Germany - The people of Hamburg are against hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to BBC news.
The German Olympic officials had selected Hamburg as their chosen city even ahead of Berlin. Hamburg belonged to the remaining five cities, namely: Rome, Paris, Budapest and Los Angeles. Since it is already the final decision of the people, the International Olympic Committee will select from the last four venues.
Last Sunday, about 51.7% of the residents of the city and Kiel voted no. Olaf Scholz, the city mayor said, "That's a decision that we didn't want, but it's clear."
Major critics of the proposal said that the plan was not cost-effective. For the proposed plan amounting up to €11.2bn ($11.9bn; £7.9bn), the city officials only promised a small part for the total expenditure.
One of the spokespersons from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) said that "a great opportunity for the city, the country and sport in Germany is lost".
He also added, "The city also misses the investment of the IOC of about $1.7bn to the success of the Games, which compares to the €1.2bn Hamburg wanted to invest."
"Now there will be a strong competition with four excellent candidate cities. With these strong competitors we all can look forward to [an] exciting Olympic Games 2024, whoever the winner will be."
The Olympic Games has not been hosted by Germany since 1972 in Munich. In 2013, Munich also voted no for the Olympics. They didn't take the opportunity to host the Winter Games for 2022.
Boston also decided to opt out of the race for hosting the 2024 last July. There were issues to be considered like high public spending that most residents did not conform with.
In September 2017, the winning host city will then be selected for the Olympic Games. It will be up to the four competing cities.
