Hamburg’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics on Sunday faces a crucial referendum in the German city with the vote on the Summer Games set to go to the wire.
Hamburg faces stiff competition from Budapest, Paris, Los Angeles and Rome to host the 2024 Olympics, with a decision to be made at an International Olympic Committee meeting in Peru on Sept. 13, 2017.
Residents in Hamburg and Kiel, Germany, where the sailing events are planned to be held, are to make their feelings known when the results are revealed on Sunday night — and support seems to be dropping.
Photo: EPA
According to a survey commissioned by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DSOB) earlier this month, only 56 percent of Hamburg residents wanted their city to host the games — down from 63 percent in September.
In order for the bid to continue, a majority is required and at least 260,000 residents, about 20 percent, need to vote for Sunday’s final figure to be valid, but nearly 500,000 have already sent in absentee votes.
The DSOB opted for Hamburg over Berlin and the public has the power to veto the plans — as Bavarian residents did in November 2013 when they blocked Munich’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“We are confident about the referendum at the weekend, despite all the outside influences,” DOSB chief executive officer Michael Vesper said.
The proposed total budget of the mammoth project currently stands at 11.22 billion euros (US$11.94 billion) and would attempt to revitalize Hamburg’s docks with many venues planned to be within walking distance of the city center.
Key personalities from across Germany’s sporting landscape, such as Joachim Loew, who coached the soccer team to their World Cup triumph last year, have voiced their support.
However, the “outside influences” Vesper mentioned come in the form of Hamburg-based group “NOlympics Hamburg: Something Better than the Olympics” — which has been campaigning hard against the bid.
They point to the staggering cost of hosting Games, adding that modern Olympics carry the massive burden of urban development, plus social and environmental issues.
All this while the city of Hamburg currently struggles to complete a number of building projects.
The NOlympics campaign has labeled the Summer Games “a money-burning machine,” which “speeds up gentrification” and is “not sustainable.”
Nevertheless, the idea of hosting the Olympics remains popular with Germany’s youth — whose taxes are to ultimately pay for it if hosted — as 71 percent, of those between 14 and 29 years of age polled across the country, were in favor.
“The results confirm our impression that people tend to take a now-or-never attitude when it comes to sports events,” DOSB president Alfons Hoermann said.
The recent terror attacks in Paris have brought the question of security for the Hamburg bid into question, but Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz has said he would not increase the bid’s security budget for the time being.
“No one can say what will be needed in 2024, which is why I am cautious,” Scholz told the Hamburg Abendblatt newspaper.
“Our calculation is made on the basis of good advice and what we think are very plausible assumptions,” Scholz added.
Currently, 461 million euros have been allocated for security, a significant decrease from the 1.7 billion euros London spent on security at the 2012 Olympics, but the figure could rise.
“This shows that we need to repeatedly update our overview of the situation,” Scholz added.
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