The Prague Assembly decided after a two-hour heated debate Thursday that Prague City Hall will continue preparations for a 2016 or 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
A large majority of the assembly voted for a further analysis to be undertaken following the zoning and economic analysis already done.
Prague’s Mayor Pavel Bem first announced the city’s Olympic ambitions during the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) summit in Prague in July 2003 and last October the Mayor said he had prepared a team to assess what the city would need to do to win an Olympic bid.
Many assembly members had doubts about the bid, pointing out the high costs, while saying that Prague is too small and lacks infrastructure as the hot. The assembly also doubted how the facilities would be used after the Games.
Other assembly members pointed out that the bid would help the city’s economic development and that it was not a decision to undertake a bid in itself, but only to further study the idea.
Mayor Bem said, “we are not deciding anything but whether we want further data or not”. He added that a number of steps have to be taken before any final decision is made.
