If Los Angeles wants to be the US's bid city for the 2024 summer Olympics now that Boston has ditched the gig, it could probably be picked no problem, but that would likely mean $4 billion in costs, a $400-million "contingency fund," and a promise that the people of LA would cover any cost overages. "I cannot eliminate risk," Mayor Eric Garcetti says about the possibility that LA might be on the hook for a whole lot of money, but he assured the LA Times, "On the one-to-five hot scale, one being the coldest, my personal assessment, for what it's worth, is about a one."
Whatever that means, it's made the mayor very excited about the possibility that LA could potentially host the Olympics for a third time, and he says he thinks LA could do it and do it right: "I think we benefit from it economically, socially." The Times asked if the Games were LA's if it wanted it and Garcetti replied, "I believe so." But that would definitely require the city's taxpayers to cover any cost overruns, meaning $4 billion less the amount the IOC would cover (they put $1.5 billion toward this year's Games) and any profit the Games make. Boston withdrew its bid last month, in part because the city did not want to be on the hook for the potentially enormous cost overruns.
Garcetti reiterates that LA could probably turn a profit from the Games, though, because the city doesn't have to build a ton of new facilities, but could instead use existing ones (some left from the last Olympics in 1984 or even, in the case of the LA Memorial Coliseum, from the 1932 Games)—as you can see in its original bid for the 2024 Olympics.
The US Olympic Committee has to make a decision about which city it'll choose to nominate to host the Games by the middle of September.
· L.A. pushes to be U.S. candidate for 2024 Summer Olympics, projects $4-billion cost [LAT]
· Los Angeles is Back in the Running to Host the 2024 Olympics [Curbed LA]
Here's Los Angeles's Plan For Winning the 2024 Olympics [Curbed LA]