[UTVLifer]

Exactly. IMO Thomas Bach has been a disaster for the IOC, taking coverage away from free to air TV in it's European heartland and also making a mess of the bidding process by basically taking it behind closed doors. Brisbane 2032 is basically a retirement present for an Aussie IOC member and they're currently looking at building a temporary athletics stadium smaller than what Birmingham had for the Commonwealth Games.

Business wise as is so often the case the short term gain is usually short sighted. We saw with the BBC how they basically ended up paying Discovery more for less (though as you say a bad deal on the BBC's part) - but it just shows that it's likely had the IOC gone directly to the EBU and PSBs they could have made more money themselves rather than gifted the profit to Discovery.

The Bach era has been a disaster on many levels, with the IOC shoving the European PSBs to one side of in favour of a big deal with Discovery, but particularly with the new bidding process.

Back in 2017, there was two sets of games handed out at once (2024 and 2028), which went to France and the US, and now we’re about to see the same again in the next few weeks with the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games all-but set to go to the French Alps and Salt Lake City, not exactly great for the long-term sustainability of the games.

And with the removal of the 7 year limit for approving hosts before the games, whilst yes it allows LA28 and Brisbane 2032 more time to prepare, but it now also leaves the French Government with less than 6 years to prepare for hosting the 2030 Winters (assuming it’d all rubber-stamped as expected at the upcoming IOC session) not long after hosting an expensive summer games in Paris