Ambassadors for Budapest 2024 Bid Boost Public Support for Olympic Games in Hungary's Capital

Nine leaders representing Hungarian society were announced today as Ambassadors for the Budapest 2024 Olympic Games Bid at a major media event on the historic Danube River.

Speaking from the floating Budapest 2024 Visitor’s Centre located on the Danube, Balázs Fürjes, Chairman of the Bid, said that the Ambassadors would add to strong and growing national support for the Olympic Games in Budapest.

"Our city is a strong contender with a master plan that turns Budapest into one, giant festival live site for Olympic sport. Our Ambassadors will help us to tell Budapest’s captivating story to the nation and to the world, inviting all of Hungary to join in."

Budapest’s Bid Ambassadors have made important contributions to Hungarian life and highlight the wide support across Hungary for the Budapest 2024 Olympic Bid. The Ambassadors will work closely with the Budapest 2024 Bid Committee and key stakeholders, including the Athletes Commission, to increase awareness of the Budapest Bid and its Games concept. This concept offers the Olympic Movement a fresh approach to staging the Games in more compact, affordable, and accessible city and regional settings in support of the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020 reforms.

The high-profile Ambassadors event featured a new video highlighting how plans for the Budapest Olympic Games would connect people and communities through sport. Ambassador György Habsburg, TV personality and journalist, believes that the Olympic Games represents a great opportunity not only for Hungary but for the entire Central European region.

"With the right plan and concept for an Olympic Games, then the whole region can benefit greatly," said Habsburg.

He added that he believes the preparation of the Budapest Bid is excellent based on his personal experience of Budapest 2024 initiatives such as the House of Hungary in Rio.

As one of several business leaders among the Bid Ambassadors, Christopher Mattheisen, CEO of Magyar Telekom, was quick to focus on the profitability of the Games. "The facilities are mostly already there," he said, "with just a few additional venues to build. It’s misleading to expect that an Olympic Games can be a profitable investment in two or three years – we need to take a twenty to thirty year perspective. Looking ahead in this way, I challenge Hungarians to dream big and to believe in the dream."

Mattheisen’s observation is at the very heart of the bid, which has a natural alignment to the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020, a new set of guidelines aimed at encouraging more sustainable and responsible Games hosts. Affordability is a key element of this programme and the IOC’s roadmap to the Games in 2024. In Budapest, the three additional venues to be built require an investment of just EUR 294 million, and, notably, more venue and infrastructure development has taken place in Budapest in the last seven years than would be needed in the seven-year lead-up to the Games.

Speaking more about the social element of Budapest’s Bid, Ambassador Nine leaders representing Hungarian society were announced today as Ambassadors for the Budapest 2024 Olympic Games Bid at a major media event on the historic Danube River.

Speaking from the floating Budapest 2024 Visitor’s Centre located on the Danube, Balázs Fürjes, Chairman of the Bid, said that the Ambassadors would add to strong and growing national support for the Olympic Games in Budapest., director of Zwack Unicum, noted that the visitors he encounters regularly in his work are, "without exception, amazed by the Hungarian capital."

This observation will come as no surprise to those familiar with the tourism and travel industry. Hungary’s tourism is growing at the fastest rate in Europe and this is due in part to both its sports tourism and festival tourism sectors. Ambassadors such as Zwack and Fruzsina Szép showing their backing for the bid sends a resonant message to young people. As a well-known festival city, Budapest already has a distinct appeal to the young people of Hungary and Central Europe and recent polls show that 74% of 18- to 33-year-olds would be "proud" or "very proud" if Budapest was given the opportunity to host the Games.

"An Olympic Games in Hungary will be more affordable, more compact, more festive, and more engaging for Hungarians, especially young people," said bid leader, Balázs Fürjes. Recent initiatives sponsored by Budapest 2024, such as the Budapest Urban Games and the Digital Innovation Competition, seek to engage the active and imaginative youth of the Hungarian capital, known for its entrepreneurial spirit.

The press conference took place in the free-to-enter Visitor Centre, housed on a 700-square-metre barge on the Danube. The famous waterway forms an "Olympic Blue lane" in the Budapest Games concept that would take athletes and officials between venues. The Visitor Centre is situated across from the much-photographed Parliament Building, one of several well-known symbols of the city and venue for the archery finals in the Budapest master plan.

The Budapest 2024 Ambassadors are:

●János Csák: former Ambassador to London, economist and sociologist; received the Hungarian Order of Merit Cross in 2010 in recognition of his work and community activities.

●Tamás Fellegi: lawyer and political scientist; former Minister of National Development and Minister without Portfolio.

●György Habsburg: Austro-Hungarian journalist, politician and public figure; acted as the President of Red Cross in Hungary; Hungary's Ambassador Extraordinary to the European Parliament in 1996.

●Professor János Martonyi: former Foreign Minister, jurist, diplomat and lawyer; winner of the Széchenyi prize this year for contributions to his academic field.

●Christopher Mattheisen: Hungarian-American businessman and economist; Chief Executive Officer of Magyar Telekom Plc, the largest telecommunications company in Hungary.

●Andrea Rost: opera singer and honorary citizen of Budapest; winner of both the Kossuth and Liszt Awards for her outstanding achievements in culture and the arts.

●Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy: economist and businessman; Managing Director of the Raiffeisen Bank International AG; former co-Chairman of the Hungarian Fencing Federation; founder of the Movement for the Budapest Olympics (BOM) – a civil group that has been working since 2005 to bring the Olympic Games to Hungary.

●Fruzsina Szép: Berlin Lollapalooza Festival Director for the third year running; Artistic Director at Lollapalooza for six years; board member of the Yourope European Festival Association; honorary Associate Professor.

●Sándor Zwack: Director of Zwack Unicum, one of Hungary’s oldest companies and producer of uniquely Hungarian herb liqueurs.

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