Hamburg is set to launch its bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the city's mayor promising "a compact, sustainable" games - without a white elephant in sight.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DSOB) on Monday chose Hamburg as its preferred candidate ahead of Berlin.
The decision to back Hamburg must still be rubber-stamped at the DSOB's Extraordinary General Meeting in Frankfurt on Saturday.
There will also be a local referendum, likely to be held in September, to be won in Hamburg before the bid can progress.
A recent poll suggested 64 per cent of Hamburg's 1.7 million population would welcome the Olympics, and at least 50 per cent would need to vote in favour for the referendum to be successful.
"Anyone who thinks the referendum is a foregone conclusion is guaranteed to be wrong. There is still much work to be done," DSOB president Alfons Hoermann said.
"Things must be clearly and transparently communicated, also in terms of finances."
An estimated 2.09 billion euros ($A2.89 billion) will be needed for building alone and more details of the budget will be given on Saturday in Frankfurt.
But organisers claim support for the bid's sustainable concept seems to be growing in Germany's second largest city.
Hamburg's Mayor Olaf Scholz is promising "a compact, sustainable games that are free from any gigantism and will be an excellent fit in the urban development".
In short, the bid wants to avoid the white-elephant phenomenon that has left venues from previous Olympics, such as Montreal, Beijing and Athens, largely unused once the games are over.
"We want to bring the Olympics to the middle of the city," Scholz added.
The plans involve converting an area in the city's port into an Olympic Park with a stadium for 70,000 spectators adjacent to the Athletes Village, which would become a new district after the games.
Cruise liners would be moored in the city's port to provide extra hotel rooms to boost Hamburg's current tally of nearly 16,000 beds.
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