It Looks Like Budapest Will Soon Drop Out Of The Race To Host The 2024 Olympics

There are three cities still in the running to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Los Angeles was considered the front runner over Paris until very recently, but it’s unclear the degree to which the Trump presidency will impact the bid. U.S. Olympic officials and L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti are apparently worried that it could have a negative impact, and push L.A. behind Paris.

It looks like those two cities will soon be the last two formally left in the running. Budapest is the third city in contention to host the games, but this morning, activists in the city announced they had received enough signatures to put the withdrawal of the bid to a citywide referendum. The group, NOlimpia, needed 138,000 signatures to trigger the vote, and they said that they collected 266,151. A NOlimpia spokesman told VICE Sports that they expect about a quarter of the signatures to be invalidated, which will still leave them with plenty of room to trigger the referendum.

Should this actually go to a vote, it will probably pass. A recent poll showed that 44 percent of citizens were against paying billions to host the Olympics, while only 25 percent were in favor. NOlimpia’s campaign made the point that the money that would be earmarked for the Games could be better spent on infrastructure and education.

The IOC vote will vote on the next host city in Sept. 2017.

[ VICE Sports]