Mexico’s application to host the 2036 Olympic Games has been approved by the International Olympic Committee, Mary José Alcalá, president of the Mexican Olympic Committee, and Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, revealed in a joint announcement.
Ebrard said that if the bid fails, Mexico would resubmit its candidacy for the 2040 games. “That’s how the system works,” he said.
During the press conference, Ebrard highlighted Mexico’s “solid democracy,” pointing out that the country has the 15th largest economy in the world and is renowned for being a “sports power.”
Mexico has hosted the world’s greatest sports festival once, in 1968. This year, the Mexican Olympic Committee celebrates the centenary of its foundation.
Guadalajara would “love to be included as a co-participating host city” in a future Olympics, Guadalajara Mayor Pablo Lemus tweeted shortly after Ebrard’s announcement. This would be “a great opportunity to promote sports among new generations,” he said.
The benefits of hosting a contemporary Olympics are a point of contention, with several cities, most notably Montreal, Athens and Rio de Janeiro, racking up colossal debts after building expensive infrastructure that quickly fell into disuse.
Despite the “intangible benefits such as the feel-good effect and civic pride” that an Olympics may bring, the Journal of Economic Perspectives concluded that “in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities” with the “cost–benefit proposition worse for cities in developing countries than for those in the industrialized world.”