Borkai told the MOB’s official website that the Committee still has a long road to travel before a formal bid, but added that “our intentions are unequivocal – we would like to host the best athletes in the world in Budapest”.

The Associated Press news agency added that Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, head of BOM, a non-profit group of corporations and individuals backing an Olympic bid, said that while a bid for the 2028 Games would be “realistic,” the possibility of trying for 2024 “would not be surprising”.

The Hungarian city of Győr is due to host the summer edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2017 and Borkai believes the event can aid the country’s claims for the 2024 Olympics.

He added: “Győr’s 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival can prove that our country can successfully conduct a major multi-sport Olympic event, even if its size does not compare to an Olympics. We are confident that Győr can provide a positive impression on international public opinion, and make everyone aware that they should invest their trust in us.”

Budapest has previously bid for five editions of the Games, but Hungary has never been awarded the Olympics. 

Paris, Rome, Baku, Doha, Dubai and Istanbul, along with a South African bid, are among those that could enter the race for the 2024 Games.

Germany is weighing up whether to put forward Berlin or Hamburg, while the US Olympic Committee has identified Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. as candidate cities.

Formal bidding for the 2024 Olympics will begin in 2015, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to select a host city in 2017.

To find out more about bidding for major events, register for HOST CITY Bid to Win at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net.

Tarlós is running for re-election on October 12 and was responding to a question regarding a potential Olympic bid from his main rival, opposition centre-left candidate Ferenc Falus. Tarlós said, according to the Budapest Business Journal, that although the summer Games would have a major impact on tourism and sport in the Hungarian capital, now is not the right time to proceed with such a plan.

Tarlós’ comments come after MOB president Zsolt Borkai last week lent his backing to a possible Budapest bid for the 2024 Games, stating that “concrete steps” could be taken in the near future towards formalising an offer.

While acknowledging that the Committee still has a long road to travel before a formal bid, Borkai had added that “our intentions are unequivocal – we would like to host the best athletes in the world in Budapest”. Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy, head of BOM, a non-profit group of corporations and individuals backing an Olympic bid, said that while a bid for the 2028 Games would be “realistic,” the possibility of trying for 2024 “would not be surprising”.

Budapest has previously bid for five editions of the Games, but Hungary has never been awarded the Olympics. 

Formal bidding for the 2024 Olympics will begin in 2015, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to select a host city in 2017.

To find out more about bidding for major events, register for HOST CITY Bid to Win at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net.

The new golf course that is being developed for Rio 2016 has proved a controversial project owing to its location, speed of development and the fact the city already has a course that has hosted major events.

The course is being developed in a nature reserve located in the Barra da Tijuca area of the city, a suburb that is also well known for its expensive real estate. Plans for the course include the construction of 160 high-end apartments that are selling for as much as $7m (€5.5m).

Judge Eduardo Klasner said in a hearing last week that the defendants – the city and the developer – and the public prosecutor must find a way to protect the nature reserve with construction to be halted if a compromise is not reached.

The prosecutor has requested that a number of holes on the course be altered and has asked the developer to return some of the land to the ecological reserve. Judge Klasner has allowed sodding on the course to continue, but the facility must be completed before the Brazilian summer begins in December, with no imminent ruling on the case expected.

Felli in April was deployed by the IOC as a senior troubleshooter for Rio 2016 and said he is confident the ongoing troubles will not stop a test event from taking place ahead of the Games, either late in 2015 or early in 2016. 

“Our understanding today is that we will be ready for the first test event which will be needed to be done for the golf,” Felli told the Associated Press news agency. “We are satisfied on the progress we see today. But we are not playing tomorrow. We know that we are going to play for the test event.”

Carlos Nuzman, head of the Rio 2016 organising committee and president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, said the matter is now in the hands of the city and Mayor Eduardo Paes. “Golf will be in the Olympics,” Nuzman said. “The city is responsible for the golf course.”

Rio 2016 last week stepped up its preparations for the Olympics by unveiling its ticketing strategy. More than half of the tickets available for the summer Games will be priced at less than R70 (€24/$31).

The first visit of the IOC Coordination Commission - headed by four-time Olympian and IOC member Frank Fredericks - concluded on Sunday with the local organising committee (BAYOGOC) presenting its plans to bring sport to the inner city, in particular the 2.6 million young people residing in Buenos Aires.

Fredericks said: “Under the expert guidance of CEO Leandro Larrosa, the organisers have really understood the true spirit of the Youth Olympic Games – to put young people at its heart. Thanks to the close cooperation Buenos Aires 2018 has with the all levels of government and the Argentinian Olympic Committee (AOC), the organisation has made impressive headway with strong foundation plans already underway. With its world-famous passion for sport and culture, we truly believe that Buenos Aires will deliver a phenomenal Youth Olympic Games.”

The IOC said “significant progress” has been made on the venue masterplan with a proposed four-cluster concept grouping the sports in a compact framework. In a bid to reflect the culture and spirit of the city, Buenos Aires 2018 has put forward a festival-style concept to feature in each cluster.

Taking inspiration from the ‘Sports Lab’ inaugurated at this year’s edition of the Games in the Chinese city of Nanjing, these festivals will not only showcase and offer sporting experiences to the visitors, but will also provide family entertainment and cultural activities.

Three major development projects will get underway in 2015 including tenders out for the athletics and aquatic venues and the construction of the Youth Olympic Village (YOV) which will begin early next year.

The YOV will be situated in the south of the city, an area of Buenos Aires targeted by the local government in need of urban development. From the YOV, 65 per cent of the athletes will be able to walk to their competition venues. In addition, with the recent launch of the city’s metro-bus link, the IOC said that “excellent” transport links are already in place.

The IOC also said Buenos Aires 2018 has already made “fast progress” by not only discussing the project with the national federations, but using their time in Nanjing this summer to meet with almost all of the international federations to present their preliminary proposals for sport competitions. 

Larrosa added: “This is a life-changing project, not only for young athletes, but for future generations in Argentina and we are happy in the knowledge that the IOC Coordination Commission will be by our side to guide us throughout this exciting process. There is a great social legacy we want to achieve with this Games, we want to get all our kids into sport and inspire kids around the world to do the same.”

Buenos Aires was awarded the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in July 2013. The city beat Colombian city Medellin by 49 to 39 in the second round of voting by IOC members. In the first round, Scottish city Glasgow was eliminated after getting only 13 votes, compared to 40 for Buenos Aires and 32 for Medellin.

In a marked contrast to its previous assessment, the IOC coordination commission has left Rio de Janeiro confident that Games preparations are back on track. 

Over three days, the monitoring authority noted crucial improvements to venue works, public engagement and the support and coordination of the government. However, the timeframes for finishing construction and accommodation are particularly pressing, the commission observed. 

“We leave Rio satisfied with the progress that has been made since our visit last March,” said Nawal El Moutawakel, chair of the commission. “We remain confident that, despite a very tight schedule, our Brazilian partners will deliver successful Games.” 

The commission scrutinised the construction of venues and hotels particularly closely during the visit. “Although the schedule remains tight, the Rio team clearly demonstrated that they had the situation under control, with good progress being made,” the IOC said in a statement.

“Accommodation was always going to be a challenge with the large number of hotels that have to be built ahead of the Games, but very clear and reassuring information was provided to the Commission that the 68 new hotels under construction were on track.”

Moutawakel said “As we enter the final two years of preparations, we are able to see that the core works are progressing at full speed, particularly in venue construction, where we have been receiving solid development reports. We were also able to see first-hand the advancements being made, during our venue tour on Tuesday.”

The commission visited the Olympic Golf Course, the Olympic Village, the Deodoro Olympic Park, and the Barra Olympic Park, where they were joined by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. 

“The strong commitment of the Brazilian authorities to the success of the Rio 2016 Games has been underlined to us by the presence of President Rousseff during our visit to the Olympic Park yesterday,” said Moutawakel. 

Other government partners that met with the IOC commission included Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão, and General Fernando Azevedo E Silva from the Olympic Public Authority (APO). 

The commission heard that five times more was being invested in city development projects than in venue construction, with three bus rapid transit lines, a new metro, improved sanitation system coverage, better flood control, a city operations centre, and the regeneration of the city’s port area underway.

Despite the country’s descent into recession this year, the coordination commission was told that a large part of Games and civic infrastructure projects are being financed by private funds. 

"With the IOC's guidance and the help of our sponsors, we have the confidence we need,” said Carlos Nuzman, president of the Rio 2016 organising committee. “It is very rewarding when we look around and see our partners from the city, state and federal governments, building the Games with us."

The commission was also encouraged by marketing activities. “Rio 2016 has begun to engage in earnest with the public this winter and we were able to take stock of what has already been done,” said Moutawakel. “We were pleased to hear that this engagement will continue with upcoming events like ticket sign-up, mascot launch, the Cultural Olympiad and test events.”

The IOC statement described the test event schedule, which will feature more than 40 events in 2015 and early 2016, as “ambitious”, noting that the organising committee is “advancing full speed ahead towards these events”.

The COA is currently pressing ahead with preparations for Buenos Aires’ staging of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, with the event being seen as a potential springboard for a tilt at the Olympic Games itself.

In a statement, the COA said that it would be “an honour” to bid for either edition of the Games and pinpointed Patagonia, utilising the Andes Mountains, as a potential option for a winter Olympics.

An Argentine winter Olympics would break new ground for the International Olympic Committee, with the event having never previously set foot outside the Northern Hemisphere. 

Argentina’s last bid for the summer Games saw Buenos Aires eliminated in the first round of voting as Athens went on to clinch the 2004 event. The Games will take to South America for the first time in 2016 when Rio de Janeiro hosts the event in Argentina’s regional rival, Brazil. 

The COA’s statement comes after the IOC last week praised Buenos Aires’ hosting plans for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, which will focus on engaging with the city’s sizeable inner-city population. The IOC stated that the city had already made “impressive headway” in its preparations for the event, which concluded its second edition in Nanjing, China on August 28.

Buenos Aires was awarded the 2018 Youth Olympics in July 2013. The city beat Colombian city Medellin by 49 to 39 votes in the second round of voting by IOC members. In the first round, Scottish city Glasgow was eliminated after getting only 13 votes, compared to 40 for Buenos Aires and 32 for Medellin.

The Tengrinews website said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Minister of Culture and Sport, Tastanbekov Yesentai, cited the example of this year’s winter Olympics in Sochi, where the Russia authorities successfully implemented a mixed funding model and also pointed towards Tokyo’s projected revenues for the 2020 summer Olympics as arguments in favour of his government’s approach.

Yesentai said: “Russia has used a mixed model at the Olympics in Sochi. Their income made $10bn (€7.9bn). Japan has officially declared that it would be able to earn $30bn from hosting the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2020.

“We also want to stick to the mixed model of financial management, in which the share of state involvement would be 33 per cent and the rest will be raised by investors. In that case we will be able to hold the Olympics in 2022 at a proper level.”

Concerns regarding state financing for hosting the 2022 winter Olympics have become a central theme of what is now a sparse bidding process.

Almaty and Beijing are the only two cities left in the running after Oslo withdrew from the race at the start of this month. The Norwegian government decided against providing the required financial support to host the multi-sport event due to prohibitive projected costs.

Oslo was the latest in a long line of cities to end a bid, following Stockholm in Sweden, Krakow in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine, while bids from St. Moritz in Switzerland and Munich in Germany were scrapped after public referendums.

Meanwhile, Kazakh Olympic Committee vice-president Pavel Novikov has rejected calls for Almaty to share Olympic hosting rights with Astana, acknowledging Olympic bidding rules that the Games must be awarded to a single city.

The International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the 2022 Games on July 31, 2015.

Host City: Bid to Win, a conference which will be held at the St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, London on 28 October 2014, is set to bring together experts and decision makers to explore the challenges and benefits of bidding for major global events. At a time when the bidding process for events has never been more highly scrutinised, Host City: Bid to Win promises place further expert insight into the heart of the ongoing debate. 

The conference will examine engaging themes central to the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events.   

Keynote speaker Sir Craig Reedie, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President, believes there has never been a more important time for rights holders to engage with cities.

Speaking about Host City: Bid to Win, he said: “I am supporting Host City: Bid to Win as it is a great opportunity to get rights holders and cities together debating the key issues. Rights holders and cities are both seeking new ways to showcase their unique qualities, attract new audiences and enhance their reputations – I’m looking forward to sharing insights and opinions with experts from across the global landscape.”

Mario Andrada, Rio 2016 Director of Communications, said: “Host City: Bid to Win will be a great arena for debate on major event bidding and hosting. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences and insights into the bid and delivery of Rio 2016 and this is a great opportunity to connect, learn and share ideas about how cities and countries can truly benefit from hosting a major sports event.”

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of marketing communications giant WPP and an advisor to the IOC sees the conference as an important platform for furthering the debate on major event hosting in the current climate. 

“We clearly need to articulate more effectively the tangible, intangible and legacy benefits of sporting, cultural and business events.” Sorrell said.

Alexander Koch, Corporate Communications Manager at FIFA, said: “This is an important time for all stakeholders involved in bidding and hosting and I’m looking forward to what should be an engaging debate between bidding cities and rights holders at Host City: Bid to Win.”

Host City: Bid to Win will host various structured and informal networking opportunities, as well as a series of thought provoking panel sessions on what cities need to do to win sporting, cultural and business events. 

Topics to be covered include: 

•How Event Owners and Cities Can Benefit From Improving Their Dialogue

•Emerging Trends in Large Scale Events

•Olympic Agenda 2020: Overview of Proposed Changes to the Bidding Process

•Attracting International Events to Cities

•Bidding for the Right Event

•Evaluating Bidding & Hosting

•Successes and Failures

•Meeting the Evaluation Criteria: Planning, Infrastructure, Transport & Security Strategies

•Campaigning to Win the Bid

•Beyond the Bid: Winning for the Future 

For further information on the engaging panel sessions and other top class speakers confirmed for Host City: Bid to Win, please visit: http://www.bidtowin-hostcity.net/

Join the conversation on social media by using the #HostCity hashtag.

For media enquiries, please contact: Robert Fawdon, VERO Communications, rfawdon@verocom.co.uk, m: +44 (0)7769 216649, t: +44 (0)20 7812 6589

The exit of yet another European city yesterday from the bidding contest for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is regrettable, but the remaining candidates are strong and the bidding procedure is still the best in the world, IOC Vice President Craig Reedie told HOST CITY on Thursday.

“I regret the Oslo decision. But it’s their call and you have to respect their decision," he said. "It would have been nice to have a Games in Oslo, in a real centre of winter sport.” 

On Wednesday Oslo followed Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv in retracting its candidature for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, leaving Beijing and Almaty as the remaining candidates. Munich and St. Moritz had withdrawn from the race before the applicant stage. 

The party with the largest membership in Norway’s coalition government failed to gain a majority support for Oslo's bid, with cost being cited as the primary concern – despite the country’s large sovereign wealth fund and a plan to use existing winter sports infrastructure. 

“A number of cities decided not to go ahead because of domestic decisions taken in those countries, which were presented on the basis of a whole range of issues, some of which were cost,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

“I’m not sure that cost was a particular item in Munich’s decision or if people decided to do something else with their time and their efforts. If that’s the case then certainly the IOC has to look at the situation closely and find out if what they are currently doing is sustainable.

“There is an obligation on the IOC to present the benefits in a better way. We really have to prove that the recent Games have in the main all broken even with a small surplus. London was a good example – a small surplus run by a private company. And the infrastructure and stadium costs built by public money came in below the original estimates and will last for generations.

“We need to get that message across, so that future cities who are considering bids understand the difference. And the IOC makes an enormous contribution to the organising committee’s budget: the estimate for the 2022 Games was US$880.”

Reedie is confident that Beijing and Almaty are good potential host cities. “They passed the examination of the technical working group; they went from candidate city to applicant city. We’ve had a good hard look at them; with certain minor modifications, I think the technical people in the IOC are happy that good Winter Games can be had in both.”

There is no risk of Beijing or Almaty withdrawing due to cost concerns. “Neither of the other two cities have a financial issue,” Reedie said. 

“The Chinese say they have a very happy memory of the Beijing Games and they can see doing it again. The Youth Games in Nanjing were terrific; they are clearly very committed to the Olympic movement and see the opportunity of developing winter sport in their country. 

“In Kazakhstan they see the opportunity of the Games being a catalyst for their city and country, in a way that nothing else ever could be. 

“So I pretty certain that they both will go ahead and impress the evaluation commission; they will produce good bid books and we’ll have good contest to decide in Kuala Lumpur.”

The bidding process will not change - yet

The bidding process for the 2022 Games will not change even though there are just two candidates left.

“You can’t change the rules of the game halfway through the game simply because one city has decided not to go ahead. So we’re happy to have both of them,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

How the IOC will run its bidding process beyond 2022 is currently under review, as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020. 

One suggestion made by four European National Olympic Committees was that the recommendations of evaluation commissions should count as votes in the host city elections. “Having chaired the last evaluation commission, I thought our report was very accurate and we pointed out plusses and minuses for all three cities, so nobody could remotely say they hadn’t been informed,” said Reedie. 

“That said, one of the strengths that the IOC has is that 100 plus members actually decide, and when you’ve got that number of people deciding, you are probably on a much safer basis in terms of the quality of the decision. 

“I think at the moment the IOC has the best election process in world sport. People may think that’s a funny thing to say when a perfectly valid potential city has withdrawn, but it’s just as valid now as it was yesterday. It is an excellent and highly authoritative system. Now whether that system will proceed going forward is what we are going to discuss over the next few months, and no doubt we will discuss in London on 28th October. 

To read the full interview with Sir Craig Reedie, read the next issue of HOST CITY magazine – or better still, register for Bid to Win at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net and join in the discussion on 28th October

Members of the panel “Bidding Processes Under Review” at Host City: Bid to Win in London on Tuesday highlighted the first stage of the bidding process for the Olympic Games as being too long and raising expectations and costs at too early a stage.

“It is the first process that needs to be reduced and then six months before the decision the bid should be formally placed,” said Stefan Lindeberg, president of the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Stockholm dropped its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic in January 2014 when senior politicians and city officials baulked at the rising estimated cost of hosting the games.

“The bid process has become an expensive competition and not because of the IOC requirements but because the bidding process is too long,” said Antonio Fernandez Arimany, director general, International Triathlon Union and former bid leader of Madrid 2016. 

“The bidding process is too long and you spend the maximum resources on that bid – this could be reviewed,” he said.

The panel included Sir Craig Reedie, vice president of the International Olympic Committee. “It is possible to revise the bidding process, but is difficult to tell cities what they may and may not do and then enforce this, because if the city is determined to win a prize they will go beyond what the IOC requires,” he said.

“The value of the prize is so enormous.”

Members of the panel identified non-organising committee costs, such as civic infrastructure projects that are often associated with a Games bid, as a source of unwelcome spikes in expenses. These infrastructure projects often bring benefits beyond the Games.

 “It seems to me the IOC faces a communication gap,” said Reedie.

“We seem to find it impossible to get anyone to understand that there are two separate budgets; one for the organising committee and one for the non-organising committee.

“The organising committee [of London 2012] made a modest surplus but the non-organising committee cost is the result of the Games being used as a catalyst to develop the host city.”

The cost of hosting the Games has come under unprecedented scrutiny since revelations about Sochi’s expenditure on infrastructure projects associated with hosting the Games. 

“At no time did we invite Sochi in Russia to make a USD 51bn contribution,” said Reedie.

The bidding procedure for the Olympic Games is currently under review, through the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative. 40 recommendation have been made to the IOC Executive Board. The recommendations will be presented, discussed and voted upon by IOC members at the 127th IOC session in Monaco on 8 and 9 December.

Host City: Bid to Win was held in London on 28 October 2014 and acted as a unique dialogue platform between cities and rights holders.