Dressage-News

Mar. 30, 2016

The International Equestrian Federation, FEI announced Thursday it has launched the bid process for the 2022 World Equestrian Games of dressage, eventing, jumping, driving, reining, vaulting, endurance and para-dressage.

The successful bid city will be announced at the FEI General Assembly in Montevideo, Uruguay in November, 2017.

Bidding opens two years before the world championships are to be held in Bromont, Canada.

Created in 1990, the World Games have been held every four years in the middle of the summer Olympic cycle.

“The FEI World Equestrian Games is one of the major events on the global sporting calendar and we are looking for host cities that can deliver an exceptional experience for both athletes and spectators,” FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez said.

“The FEI World Equestrian Games represents the greatest gathering of top-level equestrian athletes with eight world championships in one event, uniting our disciplines, our community and our fans. The 2014 Games in Normandy attracted more than 500,000 on-site spectators and a worldwide television audience of 350 million, as well as delivering an economic impact of €368/US$419 million to the French economy.

“As with all events of this scale, we have been carefully analyzing every aspect of our flagship event to make sure it continues to appeal to large audiences and attract media and television viewers. On the basis of this, we have been engaged in a lengthy consultation process with the greater equestrian community and global media representatives to make the FEI World Equestrian Games format more cost effective, more universal and ensure it continues to appeal to new fans.”

The bid process opened by asking interested countries to submit the Expression of Interest form by May 15. This will be followed by the applicant and questionnaire phase.

Following this, the bid process then enters the Applicant phase and Candidate phase.

Deadline for applicants to submit bid applications and questionnaires is August.

Candidates will be announced and provided with host agreements in December.

The FEI will conduct site visits and undergo questions and answers in May, 2017

June 2017: Deadline for submission of completed bids and signed host agreements is June, 2017\

From June through October the FEI will evaluate the bids.

b June – October 2017: FEI evaluation of Bids, including Bid presentations to FEI Evaluation Commission

November 2017: Final Candidate’s presentations will be made to the FEI Bureau in November, 2017 and the 2022 host city appointed.

The Games have had a checkered history following the first championships in Stockholm in 1990.

The 1994 Games in Deb Haag underwent serious economic difficulties while Ireland dropped out after winning the bid for 1998 and the Games were switched to Rome with months to go. Jerez de la Frontera in Spain in 2002 incurred long term financial obligations.

However, the Games in Aachen, Germany in 2006 were considered the best ever, both for operations and financial management.

Kentucky in 2010, the first Games to be organized outside Europe, led to a $100 million facelift of the Horse Park in Lexington and an operating budge of almost the same amount. The 2014 Games were considered by the organizers a financial success but the events spread out over widely separated venues led to complaints from both competitors and spectators.

The 2018 Games in Bromont were awarded after all other contenders dropped out.