Los Angeles is just about to become the US's official bid city for the 2024 Olympics; following an agreement with the US Olympic Committee made last week, the LA City Council voted unanimously this morning to let the city make a play. This is a dramatic reversal: back in January, the USOC selected Boston to serve as the US bid city, but the city never really liked the idea and ultimately drew the line at putting taxpayers on the hook for cost overruns. They withdrew their bid in July and the USOC turned to Los Angeles, eagerly waiting to be picked second. They should be designating Los Angeles as their bidder for the 2024 Games "by early afternoon," according to the LA Times. Next LA will spend a couple years and about $65 million refining its plan and trying to convince the International Olympic Committee that it's a superior host site to all those other world cities in the running. (Organizing committee LA24 says it has "private commitments for nearly half of that" money, reports KPCC.)
Unlike Boston, LA has no problem volunteering to cover cost overruns, although LA24 promises there won't be any. Despite a total cost over more than $6 billion (with at least $1.7 billion covered by the private sector), Mayor Eric Garcetti has assured the city that the Olympics would make enough money through sponsorship, broadcasting deals, and ticket revenues to turn a profit. That's pretty difficult for an Olympics to pull off and the city administrative officer and chief legislative analyst are skeptical—after LA24 released a bid book with its rough proposal last week, they put out a report saying they "cannot verify, validate or further explain" many of the numbers in the plan and specifically calling out some of the proposals as unfeasible.
The bid book calls for an Olympics spread across the city, with hubs in Downtown and Exposition Park, Hollywood, Santa Monica, the Valley, and the South Bay. The Olympic Village would be built by a private developer along the LA River, on a site known as Piggyback Yard (which owners Union Pacific have in the past been reluctant sell), and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum serving as the Olympic Stadium.
The deadline for submitting bid cities to the IOC is mid-September. Other bidders for 2024 include Paris, Rome, Hamburg, and Budapest.
· 7 Very Big-Deal Plans in Los Angeles's New 2024 Olympics Bid [Curbed LA]
· City Analysts: Los Angeles's Olympics Bid is Kinda Nonsense [Curbed LA]
Loading comments...