Budapest to bid for the 2024 Olympics

Hungarian Parliament voted to approve plans for Budapest to apply for hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The motion was supported by the governing parties as well as the radical right wing Jobbik party with most of the other, so-called 'democratic', opposition MPs opposed it, citing numerous problems the country should resolve before hosting the Olympics.

Zsolt Borkai, the President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB), was of the view that “today’s vote has an important message: sport brings people together and it is worth dealing with the idea or organizing the Olympic Games”.

A study prepared for MOB says hosting the Olympics could generate HUF 1,100 billion forints (EUR 3.5 billion) in revenues, well above the HUF 774 billion in required investments. However, critics state that most of the Olympic Games in the past well exceeded the initial budget and point to the 2017 World Aquatics Championships to be held in Budapest. The budget of this latter event was originally HUF 23 billion which has since risen to HUF 50 billion.

According to gamesbids.com, cities have until September 15 to enter bids for the 2024 Games and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide on a host city at a congress in Lima, Peru on September 15, 2017.

Other cities bidding for the 2024 Games include Boston, USA; Paris, France and Rome, Italy.

Hungary has never hosted an Olympics but has applied several times – the last time in 1960.