Weve lost all credibility, if we pull out, Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago said, ruling out an eventual bid for the 2028 Games, even from another Italian city. “We have hosted (Olympic) games and events in this community, and we have nearly more Olympians than any other major metropolitan area”.
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The Rome bid was approved by the city assembly past year with 38 votes in favor and only six against meaning Raggi may have to put the issue up for another vote to officially end the candidacy if she decides not to support it. He spoke after Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi yesterday nixed Rome’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics.
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”.
Virginia Raggi was elected as mayor in June, with her political party, the Five Star Movement, raising concerns about the cost of hosting the summer events.
If Los Angeles is selected as the host city in September 2017 then Long Beach staff will discuss more specifics about any costs and what that would mean for the city.
Rome joins Boston and Hamburg in withdrawing its bid to host the 2024 Games.
Raggi’s snub of the iconic games has effectively sunk the city’s chances of hosting the summer Olympics in 2024.
Rome 2024 leaders were present at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, though their profile was notably lower than that of rival campaigns. “We just don’t support it”, Raggi said on Wednesday.
We’re gonna give this round to Mayor Raggi (and the people of Rome and Italy). Add in all the flopping male genitals NBC viewers were exposed to over the fortnight-plus and I can see why Rome is reluctant to bring the Olympics back to the ancient city.
The International Committee will announce the 2024 host at its 130th Session in Lima next year. Revelations of systematic corruption involving Roman politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen in late 2014 prompted doubts about whether the city could handle work associated with the Olympics in a transparent way.
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People aren’t buying the Olympic hype anymore, for two main reasons – they don’t believe diving into the red to host the games will solve any of their chronic problems, and they’re getting exhausted of waiting for real progress on fixing those problems to begin with.
