Hamburg drops 2024 Games bid after referendum defeat

It was the second Olympic bid turned down in the country within two years, after the locals also vetoed a Munich bid for the 2022 Winter Games in November 2013.

Close to 52 percent voted against the $7.84 billion project that was bidding along with Los Angeles, Rome, Paris, and Budapest to host the world’s biggest multi-sports event.

“The senate and myself would have wished a different result but it is clear”.

Hill said the latest result was “not going to make it easier in the future (for Germany) to get into the Olympics”.

“The city (Hamburg) also misses the investment of the International Olympic Committee of about $1.7 billion to the success of the Games, which compares to the 1.2 billion euro Hamburg wanted to invest”, said the International Olympic Committee spokesman.

“That’s a decision that we didn’t want, but it’s clear”, Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz said in the BBC report.

The 2024 Summer Olympics location is down to four cities after a majority of residents in Hamburg, Germany, voted Sunday against hosting the games.

The ultimate host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be selected in the year 2017 from the list of viable candidates.

“The result was heavily influenced by the conditions”, Hoermann said. Now just 4 cities remain in the bidding competition. With this decision a great opportunity for the city, the country and the sport in Germany is lost.

“With these strong competitors we all can look forward to exciting Olympic Games 2024, whoever the victor will be”. “People can see that there are things where the money is better spent”.

He blamed the 2006 World Cup scandal, Paris’ terror attacks and uncertainty caused by the refugee crisis for the defeat.

The IOC said in an emailed statement that it wasn’t surprised by the decision, having followed discussions in Germany in recent weeks.

“The referendum took place in a situation that was quite extraordinary for both sports and all of society, but we have to live with that, and that’s the way it is: We of course fully and utterly accept the fact that the majority of citizens at present do not support a candidacy for the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.