The IOC also "demanded control over all advertising space throughout Oslo" to be used exclusively by IOC's sponsors, something that is not possible in Norway because Norway is a liberal democracy where the government doesn't own or control "all advertising space throughout Oslo" and has no authority to give a foreign private organization exclusive use of a city and the private property within it.

[3] Several commentators pointed out that such demands were unheard of in a western democracy; Slate described the IOC as a "notoriously ridiculous organization run by grifters and hereditary aristocrats.

[11] Ole Berget, deputy minister in the Finance Ministry, said "the IOC's arrogance was an argument held high by a lot of people.

[14] This prompted the Norwegian Olympic Committee to withdraw the bid 6 October 2008, citing inter alia responsibility to avoid unwarranted public spending.

[21] However, Oslo was selected without much public deliberation in October 2011 after the seven major winter sports organizations decided to back the capital.

[23] On 9 June 2012, the annual assembly of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports voted in favor of the Oslo 2022 bid with a majority of 142–15.

[26] Around the same time, the Socialist Left decided not to back the bid, the first political party to adopt a position on a national level.

19 June 2013, the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Oslo had put forward their application for funding and guarantee to the Ministry of Culture (Norway).

[33] Børre Rognlien had initially stated that the Norwegian Olympic Committee required public support of 60% of the population to move forward with the bid.

Controversies around the IOC reprimanding the Norwegian cross country skiers for wearing mourning bands,[37] as well as general criticism concerning costs and other issues, made support drop even further.

[38] On 9 March 2014, former leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports Hans B. Skaset explained how the Olympic Charter secured IOC control of the event, while leaving the financial risk with the host city.

[39] The minister of culture, Thorhild Widvey, responded by declaring that the Norwegian government would reserve itself against the relevant provisions of the Olympic Charter.

[42] 4 May 2014, the Progress Party (junior coalition partner in government) voted no to provide a state financial guarantee for the Olympic bid at their annual conference.

[51] Thorhild Widvey had not informed the public that the reservation towards the Olympic Charter had been withdrawn, but this became known at the beginning of August, causing considerable adverse reactions.

[59] However, in the last couple of days leading up to the deliberation in the Conservative Party, there was a series of negative developments for the bid, including: the Centre Party saying "no" through a grass root vote;[9] a poll showing that even within the Norwegian Confederation of Sports, the majority of members opposed the bid;[60] and an external revision which clarified that the revised cheaper budget was unrealistic.

[62] An exposé by the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang allegedly revealed extravagant hospitality demands made by the IOC.

[66] Various members of the Conservative Party cited lack of public support and enthusiasm, high costs and unreasonable IOC demands as the main reasons for the caucus' negative decision.

[67] The conclusion meant that a majority of the members of parliament were now opposed to the bid, leading Oslo 2022 to withdraw its application for state funding and financial guarantee.

IOC claimed "senior politicians in Norway appear not to have been properly briefed on the process and were left to take their decisions on the basis of half-truths and factual inaccuracies".

[72] Conservative MP Svein Harberg, a prominent supporter of the bid,[73][74] commented the attack from IOC stating "I was quite shocked about this at first (...) I was angry when I looked at it.

CEO of Oslo 2022, Eli Grimsby, presented the evaluation with the main conclusion that the distance between the spirit of the Norwegian people and the Olympic movement was too large.

The evaluation concluded among other things that the bid suffered from poor communication, bad organization, and lack of support on the grass root level of the sporting confederation.

[77] The DOSB also criticized the withdrawal of candidacy with the following statement: "We regret that Oslo is no longer eligible for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

"[78] In the application for state funding and financial guarantee, Oslo 2022 calculated gross total costs at 33,7 billion NOK.

[30] DNV GL also conducted a socio-economical assessment, concluding that for the economy overall the games overall led to a negative net result of 15 890 million NOK in monetary terms.

Oslo bid to host the 1932 and 1944 Winter Olympics but lost to Lake Placid and Cortina d'Ampezzo respectively (the 1944 games were cancelled because of World War II).

The city also bid to host the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics but failed to become a candidate (the games were ultimately awarded to Innsbruck).