Could Vienna and Budapest share the olympic flame?

An expert has now said out loud what many have only been thinking: Hungary could realistically host the Olympic Games one day — but perhaps not alone.

Milan and Cortina paved the way

The XXV Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics came to a close on Sunday evening in Verona’s nearly 2,000-year-old amphitheatre — and they will be remembered for more than just the sporting performances.

The Italian Games marked a milestone not only in sporting terms. For the first time in Olympic history, the host role was officially shared by two locations — Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo — rather than a single city. According to sports economist Gábor Szabados, this model could become a template for future Olympic Games.

Why the Olympic bubble cannot keep expanding

There is a clear economic logic behind hosting the Games across multiple locations. The average budget of a Summer Olympics now stands at around 10 billion dollars, and that figure is unlikely to fall significantly. Technological requirements, media infrastructure and an increasingly dense competition programme all continue to drive costs upward.

At the same time, previous Olympic Games have almost without exception exceeded their planned budgets, often by a considerable margin.

According to Szabados, the solution is not necessarily spending less, but spending more intelligently. The key lies in limiting large-scale infrastructure investments and prioritising facilities that cities actually need — venues that can be used long after the Olympic flame has gone out.

Budapest: potential, but still some gaps

Hungary’s Olympic ambitions are not new. In 2017, Budapest withdrew its bid for the 2024 Games after the Momentum Movement collected more than 260,000 signatures in support of a referendum initiative.

Since then, however, the situation has changed significantly. The Puskás Arena has been built, the National Athletics Centre has opened, and the MVM Dome is now in operation. Hungarian Olympic Committee president Zsolt Gyulay has repeatedly pointed out that much of the core sports infrastructure is already in place.

The real shortcomings lie elsewhere — particularly in transport infrastructure, hotel capacity and airport logistics.

In 2019, the International Olympic Committee abolished the traditional, costly bidding process. Under the new system, interested cities can first take part in a non-binding dialogue phase, allowing them to explore the feasibility of hosting the Games without making immediate commitments.