As Olympics wrap, Berlin hits hurdles in bid for future Games

BERLIN (CN) — With a top-five finish in the medal count and millions of viewers tuning in, Germany has spent the last two weeks enraptured by the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Organizers in Berlin are hoping to leverage this support for the city's own bid to host the Summer Games, but they have some work to do.

"There's no other event in the world that brings as many countries together as the Olympics," Berlin Olympic Commissioner Kaweh Niroomand told Courthouse News. Niroomand manages the BR Volleys, Berlin's professional volleyball team, and was a player himself.

"It's a massive boost for both top athletes and grassroots sports, and at the same time it generates so much interest and support," he said.

But the German capital's faulty finances and widespread weariness toward major projects means Berliners still need to be won over before they can start planning for a massive Olympic sporting boost.

Race for a representative

Berlin officially launched its bid to serve as host city for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Summer Olympics late last year. The exact competition year will depend on when the International Olympic Committee plans the Games in Europe, as it typically rotates continents.


Berlin still has plenty of hurdles to jump, including the potential timing. A German bid for 2036 would mark the 100-year anniversary of the infamous 1936 Berlin Games — an idea that has proven controversial and was recently deemed "historically problematic" by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Germany will also have to beat out other European bids to host — and even if it does, the Games aren't guaranteed to go to Berlin. A handful of German contestants are vying to be the country's nominee, so Berlin will have to top Munich, Hamburg and the wider Cologne-Rhein region if it wants to carry the German torch.

Citing its country-leading number of top tier sports clubs and active athletes, Niroomand believes his city has a clear advantage.

"If any city in this country can be called a sports city, it's certainly Berlin," he said. The sporting statistics might be on his side, but he'll need to convince both Berliners and the German Olympic Sports Federation, which will decide in late 2026.

Sparring supporters

Berlin's application alone will cost up to 6 million euros (over $7 million). Given the morose state of much of the city's infrastructure, potential Olympic costs are a sticky subject, especially with a mayoral election looming this year.

Criticizing recent hikes in public transit costs for riders and funding cuts for social services, Left Party candidate Elif Eralp said, "People feel like they're on the wrong end of a joke when there's suddenly 6 million euros for the Olympics," at a recent party event. She's currently the most popular opposition party candidate to Christian Democrat Mayor Kai Wegner, and a change in government later this year could complicate Berlin's bid.

In the study "The Economic Impact of Major Sporting Events: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hosting the Olympic Games," Peichi Chang, Farid Ahmen and Isabelle Houlbert found the upside for host cities can vary widely depending on how developed sports and transportation infrastructure are before the bid.

Rio de Janeiro saw less economic impact for the 2016 games because the city spent more than budgeted building new sports venues, the researchers found in the study published in Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management in September 2025. Beijing had more success planning for facilities to be used after the 2008 Games ended, and saw a corresponding bump in economic impact.

Niroomand is cognizant of the criticism that goes hand in hand with Olympic spending. He argues that despite what can be a hefty price tag for organizing the Games, the Olympics help bring in federal and private funding that otherwise wouldn't be funneled into the city.

"The whole city could benefit from this. The Olympic Village will mean building a significant amount of housing and the infrastructure that goes with it. Transportation will improve. Not to mention the massive boost it'll give to our sporting infrastructure — and it's not just about major stadiums, as hosting the Games means ensuring training options are up to snuff, which will benefit the city's youth and grassroots sports," he said.

And while Berlin's to-do list is dauntingly long, he also believes the Olympics would provide a vital push.

"We're an incredibly diverse city that's grown together after an East-West divide, one that's constantly changing. Some are frustrated at how long it takes to accomplish things in this context, but the Olympics could act as an accelerant for major projects," he said.

"The good thing about the Olympics is it has a real deadline. If you're not ready in time, you can't host it," Niroomand continued. Given the debacle of Berlin's nearly decade-delayed airport, some deadline discipline could do the city good.

Mixed public opinion

According to recent polling, despite its sport obsession Berlin is wary about the prospect of playing Olympic host. Roughly two-thirds of residents are against bringing the Games to Berlin.

"It's tough. The Olympics are great, and really bring people together, but they have to be done both financially and environmentally sustainably," Simon, a 37-year-old Berliner, told Courthouse News.

Despite being a sports fan, Simon largely avoided watching the Milan Games, disturbed that a single bobsleigh track could cost over 120 million euros.

Simon isn't against Berlin applying but believes a lot will depend on what the bid actually entails. "Berlin is poor. But we do have a lot of stadiums and sporting facilities, so it's about taking a careful look at what we already have and what we'd actually need. You don't have to build new buildings for the sake of it," he said.

For Mathias, a 50-year-old who's a more casual sports consumer, the answer is equally unclear.

"I can still remember when Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup. It really made an impact on the country and was an important part of the zeitgeist. But you always have to be careful that you don't pump too much public funding into these things," he told Courthouse News.

"Most importantly, the city's people have to buy in and you have to be sure there's widespread support for hosting," he said.

In that case, Niroomand and Berlin's fellow boosters still have work to do.

Courthouse News reporter Dave Braneck is based in Germany.

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