Germany's Berlin and Hamburg, "eager to launch a summer Olympics candidacy, have proposed modest, inner-city concepts for the Olympics with the country to decide in the coming months if and which city will bid for the 2024 Games," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS.
The two cities "are slugging it out for the national nod to bid," with the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB) "to decide on the better candidacy in the coming months."
DOSB President Alfons Hörmann said,
"We are happy to have two very strong German cities with high international recognition wanting to host the Olympic Games."
A decision "is unlikely to come before the end of the year." Berlin "is proposing to use land at the still operational Tegel airport," a short 15-minute drive northwest of the city center as well as the now "defunct and centrally located" Template airport for a low-scale Games that "will make use of a host of existing venues." Hamburg in turn "presented a compact concept, proposing to stage much of the Games in the Kleiner Grasbrook area which is technically an island" but only a 10-minute walk from the city center.
Athletes village construction "would also help the city's housing shortage as Germany's largest port city grows." The proposed Olympic stadium, that needs to be built, "will also be in the same area and then downsized to 20,000 seats for future use" (REUTERS, 9/1). The SID reported that Berlin "estimates costs of around €50M ($66M) for a potential Olympic bid." The investment in facilities would be around €2B ($2.6B). Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said that "these are not all of the costs." However, should Berlin be awarded with the Games, "it would receive grants from the IOC and the German government" (SID, 9/1).
