The Olympic Games are coming back to Los Angeles.
The only question now is will Southern California host its third Olympics in 2024 or 2028?
The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday, July 11 unanimously approved a plan to award both the 2024 and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games this year, a move that guarantees that both Los Angeles and Paris will join London as the only cities to host three Summer Games.
“Los Angeles is living legacy of this Olympic movement,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “In 1932 we were a Games changer. In 1984 we were a Games changer. During the Great Depression, during the Cold War, we’ve always answered the Olympic Movement’s call and this is a similarly intense and important moment for the Olympic Movement.”
The IOC vote in Lausanne is not just a triumph for Los Angeles, host of transformative Games in 1932 and 1984, and Paris, site of the 1900 and 1924 Games. It is also a major victory for IOC president Thomas Bach, who has pushed the joint awarding of the 2024 and 2028 Games as a bold and significant step in a new direction for an Olympic movement threatened by corruption, financial disaster and dwindling interest among key younger demographics.
“A golden opportunity for the Olympic Games and for the IOC,” Bach said.
“That’s huge element in all of this,” said Jules Boykoff, author of “Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics,” referring to the joint-awarding plan. “The Olympics are on their back foot and in a way awarding the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time is sort of a Hail Mary move on the part of Bach and the IOC to try and salvage a pretty difficult situation.”
Although the IOC is not scheduled to select the 2024 host city until Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru, talks between the IOC and Los Angeles and Paris officials will gain momentum in the coming days and months. They are expected to result in Paris being selected as the 2024 host, with Los Angeles agreeing to hold the 2028 Games, according to international sports officials and consultants who have worked with the IOC and are familiar with the IOC’s inner workings.
The next step, IOC vice president John Coates said Tuesday, is for IOC, Los Angeles and Paris to reach an agreement on the 2024/2028 joint awarding with the IOC anticipating that during discussions “one of the cities would put their hand up for 2028.” The IOC membership would then formally make the three-way agreement in Lima. Should neither Los Angeles or Paris agree to the three-way agreement, the IOC would vote to just award the 2024 host city in Lima.
While Paris officials have been adamant about being interested in hosting only the 2024 Games, which would mark the 100th anniversary of the Olympics immortalized by the Academy Award-winning film “Chariots of Fire,” Los Angeles officials have been more receptive to waiting until 2028.
“We have never given an ultimatum about 2024,” Los Angeles 2024 bid chairman Casey Wasserman said Tuesday. “We don’t believe in ultimatums. We believe in partnership and surely today partnership is something worth striving for. So we all agree it’s time for a change.”
Wasserman evaded questions last week about whether Los Angeles officials were involved in discussions with the IOC about hosting the 2028 Games.
Los Angeles officials have called their bid “New Games for a New Era” and
Wasserman and Garcetti have a vision for the 2024 Games they say would transform an Olympic movement in peril by capitalizing on the city’s place at the epicenter of the entertainment and technology industries and the intersection of Latin America and the Pacific Rim to connect the Games with a new audience.
“L.A. is home to the most creative entertainment and technology minds on the planet,” Wasserman said. “We create the stories that the world loves to enjoy and the technology it uses to enjoy them. LA 2024 is offering a city ready to go.”
The Los Angeles Games will come with a balanced $5.32 billion budget, feature a wealth of existing world-class venues and revolve around four Olympic sports parks — Downtown, Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley and the South Bay — with Honda Center (indoor volleyball) and the Forum (gymnastics) also hosting high-profile events. The Olympics will begin with an opening ceremony in which a torch relay links the Memorial Coliseum and the $2.6 billion stadium being built in Inglewood, connecting the region’s rich Olympic heritage to its innovative future. UCLA will host the Olympic Village. Universal City will be the site of the International Broadcasting Center.
Should the IOC select Los Angeles to host the 2024 Game, the Olympics would run from July 19 to Aug. 4, with the Paralympic Games scheduled for Aug. 16-29
“When discussing the main differentiators of both candidatures, the two words the Evaluation Commission often attributed to LA2024 were ‘dynamic’ and ‘futuristic,’ the IOC evaluation committee said in a report released last week on the Los Angeles and Paris bids. “Los Angeles is prepared to put its storytelling skills, creative energy and cutting edge technologies to good use in delivering what it proposes will be transformative Olympic Games that will thrill and inspire the world, just as some Hollywood masterpieces have done over the generations.”
A Los Angeles Games would benefit from $88 billion in previously approved infrastructure projects, the $14 billion renovation of Los Angeles International Airport and $120 billion in transit funding approved by Los Angeles County voters last year.
Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding between the city and LA 2024, the bid committee is required to establish an Allocated Contingency Fund of at least $250 million. The fund can be utilized only with the city’s written consent. The fund would be created out of $487.6 million LA 2024 plans to set aside for contingencies. While the Games would be privately funded they would rely on at least $1 billion in federal funding to cover security costs.
