DPA/Hamburg
The race to host the 2024 Olympics begins in earnest when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announces the official list of bidders today.
Five cities are expected to be on the starting block after the deadline for bids to be submitted passes at midnight Tuesday.
Paris, Rome and Hamburg have sent their formal bids to the IOC in Lausanne, with Los Angeles and Budapest expected to follow. One potential candidate, Toronto, confirmed yesterday it would not to be in contention.
The successful hosts of this summer’s Pan American Games were unwilling to go ahead without sponsorship backing and support of the Ontario province.
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku has also been mulling another bid after hosting the first European Games in June. But there has been no clear recent position from authorities in the city, which failed in bids for the 2016 and 2020 Games,
The northern German port of Hamburg meanwhile believes it can pass the hurdle of a November 29 public referendum. A no vote would end the bid.
Olaf Scholz, the mayor of Hamburg, said last week he was confident there would be “a large majority” in favour of the Olympics. A survey this week showed that a majority of Germans support the bid - but most think the city won’t win.
In Rome, which hosted the 1960 Olympics, a poll in December showed 56 per cent of resident were against the Games.
The Rome bid formally submitted last week emphasised the city’s “incomparable beauty”, adding: “No other city in the world can offer an artistic, historical and cultural heritage that stretches over such an ample arc of time, which will allow Olympic competitions to be held in the most spectacular and symbolic places of the Eternal City.”
Los Angeles, which has hosted the Games twice before in 1932 and 1984, stepped in after Boston pulled out over cost concerns.
LA’s 4.1-billion-dollar bid proposal estimates the private sector will pay more than 1.7 billion in additional venue costs.
Scott Blackmun, the executive in charge of the US Olympic Committee, has highlighted Los Angeles’ “proven experience” in hosting the games, saying the city in California knows how to deliver “world-class events for athletes.”
In Paris, a majority in the city support the bid which hopes to bring the games back to the French capital for the first time in 100 years.
In formally submitting its bid last week, Paris said it would “build a project which is unforgettable, innovative, responsible and sustainable.”
Budapest announced its intention to bid in July. Officials said at the time that the city’s bid would fit the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms for a more economical and sustainable games.
