Following the Swiss citizens of St. Moritz shooting down the idea of bidding on the 2022 Olympics, Vienna, Austria rejected the idea of bidding for the 2028 Games in a referendum Tuesday.
Voters still have a week to submit their ballots, but unlike the Swiss vote, which was vetoed by only a slim margin, Vienna’s referendum was a large failure among the population, as 72 percent opposed the idea of hosting the Olympics.
“Apparently most people are not convinced that the city would benefit in the long term from investing in the Games,” Mayor Michael Haeupl said.
It seems silly to shoot down the idea this early, since there are still about six years until they’d really need to declare their intentions to bid, but apparently the citizens are pretty serious about the financial obligations the Games bring. Austria has never hosted a Summer Olympics, after coming in third to Tokyo for the 1964 Games, but hosted the Winter Games in Innsbruck in 1964 and 1976.