Rome Mayor Supports Olympic Bid "With the Heart"

(ATR) The mayor of Rome wants to be sure his city can afford the 2024 Summer Olympics.

"I’m already there [supporting the bid] with the heart," said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, according to Rainews24.

"But a city is governed by the brain, and with the brain I have to take into account some facts."

Marino’s concerns stem from the city’s previous turns hosting large-scale sporting events.

"As mayor, I still have to pay some of the debts of the 1960 Olympics. We have to remember what happened with the World Cup in 1990 when a railroad was built that ran for just eight days."

Last month, IOC president Thomas Bach received a commitment from Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) chief Giovanni Malago at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

After the meeting, Bach credited Renzi for his "in-depth knowledge … of Olympic Agenda 2020, including the opportunities it offers for bidding cities."

At the same time, Malago admitted the weakness of the bid "is … Italy, with all its problems that we know about and we hope to put behind us."

Rome is one of two cities to officially declare themselves candidates to host the 2024 Games. Boston is the other.

Germany plans to submit a bid from either Hamburg or Berlin. Paris and Budapest are working on bid studies with Baku and Doha also open to the possibility.

The deadline to submit a bid for 2024 is September.

Written by Nick Devlin

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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