Dortmund votes yes: Olympic football soon at BVB's home? | OneFootball

Yesterday marked the deadline for submitting votes in the public referendum on a bid by Cologne, Düsseldorf, and the Ruhr region to host the Olympics, officially operating under the name “Cologne Rhine Ruhr.” Since support was also strong in Dortmund and the required quorum was reached, Olympic football could be played at Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park in the medium-term future.

The plans for this Olympic bid do not only include venues in the two Rhine metropolises of Cologne and Düsseldorf, as well as the many larger and smaller cities in the Ruhr region. Aachen, Mönchengladbach, Leverkusen, Wuppertal, and Monheim am Rhein are also part of the planning.

The only exception was Herten in the northern Ruhr area, where mountain bike competitions were to be hosted together with Recklinghausen. There, the required quorum — in other words, the minimum number of yes votes — was not reached. Herten is therefore out of the plans.

In almost all other cities, approval was well above two thirds of the votes cast. The same was true in Dortmund, where 68.3 percent of those who submitted their ballots spoke in favor of such a bid for the Olympic Games. This would mean BVB’s Signal Iduna Park could receive Olympic honors, provided the “Cologne Rhine Ruhr” bid first prevails against national and later international competition.

There are certainly major question marks over both of those hurdles. Still, it is not impossible that flags bearing the Olympic rings could be flying above the former Westfalenstadion in 2036, 2040, or 2044.

Photo: Getty Images

Olympic teams instead of BVB at Signal Iduna Park possible

Most recently, the Olympic football tournament was held in stadiums across the host city’s home country. The downside was that these stadiums and cities, far removed from Olympia’s actual geographic core, offered little atmosphere, something both participants and organizers often complained about.

If the Olympic Games were to come to the Ruhr region, that would be different. The high concentration of successful football clubs in the region provides more than enough suitable stadiums. Signal Iduna Park, home of BVB, would be one of the seven stadiums where the Olympic football tournament would take place:

Incidentally, despite its large capacity, Dortmund would not be able to set a new Olympic attendance record. That record has been held since 1968 by the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, where 105,000 spectators watched the bronze medal match, which Japan won 2–0 against hosts Mexico.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.