It was decided Tuesday that a referendum will be held November 29 on whether Hamburg, Germany should bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
DPA reports the Hamburg senate will, on November 29, offer the statement, “I am in favour of the Germany Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) applying with the free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024”, with residents asked to respond either “yes” or “no”.
The DOSB has said it would not proceed with a Hamburg bid without a positive response from the referendum. In previous polls the majority of citizens were in favour of an Olympic bid.
Hamburg sports minister Michael Neumann said the cost of the referendum would be 4.8 million euros ($16.8 million) and the council would back a proposed bid with 15 million euros.
It has been agreed that the German federal government and the Hamburg business community would secure 55 million euros.
The DOSB must submit the name of its bid city to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by September 15, so if the referendum is defeated it will need to be withdrawn and no other German city can enter the race in its place.
Hamburg is competing against Rome and Boston – the latter facing its own binding referendum in November 2016. Both Paris and Budapest are also expected to enter the race.
Meanwhile, councillor Christoph Holstein and Nikolas Hill, chief of the Hamburg Olympic Bid, are on a five-day visit to Baku, Azerbaijan attending the first European Games. Holstein said, “we came to learn. And we came to get to know people”.
The IOC will elect its host in 2017 in Lima Peru.
