Munich hopes economic strength will aid 2018 Games bid

Apr 5, 2011, 15:58 GMT

London - Munich is hoping Germany's economic strength will be a factor in its favour in the race to host the winter Olympics in 2018, the bid's head Katarina Witt said in London Tuesday.

The two-time figure skating world champion said the sport sponsoring market volume in Germany came to around 2.6 billion euros (3.7 billion dollars) a year.

'In international winter sport, around 50 per cent of the sponsors come from Germany. That shows how big the support is from German companies for winter sport,' she said.

Munich representatives are taking another opportunity to present their bid to members of the International Olympic Committee whose executive board began a two-day meeting in London Tuesday.

Witt, speaking at the SportAccord convention, said they were focusing in London 'on the business side of our bid.'

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich and Ian Robertson, head of sales an marketing for BMW, will be present to support the Munich presentation on Thursday.

Witt said the sport sponsoring market in Germany was expected to reach a volume of 22 billion euros by 2022.

Additional income from an Olympic Games in Germany is estimated to reach a maximum of 3.4 billion euros. The cost of the 2018 Games are expected to run to 3.2 billion euros.

Munich is competing against Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Annecy, France to host the 2018 winter Games. The IOC will select the host city on July 6 in Durban, South Africa.

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