German officials pick Hamburg to bid for 2024 Olympics

General view at the harbour of Hamburg with Philharmonic Hall, taken in downtown Hamburg, May 12, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Boston and Rome have already announced bids for the 2024 Games. Paris is also expected to join the field soon. Other possible contenders include Baku, Azerbaijan; Budapest, Hungary; and Istanbul, Turkey.

The deadline for submission of bids to the International Olympic Committee is Sept 15. The host city will be selected in 2017.

Germany has not staged an Olympics since the 1972 Summer Games in Munich. Munich failed in a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and dropped a planned bid for the 2022 Winter Games after it was rejected in a referendum.

German soccer officials also want to bid for the 2024 European Championship. It is unlikely Germany would be awarded both the Olympics and the soccer tournament.

Hamburg's Olympic plans call for the games to be located centrally in the harbor of the city, which has a population of about 1.7 million.

Most of the events would he held within a 10-kilometer (six-mile) radius.

Hamburg, the biggest city in northern Germany, is famous for its harbor on the River Elbe and its raucous nightlife in the Reeperbahn district. A former Hanseatic League city, it is northern Germany's commercial and cultural center.

It is also home to the Hamburger SV club in the Bundesliga and the popular St. Pauli second-division team.