The sports marketer Michael Mronz (FDP) is currently drumming loudly for the potential Olympic bid for North Rhine-Westphalia for the Summer Games in 2032 (find out more about the background of the initiative here). On Monday his PR-train stopped in Berlin. Also present: Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) and almost all mayors of the cities participating in the NRW2032 project.
Although there was nothing new at this so-called dialogue event, according to Mronz, a sound financial concept should be available in "six to eight months" at the earliest. But lobbying in political Berlin can never hurt. Because money for infrastructure projects must come from the capital. "We have big plans in NRW," Laschet said. "There's consensus across party lines." The competition venues are to be distributed to 14 municipalities.
Fabian Sommer / DPA
Sports marketer Michael Mronz (left) and NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet at the Dialogue Event in Berlin on Monday
It is still unclear whether there will be a NRW application for 2032 at all. Because only one institution decides on it nationally: the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
The full-time DOSB leadership, CEO Veronika Rücker and competitive sports director Dirk Schimmelpfennig, once again listened to what the NRW representatives had to say. However, Rücker and Schimmelpfennig currently have more pressing problems to overcome and were mainly due to negotiations on the new federal budget in Berlin.
Recently there were only failed German applications
The DOSB and its predecessor, the NOK, have recently experienced only Olympic disasters: In Munich and Hamburg taxpayers buried in referendums the Olympic bidding 2022 (Winter, Munich) and 2024 (summer, Hamburg). Previously, Munich (for 2018) and Leipzig (for 2004) had suffered equally severe defeats. For Berlin, there were only nine votes in September 1993 at the plenary meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Sydney was then named Olympic host in 2000. After that, a committee of inquiry met, the state audit office complained of an "uncultured use of public funds." More than 25 million euros had been spent largely without tenders and without any controlling. The same thing happened later in Leipzig.
Why is it important to remember these failed applications right now? For one, because organized sports have never worked these scandals. On the other hand, because the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), which is also responsible for the sport, begins to create a national concept for major events. Other leading democratic sports nations have had that for a long time, such as Canada. The result is the bitter burden of the billions debts that left the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.
In the federal budget for 2019, a budget item of one million euros had been set for this concept. After the sports department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior had promised a call for applications by June 2019, everything is different now. According to information from SPIEGEL, the business consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was commissioned to draw up a rough concept for the actual concept within the framework of existing mandates. Such advisory mandates have been under discussion for some time.
PwC designs preconceptions for major events
The first members of the Sports Committee in the Bundestag and leading association officials have received invitations to interview with PwC. On the basis of such interviews, PwC, which has no top competence in the Olympic bidding business, should provide BMI with a pre-concept by the end of the year. It seems to be a low six-figure sum. In 2020, another one million will be put into the budget to create the actual concept.
For a few weeks now, the BMI has hosted a major sports event, chaired by Annegret Korff. Through this presentation, already acquired major events such as the Nordic Ski World Cup 2021 and the European Football Championship 2024 will be supervised. There will be no formal decision to re-apply for the Olympics before this national approach is adopted.
Fabian Sommer / DPA
Sports marketer Michael Mronz presented the concept for the initiative in NRW on Monday
Whereby the new application rules of the IOC offer interested parties like NRW - unlike before - the possibility to start talks with the IOC-head. Laschet, Mronz and Rücker were in Lausanne at the beginning of the year at IOC President Thomas Bach (FDP).
Bach has also had to swallow sensitive slippers with Olympic bidders. The No for Hamburg 2024 was one of them. In Switzerland, two referendums for the Winter Games in 2026 were lost in his term. After only the interested parties Paris and Los Angeles were left for the 2024 Summer Games, the 2017 IOC awarded two games in a historic double pack: Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028.
First, Bach propagated a solution with North and South Korea
Bach is currently encouraging nations across the world to apply. It is particularly about the Summer Games in 2032. After more than a year promoting the idea of common games in North and South Korea and meeting several times with the Koreans, a favorite is now emerging: Australia with Brisbane and the state of Queensland.
An Olympic summit took place there in May at the Goldcoast. The Australians reiterated their Olympic intentions and were also in Lausanne recently. And the Australian NOK President John Coates is the most important IOC man on the side of Bach, a multi-functional old school, also president of the World Court of Justice Cas and currently head of the IOC Commission for the Summer Games 2020. Coates is one of Bach's few real friends , Queensland Olympia 2032 would be a farewell gift for him.
Martial Trezzini / DPA
IOC President Thomas Bach: That he is a German is not a competitive advantage for the DOSB
In Olympic circles, the thing is more or less settled. Last week, on the sidelines of the plenary meeting of all National Olympic Committees in Doha, it was heard again on the convention corridors: The 2032 Summer Games will probably take place in Australia. In the meantime, there was even a rumor that the IOC could decide it in 2020 - and not only in 2025, it would go by the old rules.
However, Bach was always flexible. In this respect, it is not surprising that Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani, one of Qatar's most important sports officials and ambassador to Germany until a few weeks ago, is talking to interlocutors. Bach repeatedly encourages Qatar to apply again for summer games. Twice Qatar has been running (for 2016 and 2020), twice had the then IOC Executive Member Bach after SPIEGEL information internally for Doha party sided. Twice, however, the IOC leadership sorted out Doha in the preliminary round.
NRW 2032 can not compete with such rivals. But there will be no open competition, as it was usual since the early nineties. The IOC has changed its rules. Basically, everything is decided in the leadership in Lausanne. That governs there with Bach a German, a self-confessed FDP member such as NRW frontman Mronz, is no competitive advantage.
Of course, Bach encourages the Germans, that's his job. Because he has to secure the billion dollar group IOC sales and Olympic host.