Keep sending us money.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Milan and Cortina, Italy which must come as a relief to the International Olympic Committee. Italy’s elected officials were on the fence about spending money to host the IOC’s every other year athletic competition but finally gave in and said money would be available for the Games. Milan and Cortina’s main opponent for the 2026 Winter Olympics was Stockholm, Sweden and the Swedish bid was not all that impressive to the IOC. There was never a guarantee of kronas that would be thrown into the event. But the IOC apparently is going to start asking cities and bid committees to make sure that there is public support for hosting the Olympics by holding a referendum. It is not certain if the IOC is asking for this because they don’t want to waste time if there is non-support or because they don’t want too many losers as in a city/country bidding for the Olympics only to find out there is no support for the event.
There were eight contenders for the 2026 Winter Olympics. There were referendums in a few of the areas that saw political and business leaders move ahead with a bid. The voters said no. Since 2003, there have been nine local votes on whether to have the Olympics and all nine have failed. The last time the IOC won a vote was in 2003 when Vancouver area voters said yes to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The reasons that people have said no begin and end with Olympics cost. The IOC cannot hide the fact that Olympics end up with a far heftier price tag than originally projected and the IOC wants local taxpayers to pick up the cost overruns. The IOC has a history of bribery and corruption along with doping. The Olympics aren’t worth the effort.
