Rome mayor opposes staging 2024 Olympic, effectively killing bid

Rome’s new mayor has officially opposed her city’s campaign to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, all but dooming the bid and leaving Los Angeles with one fewer competitor in a shrinking field.

Raggi, who was elected in June representing the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, campaigned with the message that an Olympic bid was unsustainable for a city struggling to emerge from years of corruption and poor public services.

“It would be irresponsible for us to support this candidacy”, the London Daily Telegraph quoted Ms. Raggi from a September 21 news conference.

In essence, Ms Raggi said that while she had “nothing against the Olympics”, she feared that the 2024 Games would be used as an excuse for building speculation all around Rome.

Raggi said it would be financially “irresponsible” to pursue the bid any further given the city is barely able to get its trash picked up. Lately, getting to host the Olympics has felt more like a booby prize than a financial boon.

The announcement will add to concerns that the Olympic Games are increasingly being viewed with scepticism by potential host cities who worry about costs, environmental concerns, and the objections of local citizens.

Voters in Hamburg rejected the German city’s 2024 bid in a referendum. “We are going on until the formal decision”.

Now, Los Angeles will be competing with Paris and Budapest to host the Olympics in eight years. “Romans don’t want that”, she said, according to Reuters. Despite the unknown of what will ultimately happen with Rome, there’s undeniable excitement from the LA84 Foundation, which serves as a legacy to the 1984 Summer Games with more than $230 million invested in Southern California communities over the last three decades.

We’re gonna give this round to Mayor Raggi (and the people of Rome and Italy).

The decision came at a time when Raggi has come under pressure to right the course of her administration following a series of personnel issues, and when Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi, who enthusiastically launched the bid in December 2014, is facing a hard referendum this autumn that could – at least temporarily – end his career in politics. The organizing committee’s slick website says the bid focuses on “sustainability and fiscal responsibility”, which sounds great in theory but promises are plentiful at this stage and results are rare.

“The debts related to the Torino winter Games in 2006 are still ongoing”.

The Sochi winter Games in 2014 spiralled to over $51 billion (45.6bn euros).

Planned 2022 bids by Munich and St. Moritz-Davos in Switzerland were dropped earlier.

The mayor has had a rough start since taking office, with her administration falling into disarray over a spate of resignations and judicial inquiries.

Raggi succeeded the controversial Ignazio Marino in October 2015 after promising to “fight corruption and bring back Rome’s splendour”.