Budapest 2024 Farewell, IOC Blames Politics

(ATR) A letter to IOC members says local politics derailed the Budapest 2024 Olympic bid.

The prime minister of Hungary ordered an end to the bid this week instead of facing a referendum among voters in Budapest. The Momentum political party led a petition campaign to force a referendum, gathering about 250,000 signatures.

The demise of the Budapest candidacy means the race is down to Los Angeles and Paris.

In a letter to IOC members, IOC presidential spokesman Mark Adams says the Budapest bid is a victim: "…it is clear that a promising Olympic Games candidature has been used to promote a broader domestic political agenda beyond the Olympic Games and was overtaken by local politics," he writes in the brief communiqué.

In a farewell press release, Budapest 2024 chair Balasz Furjes offers further explanation of the political situation with Momentum.

"Unfortunately, the full support we had previously enjoyed fractured earlier this month when mainstream opposition parties u-turned on their backing for the bid in order to join the Momentum campaign. We have always made it clear that cross-party political support was a crucial condition for a viable bid."

Furjes says the bid will be officially withdrawn by a vote from the Hungarian Olympic Committee, likely within the week.

Now with just two cities left in the race, the question for the IOC is whether to find a way to award Olympic Games to both Los Angeles and Paris, for 2024 and 2028. In his letter, Adams suggests that some sort of bold move may still be coming.

"On the other hand, the political situation in our fragile world requires us to further adjust the candidature procedure. Under these new conditions, as the President has already noted, the process produces too many losers," Adams says, referencing remarks in December from Thomas Bach.

Those comments were the first suggestion that the IOC might be considering a change in how it handles Olympic bids following the seeming unending string of withdrawals due to politics. In the current race for 2024, bids from Boston, Hamburg and Rome preceded Budapest in quitting the campaign.

For the U.S. and France, the 2024 bids are the third put forward by each country in the past decade without success so far. There are some insiders who say that the losing bidder won’t come back for many years.

In his letter, Adams says while changes may be coming to the bid process, the impact of the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms has had a positive impact.

"We can appreciate the success of Olympic Agenda 2020 as far as the organisation of sustainable Olympic Games which fit into the long term development plan of a city, region and country are concerned. Indeed, all three candidates have made it clear that their candidatures would not have taken place without Olympic Agenda 2020," says Adams.

Furjes credits Olympic Agenda 2020 for inspiring the bid.

"The Games in 2024 would have accelerated the long-term development plan for the city, thereby greatly improving the lives of the citizens of Budapest and Hungary, with benefits in many areas including public transport, employment, housing and accessibility. This was a great opportunity for young Hungarians to show to the world their great sporting prowess, creativity, innovation and business acumen. Ours was a bid that also had the potential to reach new audiences in the Central European region, leaving fantastic sport legacy for 150 million people.

"Our model offered a vision for change, especially relevant for those mid-sized cities that dare to bid for the Games. We believe that we have brought hope to cities like Budapest all around the world, by showing that the Olympic Games can be accessible to everyone, transforming mid-sized cities in ways that simply cannot be achieved in a developed metropolis," Furjes says.

If there is serious interest by the IOC in tinkering with the rules for the current Olympic bid process, the first steps may need to be taken at the IOC Executive Board meeting set for mid-March in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2024 Olympics is scheduled to travel Los Angeles in late April followed by Paris in May.

In July the IOC membership meets in Lausanne for a technical review of the two bids and the report of the evaluation commission. The vote on a host city is set for Sep. 13 at the IOC Session in Lima, Peru.

Written by Ed Hula.

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