SYDNEY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The Australian city of Brisbane is eyeing a bid for the 2032 Olympic Games, with local politicians hosting the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach at a meeting on Monday.
Held at the Brisbane City Town Hall, the contingent of Southeast Queensland State mayors along with the Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, wanted to give Bach a "casual intro" to the city.
While an official bid is yet to be finalized, Bach told local media he was impressed with the "study" and "preparation" already underway.
"The Olympic Games are the only event which unites the entire world at one place, at one time," Bach said.
"I think that now it is up to the Australians to make their minds up whether they want to host the Olympic Games -- if Australia wants to be, once again, host of the world -- the entire world."
While a feasibility study completed in February this year puts the total cost of hosting the event at 629 million U.S. dollars, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner admitted there would also need to be billions more spent on public transport and road upgrades.
"Infrastructure has to be built, public transport facilities, the infrastructure has to be built if we have the games or not," he said.
But although the figures have soured some of the initially enthusiasm, Schrinner argues that with the help of the IOC, Brisbane could host the event cost-free.
The IOC are set to offer Los Angeles around 1.8 billion U.S. dollars for the 2028 games.
"At least so far we have no indication this (sum of money) will be less for 2032," Bach said.
"I think this figure was new to the mayors and I could see them starting calculating in their heads and what this means for their feasibility study and for their budget."
The city of Brisbane will have until 2020 to make a final decision on their bid.
