How Salt Lake City and Its Rival Bidders Campaigned for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games

Abstract

Using an archive study and a survey, the authors have examined how the bid committees of the four finalist cities formulated and communicated their bids for selection as hosts to the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The aim was to identify the bidders' views regarding the appropriateness of the messages and messengers chosen, the other actors involved, and the channels of communication selected in order to win. The response from the winner, Salt Lake City, indicated that messages with little or nothing to do with the organizing of the Olympic Winter Games were of almost equal importance to those describing the implementation of the proposed Games. Compared to the other bidders, Salt Lake City considered the nonverbal components consisting of messengers, other actors, and channels to be far more influential on the choices made by IOC members. Only one representative of a bidding committee thought that it was very important to the IOC members that the candidate cities followed the IOC's bidding rules.