The Budapest City Council on Wednesday approved the proposed venues where the capital would organise the 2024 Olympic Summer Games. The council approved two venues made up of altogether seven clusters for the Olympics: the Danube area made up of Margaret Island, the Olympic Park and Óbuda Island with the second venue encompassing the Heroes’ Square, Puskás Ferenc Stadium, Fair Centre and Népliget (People’s Park).
Proposed venues in Budapest for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games (source: origo.hu)
The venues were approved with 21 votes in favour, 1 against and 9 abstentions. The council rejected an initiative by the Socialists, green LMP, the Democratic Coalition and the Dialogue for Hungary party in which they again proposed holding a referendum on Budapest’s Olympic bid. The proposal said the Olympics is a “very good” opportunity to carry out urban development projects, and the capital’s bid will further encourage completing the development projects currently on the agenda. The bid will allow for the completion of a complex development concept as opposed to simple “isolated projects”. Under the proposal, the Olympic Park located near the Danube in southern Budapest would feature the track and field stadium, some other sports facilities and the Olympic village.
Last week Hungary’s supreme court (Kúria) said it rejected referendum questions on organising Olympic Games in Budapest, overruling the Budapest Election Committee’s earlier approval. The Budapest Election Committee approved the referendum question on December 14 last year. Concerning the rejection of the question of whether citizens agree that Budapest should not apply to host the Olympics in 2024, the Kúria said the capital had already submitted a declaration of intent to host the games to the International Olympic Committee. The deadline to submit the application is February 17, 2016, whereas the referendum would have taken place at a later date, the court noted.
The Hungarian capital faces tough competition as Los Angeles, Rome, Paris all compete for the right to host the grandiose sports event. However, more than half of the Hungarians (53 percent) are supporting the concept that Budapest should host the Olympics, a public opinion telephone poll revealed in December.
via hungarymatters.hu and MTI