Despite the ever-inflating budget associated with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, as well as the just-announced estimated $15 billion cost of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the city of Budapest, Hungary maintains support for its 2024 Summer Olympic Games bid.
We reported earlier this month how, on a local level, the Budapest City Council voted against a public referendum on the bid, thus enabling the Budapest 2024 endeavor to keep plowing ahead. Now, Hungary’s central government has given a huge supportive boost, this week committing 15 billion HUF (USD $52 million) instead of the originally planned 10 billion HUF (USD $35 billion) towards the city’s Olympic bid, according to GamesBids.
With this additional influx of funds, in combination with corporate contributions, the total bid budget is estimated to be 19 billion HUF (USD $66 billion). The National Development Minister Miklós Seszták will provide, 9.5 billion in each of 2016 and 2017. For those corporations who contribute, tax credits will be given, effectively ‘rerouting the tax payments from the central government to fund the bid.’
Budapest remains as one of four candidates in the running to host the world’s largest competitive sporting event in 2024. Paris, Los Angeles and Rome are also under consideration, with the International Olympic Committee naming the official host in September 2017.
With Hungary having never hosted an Olympics before, it would certainly be great to have Budapest do this if all the facilities, logistics, etc. can be worked out & financed well.