Paris mayor remains concerned about the city's 2024 Olympic bid
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told a French television station in an interview on Tuesday that she’s generally supportive of a bid to host the 2024 Olympic games, but still has concerns about the costs and the environmental impact that hosting would impose on the French capital.
“My heart is rather with sports and the game but at the same time I’m not ready to do any old thing,” Hidalgo said. “If we can win, we’ll go for them. But there is not a single city that got involved with the games that made economic benefits from them.”
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Hidalgo will receive a feasibility study Thursday outlining Paris’ ability to host the games and is expected to decide by June whether the city that held the Olympics in both 1900 and 1924 should seek a third opportunity to host the games.
Hidalgo also has reservations about Paris’ ability to bid for both the 2024 Olympics and the 2025 World Expo, saying "it's unreasonable" to campaign for both events at the same time.
“At one point we’ll need to choose,” said Hidalgo. “We don’t have to do it right now, but we’ll be forced to make a decision for the games in June at the latest.”
Despite Hidalgo's reservations, a recent poll showed that 73 percent of the French public would be supportive of Paris' bid. The city unsuccessfully sought the games in 1992, 2008 and 2012.
Bids for the 2025 Expo are due next year in advance of a vote in 2018. The Olympic bid must be in by September, with voting by the International Olympic Committee to be conducted in 2017.
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The only declared bids for 2024 thus far are Rome and Boston. Germany is deciding between Berlin and Hamburg and there is still a possibility South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Budapest, Hungary and Baku, Azerbaijan may make proposals, as well.
- Phil Watson
