Report Says Olympic Winter Games NZ 2026 Feasible And Worth $4.9 Billion

A report that studied the feasibility of New Zealand hosting an Olympic Winter Games in 2026 was released today. The pre-feasibility report found hosting could be feasible, and calculated the net economic value to New Zealand of NZ$4.9 billion. This was made up of $5.6 billion of benefits, and $595 million of NZ Government costs.

The report recommends the Olympics is held in Auckland and Queenstown. Each city would build Olympic Villages, and media and broadcast centres, as well as continue to build hotel accommodation and transport infrastructure. Five multi-purpose 5000-person indoor stadia would be built in Auckland which would temporarily include ice rinks. Two of these stadia would be sent to Wellington and Christchurch post the Olympics.

Queenstown already has world-class ski and snowboard venues and the highest international level of ski and snowboard competitions (FIS World Cup). The sliding and ski jump venues would be hosted in an existing third country facility. It notes that Melbourne and/or Auckland, along with Queenstown is also a possible hosting combination.

The report’s author, Bruce McGechan, says, "Thomas Bach made the point yesterday in New Zealand, that the cost of hosting the Olympics has changed with the adoption of the Olympic Agenda 2020 report recommendations". McGechan goes on to say, "comparisons with Sochi 2014 Olympics are no longer appropriate because the new bidding process aims to reduce costs rather than bid them up as was the case previously."

The economic benefits are mainly tourism based. Firstly, the image of classic New Zealand alpine, lake, sea and city scenery shown to the 2 billion TV viewership of the games. This results in an incremental 4.5% increase in tourism visitation and expenditure for each of years 2027-2031.

Secondly, the US$880 million (NZ$1.1 billion) the IOC contributes to running the Olympics.

Thirdly, increasing New Zealand’s share of the Australian skier market from 7.5% to 25%, due to the credibility of the hosting the Olympic Winter Games coupled with the possible severe effects of climate change on Australian ski resorts.

The benefits include $454 million of extra international visitor expenditure and $394 million of Australian skier expenditure in each of the years 2027-2031. The costs include $500 million spent on five ice rink stadia in Auckland.

The report is only a preliminary or “Pre-Feasibility” report. It recommends the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) board asks the New Zealand Government to conduct a full feasibility study in 2015.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1505/OLYMPICWINTERGAMESNEWZEALAND2026PreFeasibility_Report6May2015.pdf

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