Terrence Burns ©2014
Headlines from today:
“Give the Olympics a Permanent Home” – Bloomberg
“Terrorism and Tension for Sochi, Not Sports and Joy” – New York Times
“Sochi’s Already a Mess, for Journalists at Least” – Newsweek
“An Olympic Shame: Vladimir Putin Plays Host To Winter Games” – NPR
I don’t know if I qualify as a true Olympic expert, but I have been around and involved with enough Games, both in front of and behind the magic Olympic curtain, to recognize certain patterns.
For example, virtually every Olympic Games has issues with transport, accommodation, ticketing and yes even security, in the days leading up to and during the first days of the Games. None of this is observed on the broadcast, thankfully, but those in this business have grown accustomed to it and know full well it is normal. But, by about 7 days into the 17-day event, it all gets figured out and everything works mostly perfectly. I am looking forward to everyone’s attention turning to the performances of the world’s greatest athletes instead of stories about lost luggage, funny menu translations or vodka.
Which brings me to my point.
Why is everyone “hating on” Sochi?
Do people just not like Russia? Not like Putin? Not like Sochi?
Maybe people believe that Sochi and the Russians lied about what they said they were going to do in their bid for the Games. So, I went back and looked at the Sochi 2014 bid books (which I was honored to help write). And guess what? The Sochi bid committee (Russians) did everything they said they were going to do for sport.
Oh, did I forget to mention that the Olympic Games have sport at their heart?
Now, it seems fashionable for every sanctimonious, seasoned sports and Olympic watcher to ask the same question: How in the world did the IOC give the Games to Putin? (Note the lack of mention for Sochi, let alone Russia – it is Putin, they decry.) I understand some of that sentiment. I don’t think the Russians have handled every issue, from LGBT rights, to corruption, to cost overruns to the environment the way others would have handled it. But…the 2014 Winter Games are not in other countries. They are in Russia.
So how exactly did the Russians do it?
They put a solid bid together, answering the questions and following guidelines of the IOC’s bid process. Did they trick everyone? Deceive the world? Pull the wool over the Olympic-loving public’s eyes? Let’s take a look at what they said (Sochi 2014 bid book content in italics below):
The people of Russia invite the world to Sochi to share and celebrate the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Russians have a special passion for winter, for winter sport and for the Olympic Movement.
Well, that seems reasonable and believable. It is very cold in Russia after all, and Russia and the former USSR won a lot of Olympic medals over the years.
The plans in this Candidature File reflect a unique and historical fusion of the long-term development needs of the Sochi region and the winter sports development needs of the Olympic Movement. Both sets of objectives fit perfectly within the Sochi 2014 Games plan…Sochi and the Olympic Movement will be beneficiaries of one of the strongest, most wide-ranging legacies ever to result from an Olympic Winter Games.
The Government of the Russian Federation has fully guaranteed and committed – and work has already begun – to deliver all venue, transport, technology, environmental and sport infrastructure necessary to host the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The US$ 12 billion “Federal Target Programme for the Development of Sochi” is the key foundation to the plans, which will provide the Olympic Movement with the certainty that all necessary infrastructures for the 2014 Winter Games will be completed on time and on budget.
Ah-ha! They (Russians) said it would cost $12b and it ended up costing $50b! They (Russians) lied to “us” (whoever “us” is…).
To this I would simply say that I was a member of that team that came up with the $12b budget for the Sochi Games; in fact I hired or recommended most of them. Where we certain of the number? Well, not totally, so we padded it a little to make sure (yes, you read that right). Neither our Russian colleagues nor we had any benchmarks to use or any examples to follow for such an undertaking. Nothing like Sochi 2014 had ever been attempted before…ever.
Looking back seven years later, should we have used more precise projections, better models to arrive at the $12b figure? The obvious answer seems to be yes. But often the obvious answer is not always a feasible one – we used the only information we had at the time.
The point is the $12b figure was vetted and approved by a raft of Olympic facilities, transport, sport, finance and venue and other experts. So how did $12b become $50b? Obviously, many people think they know. Here is my question: How much does it cost to build an entire city when one has to bring virtually everything in via a broken, barely existing infrastructure system? I have no idea if it cost $20b, $30b or $50b, but I do know it cost a lot more than anyone, even the experts, thought that it would. And hey, it’s their money.
The Sochi region will be transformed into a modern, world-class, year-round destination for sport, tourism and commerce, and Russia will develop its first world-class, elite alpine sports training and competition infrastructure – a complete winter sports centre that will benefit athletes from the entire Middle East and central Asian region.
That is an admirable goal for a bidding nation. This was a foundation of Sochi’s messaging and positioning. Sochi 2014 met the needs of Russia, of the region of central Asia and offered the Olympic Movement the ability to develop sport in an underserved region. That seems fully aligned with the Olympic Charter and the IOC’s stated objectives for bid cities. The same could not be said for the bid of our magical, and fully developed winter sports competitor, Salzburg.
The bid committee has listened to and incorporated the guidance of the IOC, International Federations, National Olympic Committees and the Russian winter sports federations in developing the plans in this Candidature File. The plans focus on the needs of the athletes as the cornerstone for the Sochi 2014 vision and Games concept:
- Imagine walking or traveling by shuttle from the Olympic Village to any of the new ice venues in less than 5 minutes – all within the protected security zone of the innovative Sochi Olympic Park.
- Imagine needing only 40 minutes of travel time from the ice venue cluster to the mountain venue cluster – all via dedicated-Olympic lanes, dedicated-Olympic roads and rail.
- Imagine being less than 18 minutes travel time to any mountain venue from the mountain Sub-Village.
- Imagine an Olympic Village placed along the magnificent Black Sea shore in 4-star resort hotels or a Mountain Village nestled among the peaceful forests in 4-star lodges and chalets, all designed to provide the ultimate opportunities for preparation and focus.
- Imagine competing in new, state-of-the-art venues that offer ideal conditions for every athlete.
Well, you don’t have to imagine it any longer – the Russians built these things. And they built all of them for the comfort and convenience of the athletes – and the Olympic Family. As they said they would.
To me, the recent news coverage about Sochi seems a lot like piling on. “Look – two toilets side by side!” “Elevators not working in brand new hotel!” “Delays at airport!” “No sheets on my bed!” “My bus was late!” “First order in the Village McDonald’s was wrong!” “I don’t have a shower curtain!”
Here is the reality: in seven years, Russia has built about 100 new hotels in Sochi and the surrounding area, four new Alpine Resorts, five new power plants for the city and a new sewer system, upgraded the airport and improved or built close to a million of square feet of new roads and sidewalks. Oh, and they also built eleven state-of-the-art sports venues for the Winter Games. Eleven (11). See them here http://www.olympic.org/news/all-about-the-sochi-2014-venues/219150
The legacy of the XXII Olympic Winter Games will endure for decades, forever changing and enhancing the lives of its citizens, as well as profoundly affecting the youth of Russia. Key legacy components of the Sochi 2014 plans include:
- The development of the critically-needed alpine, sliding and ski-jumping facilities, which will:
- Help to broaden the interest and participation of Russian youth in these popular winter sports
- Provide world-training facilities for Russian elite-level athletes;
- Provide for the first time venues for national and international alpine competitions in Russia;
- Create a year-round tourism industry to expand upon existing summer tourism. This expansion will improve economic conditions for the local population and sustain employment levels year-round;
- The development of modern entertainment, exhibition, retail and accommodation facilities along the coast, which will ensure that Sochi becomes a world-class resort destination;
Time will tell if this legacy holds true, but you cannot argue they don’t have the hardware in the ground now to do it.
Finally, to the foreign visitors in Sochi who have seemingly never been out of their home state or village: yes, Russia is different. Your hundreds of daily, naïve tweets and posts about it do nothing but prove that you may not even have basic cable at home. Russia is unique. It is not like America, or Japan, or Australia, or France or frankly anywhere else one has ever been; that is why it is interesting. Russia is its own continent. Enjoy the differences instead of denigrating them – you might learn something.
First in 1998, then in 2003, 2005, 2007 and in 2009 we conducted research in Russia about the Olympic brand, or about bids we were working on in Russia. We learned something fascinating from older Russians. Time in Russia is like the country itself – it is vast, it can seem eternal (which it is) and it is relentless.
Many of the older Russians we interviewed told us that they thought Glasnost and Perestroika began with the 1980 Games in Moscow. They drew a clear, straight line from 1980 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 from the Olympic experience. They believed that the influx of foreigners into Moscow, even with a boycotted Olympic Games, started an inexorable movement of change and progress that they believe continues to this day.
I remember writing First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov’s speech for Sochi 2014’s presentation in Guatemala. I asked him what he knew about the Olympic Games. He said “not much, but I do remember the Moscow Games…it was a different time and a Russia was a different place…I was a student volunteer, mixing and pouring concrete to help build Olympic venues”. Mr. Zhukov is now an IOC member. A lot has happened in seven years.
So, I’d like to visit the Russia of 2048, 34 years from now, to see if Sochi 2014 had an impact similar to Moscow 1980. Maybe the 2014 Games’ influence will be faster – it almost has to, given technology and the Russia of today versus 1980.
Let’s give Sochi and the people of Russia a chance. They asked for the Games. They’ve done their absolute best to get ready, and achieved what I believe no other country on earth could achieve in seven years. And again, they did it with their own money.
Let’s also hope, wish, pray or whatever it is you do when you really want something – that the 2014 Winter Games begin and conclude peacefully.
Chill out – it’s the Winter Games.
Typical pompous ass covering commentary. The fact that you have to take this shot over the bow tells all. I know your type, I have been at the table. You’re just trying to keep your gig going for as long as you can. And you will lay with any dog along the way. Just like you did this time. Other countries would have done things differently? Yea, I guess some would not have been so blatantly corrupt, killed and jailed their LGBT citizens, and poisoned their dogs. But hey. It’s just sports. Look the other way. Your a perfect match. Oh well, as long as you get paid.
Good for them. But maybe some of the criticism comes from the fact that maybe it’s poor business and management to take a risk on building something new when there are alternatives already built or at least require much less new construction. So you guessed at $12B because you didn’t know how much a whole new city would cost?
The problem is building a whole new city in a country rife with corruption and coming up with substandard plumbing, shoddy workmanship and dodgy security. You listed some of the complaints, but ignored “the water is unsafe,” people randomly finding their rooms accessed without their permission and open manholes.
So stop patting yourself on the back and realize that this is – in many ways – a cluster that could have been avoided if the whole process weren’t based on charlatans guessing on costs of building a whole new city.
Refreshing to read something other than the trendy bashing of Russia. Americans are sounding pompous as hell complaining about the such trivial things and bending stories to make them sound worse. Lets not forget terrorist attacks have been successful on American soil during the Olympic games. Why are we hating on Russia so badly anyway? Is it because Putin made Obama take second chair on a global chair with the Syria conflict?Or is the press just upset their data will be gathered in the most secured public place on earth? Or maybe its just that we don’t accept the same ideals that Russia does on lgbt acceptance even though they’ve said gays are welcome to visit the Olympic games, isn’t that their right as an independent country? Americans complainers are embarrasing as fuck.
Thanks Jake for reading my post and for your objective comments. As you can see, I believe in free speech and approve all comments – no matter how embarrassing – either for me or the author. To me, the Games are about giving a country a dose of positive energy, what it does with it after the Games leave town is totally up to it. Let’s hope the Games help the Russian people on their journey.
With all due respect, what sort of “dose of positive energy” will the people of the Caucasus region be left with after the Games? A string of hotels they can’t afford lunch in? A curling rink? A tram to nowhere?
I share your zeal for the Olympic ideal, but not if it’s shoved upon an unwilling populace at such a mind-boggling cost. Your suggestion that “what (Russia) does with it after the Games leaves town is totally up to it” isn’t really true, is it? Because that $51 billion price tag doesn’t go away when the Olympic Family packs up its furs and rolls out of town. (In fact, the very notion smacks of cmlassic colonialism: We’ll show them a brief flash of light. If they can’t stumble out of the dark, that’s their problem.) Unfortunately, the economic boondoggle that is Sochi will only increase calls for a permanent Olympic home. Sad news for the Olympic Machine, I suppose, and for the movement itself. But it’s where things are headed.
You’ve made an earnest defense here of the notion that the Russians have delivered what they promised in their bid. But you’ve missed the larger point: What they promised — building a city from scratch in the middle of nowhere, at unfathomable financial and environmental cost, for a three-week TV-fest — was unreasonable, and in fact, arguably insane. (Many smart people said so at the time.) And, clearly, it was unattainable for the cost you and others apparently guesstimated. Do you believe the IOC would have happily signed on Sochi seven years ago with a $51 billion price tag attached?
No matter, perhaps: By your logic, the cost is irrelevant. As long as the Olympic Family goes home happy, money is not an object. That’s a nice arrangement if you can get it.
Count me among those who hope sincerely that the IOC’s failure to weigh the true social cost of a Games bid isn’t what proves to be the death knell of Olympism. Because they are well down that path.
Thanks for your comments on the post. Rather than try to change your perspective, I really do appreciate you reading and taking the time to respond. These Games are what they are, and where they are. There are a myriad of reasons why cities win – this bid was pretty different from the many others on which I have worked.
Have you ever been to Russia; once, more than a few times? Worked there? Lived there? I have done all three since 1992. It is a fascinating place. An acquired taste for more foreigners, especially Americans. And like everywhere, it is not monolithic, all of one mind – it is complex. There are over 150 ethnic groups in Russia. Almost 14% of the population is Muslim and assimilated more than you think. The Caucasus region an exception, a region with a long sad history with Russia and with any and every foreign non-Muslim power or invader for almost a thousand years. It is tribal, entrenched and fiercely independent. I frankly don’t see a path, long-term or short-term for assimilation.
The Russians, and yes it is more than just Putin, wanted these Games for a lot of reasons; one could say they think they needed them. Colonialism to me is when foreigners assume the mantle of judging what is best for another country and its people. Something we Americans are good at. Read the global media and see what is really happening in the world. If anyone is glued to US major news networks you are flying blind and being spoon fed gibberish.
The $12b was not pulled out of the air or a guesstimate , it was an honest to God attempt to frame the costs based on what all of us knew at the time. If you have time, the Sochi bid files are online (I think) and see sections 2.3 and 6.2 of the Guarantees File for the into on the $12b FTP (Federal Target Programme for Sochi). There is also a detailed budget of the projected construction costs for all venues in tables 6.61-6.62, costs and details provided by the architects and venue construction companies (foreign firms).
The crowds in Sochi right now are majority Russian. I am getting their messages, Tweets, emails, posts and photos daily – and yes I assume a raft of security agencies are seeing and reading them too. They are proud and thrilled. I will join them later this week. As to the cost and the legacy. $51b to showcase themselves to the world in an atmosphere of fraternity and sport is a price too high to pay when we spend trillions on wars no one wants to fight? How does one weigh indignation?
I’m not an apologist for Russia – far from it, sir. I am glad and damn thankful I am an American and you and I can actually express ourselves as we are now, on this blog. In a lot of places in the world that would be impossible. But who are you or I to judge what is best for Russia or anywhere else? And as to the Olympics, they will adjust and adapt to the time and to the place – as they always have. Are they aware that they have a cost/size/scope problem? Of course they are. Will they fix it? I hope so for the same reasons that you expressed.
What is it exactly that you are appalled at? Russia spending $51b to host the Games? Russian having the ability to spend $51b on the Games? Russia spending $51b on the Games when they desperately need to invest in modern education, healthcare and services for their citizens (to meet external expectations of what a democracy should be)? Russia hosting the Games? The IOC choosing Russia to host the Games? What the Russian people will have to contend with once the Olympic circus leaves town? The size and scope and cost of the modern Games as a reflection of the rejection of the original Olympic ideal? All of the above?
Did you ever visit or see Sochi prior to 2005? I did. People lived there, visited there. It is a Summer resort. It did not even have a sewage treatment facility. It does now. And now it has new power plants, roads, etc. Would it have been nice if the city and region had invested in those faculties over forty years instead of 7? yes. Would that have been possible under the Soviet and post-Soviet system? No.
Yes, there is a new railway to the mountain venues. Will they all be used? Not all. Just like any other Olympics. Torino just closed down their bobsleigh track. Beijing holds flea markets in the Bird’s Nest. Will the Olympics ever get it right? I hope so, we’ve swung from one side of the pendulum to the other.
Back in the “good old days” when the Games were small and inexpensive, there was no money; zero. And that meant that the only nations who could really afford to attend and compete and win were rich, white and wealthy or the USSR and East Germany. Remember when virtualy everyone on the podium was white?
LA hosted the Games in 1984 because no one else wanted them expect Tehran – and the IOC was broke. Now we have over 200 countries in the Summer Games; African, Asian, Arab etc. athletes not only competing for the first time but winning. Why? Because 30 years ago the IOC took the long view, and not a popular one at the time, that to delver on the Olympic ideals we had to make the Games matter. Do they matter? You tell me, they seem to matter to you. How do you think that happened? Leaving the Games in in one place as you suggest, like Greece? Saying “no” to commercial partnerships? I don’t think so.
You can’t have it both ways; it sounds nice but you can’t.
Ambassador Andrew Young said “the commercialization of the Games has been the democratization of the Games.” It takes time. Years. Decades. The modern Games are only 118 years old, but the Games are entering their third millennium.
If you like what you are seeing on NBC’s coverage of the Games in Sochi, please keep watching and enjoy it. If it offends you turn it off. But someone has to pay for it. The Russians did it “their way”. You may not like it, and I’m sorry for that, but that’s how it works. We’ve had almost 240 years of democracy and free markets to build out our infrastructure, craft and refine commercial legislation, etc. – they’ve had a little over 20 years. It’s not apples to apples and, it never will be due to cultural differences.
Look at the field for the 2022 Winter Games race. Oslo, Almaty, Lviv, Krakow and Beijing. Look at their plans and budgets. Look at their reasons as to “why” they want to host them Games. Which do you think would be the best host city and why? Based on what premise(s)? It’s not as easy as it looks, or as pernicious as it is painted.
Thank you again for your comments. I can tell you are knowledgeable and passionate about the Games. Your opinion matters, greatly. Perhaps all of us, together, can help figure out a better way forward.
Where we differ most is your assessment: “That’s how it works.” Yes, that’s how it works today, but sorry, I’m not a defeatist who says you have to sell your soul to sponsor an Olympics, and especially not one to make the specious connection between democratization of the Games and grotesque levels of corporate sponsorship. They are not intrinsically linked. The fact is, there’s a growing movement of people around the world who have seen host cities be fleeced by the Olympics — mostly by local organizing committees’, promising one thing at one cost and then delivering quite another. Those people are now quite actively organizing and talking to one another in prospective host cities. Sochi will be thei new Exhibit A. People who make their living off reinventing the wheel for every Olympic cycle — and the people who award the Games — can ignore that at their own peril.
Thanks again Ron for your comments and thoughts. For sure, things are going to change. They have to. A previous post on the Olympic Brand Challenge touches on this point.
I think it’s an important discussion, and am glad you started this one. BTW re: my above comment. I understand and accept that corporate sponsorship is a necessary component of modern Olympism. But there are limits. And there should be limits to the onerous obligations the Games leave behind. Cheers.
It is important indeed; and I 100% agree there have to limits and we are either approaching or beyond them. But with passionate, good intentioned people who love what Olympism stands for, working together, it will endure. Cheers to you Ron.
Well-written. A+