The International Olympic Committee has three official candidates to host the 2026 Winter Games and a new timetable to pick the winner.
Now the Olympic body needs to ensure all three candidates stay on the ballot next June, IOC members were told Tuesday as opposition over the hosting costs intensify.
"We have to make a huge effort in explaining ourselves better," IOC vice president Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. said.
"It is not getting across with sufficient strength."
The 2026 Olympics contest is between Calgary, Canada; Stockholm, Sweden; and the combined Italian bid of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo after IOC members formally backed the bids recommended last week by their executive board.
A fourth contender, Erzurum in Turkey, was dropped by the board last week amid concern about high spending on essential projects.
Calgary, which hosted in 1988, could yet drop out after a November 13 referendum. Full support of federal and local governments is also not guaranteed in Sweden or Italy.
These are the latest public tests of trust in Olympic hosting since Russia spent $51 billion ($A71.6 billion) to prepare for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
Samaranch, who led the IOC panel studying 2026 contenders, suggested some opposition was by "people that do that on bad faith," and urged Olympic officials to fight with facts.
"Be ready to debate with whoever because we are very much right," Samaranch told fellow members.
"The magic of the Olympic Games, the good things, do not come at a significant financial burden, or risk for the communities that will host us."
Members were told the three candidates are set to have an average operations budget of $1.7b ($A2.4b) - $300m ($A421m) less than the 2022 Beijing Winter Games
"Any of the three would be a very good trustworthy partner for us," said Samaranch, promising no unwanted "white elephant" venues.
The 2016 election timetable has been brought forward three months due to the Italian bid.
The IOC agreed to stage the next meeting in its home city of Lausanne, Switzerland, around the June 23 inauguration of its new $200m ($A280.9m) headquarters.
