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BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Azerbaijan says it would spend at least $28 billion on preparations if capital city Baku is chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
National Olympic Committee vice president Chingiz Huseynzade said Friday that current preparations will be bolstered tenfold if Baku is awarded the status of candidate city on June 4, when the IOC will whittle a list of seven cities to an undetermined number of finalists.
"If not, we will prepare for the next bid," Huseynzade said.
Baku faces competition from Chicago; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; Doha, Qatar; and Prague, Czech Republic. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in October 2009.
Deputy Sports Minister Ismail Ismailov said Azerbaijan has built 13 arenas that could be used for the Olympics and plans to finish 24 more by the end of 2009.
