Maccabiah’s budget OK’d

Games open officially on evening of July 18, 2013, at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.

By JERUSALEM POST SPORTS STAFF
Fanograph image of football game 300 (photo credit: Fanograph)
Fanograph image of football game 300
(photo credit: Fanograph)
The preparations for next summer’s Maccabiah Games can truly get well underway after the Government of Israel approved the organizing committee’s plans and allocated an NIS 18 million budget.
The Games open officially on the evening of July 18, 2013, at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem and end on July 30.
Maccabi World Union CEO Eyal Tiberger described the Maccabiah as “essentially, the ‘Jewish Olympics’, the world’s third biggest sports event. Only Summer Olympics and Asian Games are larger; the Maccabiah’s logistics requirement far outstrips any other civilian event in Israel.”
Over 8,000 athletes are already registered with national delegations in 70 countries on six continents.
They will contest in 40 events, with athletes and officials to use 116,000 bed-nights in 30 hotels.
Approximately 80 percent of the total $52 million spent on the event is generated by the delegations from abroad, and tourists drawn to Israel for the Games are expected to spend $35 million in the country.
Tiberger thanked the Government for “its historic decision to give such solid support to these Games that will be the biggest Jewish-Zionist event ever staged in Israel.”