POSTED: October 6th 2008
NewsUpdate
Costs crush Tromsø's winter bid
LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications
OSLO: High bid costs have crushed the dream of a Norwegian bid for the 2018 winter Olympic Games.
Tove Paule, president of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, confirmed today that plans to pursue a bid had been dropped after recent estimates shed new light on the projected budget.
"It was a difficult decision," said Tove Paule after Norwegian sports officials conferred throughout the weekend to come to a conclusion.
The situation was compounded by news last week that the government-commissioned study calculated that the cost to host the 2018 Games could top 29bn kroner, approximately $4.9 bn, ballooning almost double the Tromsø team's original estimate.
The Norwegian Olympic Committee selected Tromsø in March 2007 over other potential candidates such as Trondheim and Oslo, which had hosted the 1952 winter Olympics.
The NOC concluded in a vote today of 9-3 to withdraw its request for economic guarantees from the Norwegian government and Parliament due to the cost factor. Thoughts of choosing any other cities at this time have also been put to rest.
The International Olympic Committee is set to select the host city for 2018 in 2011. Cities considering launching bids include Denver, Colorado and Reno-Tahoe, Nevada US; Munich, Germany; and Almaty, Kazakhstan. Even Pyeongchang, South Korea, may join the race again. France has declared that it will join the ring and three cities expressing interest are Grenoble, Nice and Annecy.
Keywords · 2018 Winter Olympics · Tromsø · Norwegian Olympic Committee · Tove Paule ·
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