Budapest, L.A. and Paris have "expressed confidence in their ability to control costs" as they prepare for the final phase of bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics, "unworried by steep overruns at next host Tokyo," according to Chris Gallagher of REUTERS. Top officials from the 2024 candidate cities, visiting Tokyo this week, said that they "were being vigilant on costs from the onset and were focusing on utilizing existing infrastructure to limit financial risk." L.A. 2024 COO John Harper said, "It's an important thing to get right at this stage." The IOC is "keen" for cities to embrace its "Agenda 2020" initiative, which calls for, among other things, creating a more compact Games and using a high percentage of existing venues to lower costs. Budapest bid committee Vice-Chair Laszlo Vajda said that the Hungarian capital would "provide a new alternative as a mid-size city to host the Games after the mega cities of Beijing, London and Tokyo, noting the compact nature of its plan." He said, "We believe because of this proximity, cost in terms of transportation, infrastructure and urban overlay is much smaller than would be necessary for a much larger city." Paris is "highlighting its status as a top cultural and tourist destination with not only sports infrastructure but strong access to public transport and high hotel capacity already in place" (REUTERS, 12/2).
SWISS BID: GAMES BIDS' Robert Livingstone reported in an early move that is "both surprising and welcomed by 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bid stakeholders in Switzerland," the federal government announced Friday that it is "preparing to provide financial support to projects vying to bring the Games back to Switzerland" for the first time since '48. A decision to back an Olympic bid was not expected from the federal government "until a specific project is chosen later next year," but Friday’s announcement that "the Federal Council decided to set up an interdepartmental working group that will support the primary responsibility of the Swiss candidature" has buoyed four regional projects that are currently preparing documentation to support their candidacies (GAMES BIDS, 12/3).