ABSTRACT
In 2001, eleven US cities submitted bids to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to become the American candidate city for the 2012 Olympic Games. Their candidacy smacked of unbridled optimism given that Atlanta (Georgia) had entertained the Summer Games as recently as 1996 and that Salt Lake City (Utah) would stage the Winter Games in 2002. Nevertheless, it showed how much American cities now recognise the benefits that even bidding for the Olympics brings. Rivalry to stage festivals, already manifested by the contests to hold international expositions (for example, see Chapter 4), has reached unprecedented heights with the Olympics. Cities often mount expensive campaigns to vanquish domestic rivals before facing the ensuing battle to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to favour their bid against foreign rivals. For example, New York, the chosen American candidate for 2012, committed around $13 million in private funding to back its domestic campaign (‘NYC2012: Bringing the Olympic Games back to the World’s Second Home’). The city then raised further amounts to campaign against the likes of London, Paris and Madrid for the IOC nomination in September 2005.1 Quite simply, the prize is felt to merit the effort and expense involved. Just as winning the Olympic gold medal represents the pinnacle of achievement for an athlete so, by extension, gaining the nomination to stage the Olympics is the highest accolade that a city can now attain in the game of place promotion.
