The sailing world championships in the Netherlands required 14 years of preparation

The Watersportverbond then commissioned Edwin in 2010 to submit a bid for the World Cup in 2014, together with the office of Trefpunt and the municipality of The Hague. A bid is a document in which all the plans of the organization are described, c so it’s quite a big document. Also called the specification.

Edwin: “After the rejection of the first bid, another chance for the World Cup in 2018 followed in 2014. We were then neck and neck with Aarhus, Denmark. They eventually won the auction. The content of the two proposals was similar, but Aarhus had a stronger financial guarantee.

Four years later, a new opportunity presented itself, but the Watersportverbon doubted he should try again. “The World Cup had already been held in Europe twice in a row by then, it would make sense if it was held outside Europe this time around,” Edwin said doubtfully. “Nevertheless, we finally decided to participate, if only to put ourselves on the map and show that we would like to organize the event. In fact, we made the offer with the hope that we wouldn’t get it. New Zealand was the contender, but we won the bid and were allowed to start running this large-scale event.

From prayer book to redeeming phone call

Now, it looks like not much effort has gone into this latest offering, but nothing could be further from the truth. Such a submission file is not an easy document to produce. Edwin must have written three of these books before the World Cup was awarded to the Netherlands. In doing so, he continued to build on previous bids and was present and/or involved in all World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

The whole process, from the offer to the organization, remains interesting. Edwin takes us on an overview of this process. “It starts with an open invitation, World Sailing publishes a document that contains the specifications that a World Cup must meet. Countries can then submit a cover letter, based on which World Sailing decides which parties can submit a bid. It is therefore a sort of pre-selection.

“After our cover letter was approved, we got to work putting together the application team. In our case, in 2018, the application for 2022 included the Watersportverbond as a sports association, Tig Sports as a sports marketing agency and the municipality of The Hague as a venue. All these parts contribute to the specification. The Watersportverbond in the field of competitive sports, Tig Sports with its logistics experience and as a financial carrier and the municipality of The Hague as a location. From all this information, a complete plan for the organization of the World Cup is created.

This application file is then submitted to World Sailing, on the basis of which they invite countries to further present the plans. In addition to the Netherlands, New Zealand was invited for this in 2018. “We were present with a five-person delegation from Watersportverband, Tig Sports and the municipality of The Hague. I remember Rabin Baldewsingh, then alderman for sports, giving a very strong speech, in which he explained why the World Cup really had to come to The Hague.

Apparently World Sailing agreed, a few weeks later Edwin got the redeeming phone call. The 2022 World Cup is definitely coming to Scheveningen!