According to a presentation of its financial plan Thursday, Hamburg’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games has an estimated budget of 11.2 billion euros ($12.6 billion) with 7.4 billion ($8.3 billion) to come from taxpayers.
The report was presented by Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz along with Christopp Krupp, head of the city senate.
The report estimated that the rest would come from revenue from the Games.
Scholz said that the “Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024 will cost less than the (2012) Olympic Games in London”.
The predicted costs were made up of an itemized list of almost 700 items with 600 million euros budgeted for the building of the stadium.
Hamburg residents are holding a referendum November 29 on whether the city’s bid proceeds. If the bid is confirmed, Hamburg will find out in September 2017 if it will host the Games after members of the International Olympic Committee vote for the winner during a Session in Lima, Peru.
For the referendum to be valid, 20 per cent of eligible voters – around 260,000 of Hamburg’s 1.3 million voters – must vote “yes” to the bid. If this threshold is not reached the city will be forced to withdraw the bid.
In 2013 German voters overturned a planned bid for a 2022 Winter Games in Munich just days before the application deadline. Later, four other European cities dropped bids that were already in process when political and economic issues got in the way.
Other cities bidding for the 2024 Games are Los Angeles, Paris, Rome and Budapest.
