Munich voters approve plan to bid for Summer Olympics

A two-thirds majority in the German city of Munich voted in favour of a bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2036, 2040 or 2044 in a referendum on Sunday.

Final results showed 66.4 percent of voters in the Bavarian capital voted in favour of the proposal.

“Munich clearly voted yes,” city mayor Dieter Reiter said in a statement on Sunday.

Joerg Ammon, the President of the Bavarian State Sports Association (BLSV), celebrated the “dream result”. 

With 42 percent of Munich’s 1.1 million eligible voters taking part, the turnout was the highest for a referendum in the city’s history.

The previous participation record was 37.5 percent, recorded in 2001 for a vote on building the Allianz Arena, home to German football champions Bayern Munich and host of the 2012 and 2025 Champions League finals.

Munich last hosted the Games in 1972. The Bavarian capital is one of four German regions developing a bid to host the Olympics and was the first to hold a vote to gauge support.

Berlin, Hamburg and the Ruhr region are also developing bids, with referenda to be held in 2026.

The German candidate will be selected by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) late in 2026 before being submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

After Sunday’s vote, Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder said “we will now flood the DOSB with our arguments”.

Voter willingness to host the Olympics has dwindled in many European cities in recent decades, due largely to concerns over cost.

An estimated 6.7 million euros was spent on Sunday’s referendum alone, with 1.8 million of that going to an information campaign.

The previous seven German bids to host the Summer or Winter Olympics games failed due to popular opposition.

In 2013, Munich voters narrowly rejected a proposal to bid to host the 2022 Winter Games, with only 28.9 percent of eligible voters taking part. 

Munich and Berlin are the German cities to have hosted the Summer Olympics.

Los Angeles will host the next edition in 2028 before Australian city Brisbane takes over in 2032.