"Sion 2026. The Games in the Heart of Switzerland": Feasibility Dossier Sent to the Federal Government

The Bid Committee and Swiss Olympic today sent their feasibility dossier for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to the Swiss Federal government and the cantons supporting the project, thus meeting the deadline of 5 August 2017 set by the government and nearly eight and a half years before the Games are set to begin.

This dossier is divided into three sections:

1. The technical dossier, comprising the general design concept, the venues and the various related options, the Sion Olympic Village and additional accommodation arrangements, and the strategies for transport, accommodation and security on the venues.

2. The budget dossier, prepared strictly in line with the principle of prudence and including an organisational budget and a budget for investments in long-term sporting and non-sporting infrastructure.

The organisational expenses amount to CHF 1.86 billion, including CHF 150 million for hosting the Paralympic Winter Games and CHF 100 million which the Committee intends to invest in an independent Olympic legacy foundation. This foundation would be set up to launch innovative projects that emerge out of the Games and to ensure a lasting legacy for the whole of Switzerland. The projects are to be catalogued and considered for future implementation in consultation with the public authorities.

Organisational income totalling CHF 1.35 billion will be generated from the IOC’s contribution, ticket sales and sponsorship.

The investments in the long-term sporting and non-sporting infrastructure will cost CHF 93 million as existing facilities will be able to be used.

The public security budget, which is the responsibility of the Federal government and the cantons, is currently being drafted.

Thanks to the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020, to a multi-site concept and to the use of facilities already in place, the detailed budgets broadly confirm existing forecasts – the 2026 Games will cost less than previous bids.

3. An interim report on the legacy that the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games could leave in ten different areas – economy, tourism, education, culture, health, agriculture, innovation, environment, social integration and sport. This document sets the framework which will enable the Games to deliver the momentum and programmes Switzerland needs in order to be further inclusive, open, active and innovative.

Over 60 people were involved in preparing the feasibility dossier, including staff, consultants and experts. They were led by the Bid Committee, which has held more than 15 plenary sessions following the Swiss Sport Parliament’s decision on 11 April this year to ratify the Sion bid.

The dossier will now be subjected to a plausibility review by the Swiss Federal Office of Sport (FOSPO), its consultants and the various Federal services involved, which have been brought together in an interdepartmental working group (IdAG).

At the same time, several meetings between the city authorities in Sion, the cantons supporting the bid and the Federal government have been scheduled for the next few weeks to discuss the implementation of the project and the coordination of its financing.

As for the IOC, it has announced that, from the autumn, it will provide the resources required to look into synergy effects and ways of reducing the overall cost of the Games together with the bid committees. Thanks to these measures, significant savings should be achieved.

The Bid Committee, in agreement with the Swiss Federal Council, will communicate in more detail in September once the initial results of the Federal government’s plausibility review are known.

Jürg Stahl, President of Swiss Olympic and Vice-Chairman of the Sion 2026 Bid Committee, was enthusiastic: "We are taking another step forward and I am delighted with how the Sion 2026 bid and Swiss Olympic teams have worked together. An enormous amount has been achieved in the past three months. The result confirms that the dossier is viable and that we have a real chance of seeing a Swiss bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games making it onto the international stage."

Jean-Philippe Rochat, Chairman of the Sion 2026 Bid Committee, expressed his confidence in the dossier: "The extremely comprehensive feasibility dossier that we have just submitted confirms not only that organising the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Switzerland in 2026 is fully achievable but also that a project like this will give an amazing boost to efforts aimed at tackling the challenges that Switzerland will face in the near future. Compiling the dossier would not have been possible without very solid backing from Swiss Olympic, the Swiss Federal Office of Sport and the International Olympic Committee, which is already implementing its support for bids as announced in its Olympic Agenda 2020. We are continuing our work with confidence and enthusiasm."

Matthias Remund, Director of FOSPO and an observer on the Sion 2026 Bid Committee, said: "I would like to thank the Bid Committee, which has done a great deal of work in a very short amount of time, and to acknowledge the energy and enthusiasm that make the Sion 2026 project what it is. Together with the cantons, the Federal government will now carry out an analysis of the project’s plausibility in the expectation that this will lay the foundations for a bid that will act as a unifying and structuring force for Switzerland’s future."

For more information, please contact:

Swiss Olympic

Fabio Gramegna, Media & Information: +41 (0)31 359 71 45

Sion 2026 Bid Committee

Jean-Philippe Rochat, Chairman of the Sion 2026 Bid Committee: +41 (0)79 210 84 23

FOSPO

Matthias Remund, Director of FOSPO: +41 (0)79 301 84 00

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