But Virginia Raggi has run headlong into controversy just months after her election by dropping the city’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
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“Following an in-depth analysis, we believe the conditions for the ongoing candidacy of the city of Rome for the 2025 Olympics and Paralympics aren’t there”, Raggi said at a news conference.
She produced figures on the debts that previous Olympic host cities have incurred.
That would leave only Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest as candidates with a decision due in September 2017.
The report, published in July, concluded that “for a city and nation to decide to stage the Olympic Games is to take on one of the most costly and financially most risky types of mega-project that exists, something that many cities and nations have learned to their peril”.
Malago had previously pledged that the estimated 5.3-bn-euro budget for the 2024 Games would come exclusively from the Olympic Committee, sponsors and state coffers. Boston, Hamburg, and Toronto had all dropped out of the bidding in the past year or so.
The Rome bid was approved by the city assembly a year ago with 38 votes in favor and only six against – meaning Raggi will have to put the issue up for another vote to officially end the candidacy.
Malago, who is now expected to turn to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for continued support of Roma2024, says he won’t give up hope until the bid is dead and buried.
“Sport was an integral part of our electoral campaign, but we don’t want it to be used as a pretext to a building spree around the city”.
It would be “irresponsible” to try to secure the Games when Rome had so many other problems to address, she said.
The announcement was a blow to the International Olympic Committee, which is struggling to convince cities of the economic benefits of hosting the Games.
Malago said the committee would continue working on the bid in the absence of a formal vote, noting the next dossier must be submitted to the IOC on October 7. “We entered this race to win it”, Budapest organizing committee chairman Balazs Furjes said.
While the Roma 2024 campaign has not formally abandoned its bid, organisers had already suggested that the mayor’s support would be necessary to continue.
It could also be another stinging blow for the IOC’s “Olympic Agenda 2020” program, which was created to make bidding for and hosting the games more flexible and more affordable.
Raggi succeeded the controversial Ignazio Marino in October 2015 after promising to “fight corruption and bring back Rome’s splendour”.
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“It’s very upsetting”, bid vice president Luca Pancalli said after Raggi’s announcement.
