The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is having trouble finding a host for the 2022 Winter Olympics with cities either dropping out of the bidding process or having failed to garner local support that has become hostile towards spending on huge international sporting events.

The IOC started the 2022 Olympic process with six potential cities -- Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing, China; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm, Sweden -- with options having dwindled down to four cities after Krakow dropped out of the bidding process last week after 70 percent of voters elected against having the Winter Games in their town.

"Krakow is closing its efforts to be the host of the 2022 Winter Games due to the low support for the idea among the residents," said Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski in a statement. "I regret that the referendum has put a definite end to the project that I considered to be very important for the development of the whole region."

Stockholm dropped out the process in January with Regina Kevius, Stockholm's mayor in charge of sports events, questioning the long-term benefits of building facilities specifically tailored from the Olympic Games and not the needs of the city -- such as the luge and bobsledding venues -- while Stockholm Mayor Sten Nordin (Stockholm has 13 mayors), who is in charge of the city's finances, questioned the numbers in the IOC budget proposal.

"Although the calculations are thorough, we estimate that revenues will likely be lower and costs higher than the investigation indicate," said Nordin in a statement at the time.

The IOC has encountered problems from the onset of the 2022 Winter Olympic bid process, with Munich, Germany and the joint bid of St. Moritz and Davos in Switzerland getting cold feet on the prospect of hosting the Games after citizens also struck down the idea, voting in local referendums against being involved in the process altogether.

"The vote is not a signal against the sport, but against the non-transparency and the greed for profit of the IOC," said Ludwig Hartmann, a state legislator and member of Germany's Green Party. "I think all possible Olympic bids in Germany are now out of question. The IOC has to change first. It's not the venues that have to adapt to the IOC, but the other way around."

The IOC is meeting resistance in Oslo, as well, from taxpayers not wanting to pony up the type of money that Russia spent on the 2014 Sochi games ($51 billion), while Lviv's bid may fall apart altogether under the weight of the political upheaval tearing the Ukraine apart, leaving the Olympic with the two options of Beijing and the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan.

IOC President Thomas Bach visited Norway last week looking to make sure Olso would continue with the process despite heavy public opposition but got no commitments from the Norwegian government, with a decision not expected by Norway officials until the Fall as to whether they will continue to pursue the Winter Olympics.

"People think it's too expensive to host a Winter Olympics now and that it may be too big. Some people feel that that kind of money should be spent for hospitals, roads and so on and so forth," said Gerhard Heiberg, the Norwegian International Olympic Committee who brought the 1994 Winter Olympics to Lillehammer and is working on Olso's bid. "There is a reaction to what people felt was too gigantic in Russia about the Games, and that we need to go back to the roots, if I can use that word, which should mean that Norway should absolutely be in the race. But some people say no, that it's too late, and we should pull out like other Western European countries have done."

Smith College sports economist Andrew Zimbalist points out that the alleged profits promised by the IOC rarely come to fruition pointing out the Olympic committee's definition of "profit" is open to interpretation.

"More often than not there is a deficit. Sometimes it's balanced, though it can be balanced by accounting chicanery," said Zimbalist. "And a few times there have been modest surpluses. But it just doesn't mean a heck of a lot.''