Rome’s Olympic dreams may become out of reach for many years should the city’s Mayor Virginia Raggi cancel the 2024 Games bid, as expected, later this month. Italy’s pro-Olympic bid Premier Matteo Renzi says that if Rome is out for 2024 then he’ll push to go with a different city and try again to host in 2028 instead, according to an AP report.
Renzi said, “the decision is up to the city and we’ll accept that, it’s either yes or no”, adding “if the city decides no, it means that for 2028 we’ll bid with another city.”
A poll released Tuesday by Italian think tank CENSIS shows that 51.9 per cent support the city’s bid for the 2024 Games with 32.5 per cent against. But Raggi was elected this year on an anti-Olympic bid platform promising instead to focus funds on needed infrastructure and services – and not to organize an Olympic Games.
Rome also dropped out of the 2020 Olympic bid race after the federal government denied the required financial support for the Games amid a severe economic crisis in Italy. Rome had been selected for the national nomination over Venice to bid for those Games.
Rome last hosted the Games in 1960.
Rome is bidding among Los Angeles, Paris and Budapest to host the Games in 2024. The IOC will elect the winning city in September 2017.
