Prague’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games will not get financial guarantees from the government, even if the city makes the short list of contenders, Czech Premier Mirek Topolánek says in a Czech News Agency report.
“We merely signed a declaration stating that we would respect the Olympic Charter,” Topolánek told Czech Parliament Thursday. “If Prague were to get on the ‘short list’, which I don’t expect, and the government were asked to give [financial guarantees] I guarantee you that it will not give them.”
The Prague Post reports that earlier this month, the cabinet agreed to legal guarantees regarding the Games over the protests of coalition partners. Those include respect for the Olympic Charter and free entry into the country for accredited participants of the games. However, ministers stressed that this did not mean a future commitment to financial guarantees.
According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers economic study, the Czech government would need to invest 88 billion Kè ($5.03 billion) into the Games, of which 25 billion Kè would be expected to come from the national budget. Another estimated 500 billion Kè would be required to build new infrastructure.
