Challenges and considerations in building the bid file of mega sport events. Case study: Winter Youth Olympic Games

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to identify the challenges faced by the bid cities interested in hosting the Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) on their journey to conceptualize the bid file according to the IOC requests and their own environments. An overview of the existing bibliography concerning this topic shows that there are researches regarding the YOG but from different perspectives, namely: challenges and opportunities in hosting YOG, challenges and considerations in organising YOG, ethical features, differences between OG and YOG. In this study, the bid files of the YOG – winter edition – starting from 2012 until the last candidature in 2020 were analysed and proposes in the end a useful tool for the future candidate cities in their attempt to simplify the bid process by learning from the previous bids’ experiences. The research represents a good practice guideline regarding the bidding phase of Youth Olympic Games, based on the evaluation of bid files, IOC reports from previous editions and the input of the NOCs as part of the bidding phase. The data used in the present research were gathered from the official documents published by the IOC as well as the bid files of the candidate cities. Afterwards the study was carried out through an online interview on the main stakeholders involved in the bidding of the WYOG which are the NOCs. The conclusions reached address all the 15 themes contained in the IOC Candidature procedure and questionnaire. The results shows that the main areas of risk are: Governance and guarantees; Finance; Youth Olympic Village, Sport and venues; Culture and education programme. Moreover, good relationships at all governmental levels are a defining factor. Keeping in mind that YOG is the newest competition launched by the IOC, further research would be needed in order to improve the on-going process.