Oslo Bid Addresses Public Support Concerns

(ATR) Oslo 2022 chief executive Eli Grimsby tells Around the Rings she is confident a new PR campaign can boost flagging public support for the bid.

The Norwegian bid launched a national campaign on Facebook last week under efforts to improve awareness of the city’s Olympic ambitions.

The renewed drive to promote the bid’s benefits nationally comes in the wake of opinion poll results two weeks ago which revealed that nearly 60 percent of Norwegians were opposed to hosting the Games. The survey was commissioned by daily newspaper Klassekampen.

Grimsby said the social media campaign, which forms part of a bigger PR drive, aims to "make the bid more well-known and reassure about the facts… the costs and venues."

She said Oslo 2022 wanted the whole nation to "feel ownership of the bid" and for it to be portrayed as not just a bid for the capital of Norway.

The campaign will run over the coming months, beyond July and through the autumn if Oslo is shortlisted as a candidate city by the IOC.

"We need more people to say they would like to have the Games. I am not satisfied with the situation as it is, but it’s typical of Norwegians," she said.

Grimsby said Norwegians were by nature skeptical of anything new, whether it be building a new opera house or museum or, in this case, bidding to stage the Olympics.

"It’s not that problematic. What is good for us is to see is that young people, around 60 percent of the Norwegian public, say they would love to have the Games. That is important to us."

She said it was one of the strong motivations for politicians of Oslo and the sport federations of Norway to bid was "to give this generation their Lillehammer."

The Oslo 2022 bid team is currently working on a presentation to the IOC via video conference on May 8. The other four bids – Almaty, Beijing, Krakow, and Lviv – will also have separate conference calls with IOC officials that day.

The next Oslo bid milestone is in June when, she says, the government will make its recommendation to the Norwegian parliament about whether to back the bid. The final decision is due in the autumn, probably October.

"I do have good hopes. I am optimistic because I think we have done good work together with the sports federations," Grimsby said.

Her positivity also comes from some individual politicians from different parties who have already come out publicly in support of the bid.

"I am certain that there are many members of the parliament who remember Lillehammer and see the possibilities and opportunities a new Olympic Games could bring to Norway," she added. "It’s a big issue they are going to discuss it well."

Written by Mark Bisson

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