According to numerous international media reports, Hungarian officials gave up the bid for Budapest to host the 2024 Olympic Summer Games this week, in deference to a popular protest movement among city residents objecting to the initiative. Despite considerable support for the Olympic bid by several prominent Hungarian athletes and a massive taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to bolster the proposal, the candidacy is being withdrawn due to a lack of unified support for it among the Hungarian citizenry, as more than 266,000 people signed a petition to force a referendum vote on the topic.

With yesterday’s global news that Budapest is withdrawing its bid to host the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, only Los Angeles and Paris remain in contention for this honor, which brings international esteem to any city that welcomes the world for the sporting spectacular dating back to ancient times, but which also requires the host nation to spend a great deal of public funding on building new athletic venues and related infrastructure. This potentially exorbitant taxpayer expense appears to be the main concern for the Budapest citizens who opposed the Olympic bid, as over 266,000 people signed a petition to force a referendum on the topic; instead of holding the poll and acting based on the outcome, Hungarian officials cited the currently evident lack of unity behind the Olympic bid as reason enough to withdraw the application.

Budapest’s city council is expected to hold an official vote to abandon the Olympic bid soon. Nonetheless, a positive outcome of this endeavor is that many plans for improving Budapest’s infrastructure were drawn up to support the Olympic proposal, so it is possible that these suggested improvements could still be implemented in future city developments.