up any major issues.
IOC evaluation commission chair Frank Fredericks, Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi and Jacqueline Barrett, the IOC’s associate director for Olympic bids, will talk with the bids on Tuesday and Wednesday via video conference. The sessions are aimed at giving feedback following a review of the cities’ first bid files submitted in February.
The IOC says they will "enable the cities to course-correct their respective projects" if they wish.
Barrett tells Around the Rings the meetings will allow IOC officials "to give them some hints on where we maybe have some concerns and where we feel they have some great opportunities.
"That will give them an opportunity to course-correct if they feel it is necessary. We are not insisting that people [the bids] course-correct."
The IOC experts will answer questions and seek clarifications from the bids who will be asked to explain some of the decisions they have taken and explain how they are approaching stage two.
"We have some comments and we will go through them. It’s new for us and the cities. The spirit of it is an ongoing dialogue to help them to put forward the best possible proposition they can and really benefit from the most knowledge and experience that we can help them with," she said, adding "Ultimately they take their decisions."
The video conferences are another new element in the revamped IOC bidding process for the 2024 Games. Previously, the IOC’s detailed evaluation didn’t come until the last few months of the bidding contest.
"It gives them an opportunity that they didn’t have before," Barrett said.
"Now we can have that discussion. It’s part of the ongoing dialogue with them," she said, adding that bids can "take that [IOC feedback] back, think about it, maybe look if they want to make some changes or not. Or come back with some more arguments of why they think what they’re doing is exactly right".
Barrett said she and her IOC colleagues in the Olympic Games department were "very happy" with the progress being made by the bids.
"I think we have four great bids," she said, admitting that the more detailed bidding process meant more work for the IOC but was beneficial to both sides.
"We have more contact with the candidate cities which is lovely… very good contact and interaction."
Next for the 2024 cities is work on the bid books for stage two, focusing on governance, legal and venue funding. These are due with the IOC on Oct. 7. The stage three bid file on Games delivery, experience and venue legacy has a Feb. 3 deadline.
The IOC’s host city vote takes place in Lima, Peru in September 2017.
Reported by Mark Bisson
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