Los Angeles named US candidate host city for 2024 Olympics

9/4/2015 1:45:31 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)Former US Olympic Swimmer Janet Evans addresses the audience on a stage at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica California on Tuesday after the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to go forward with a bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Los Angeles: Los Angeles joined the race to win the 2024 Olympics here on Tuesday after city leaders gave unanimous backing for a bid to stage the sporting extravaganza for a third time.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) formally named Los Angeles as its candidate soon after the city council members voted 15-0 in favour of supporting the bid.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Los Angeles as our US bid city for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games” USOC chief Scott Blackmun said.

“LA has the proven experience in hosting the Games and knows how to deliver world-class events for athletes and an extraordinary experience for fans.”

Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics twice before in 1932 and in 1984 widely regarded as one of the most commercially successful Games of the modern era.

The United States has not hosted a Summer Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Los Angeles faces fierce competition from other cities that have already entered the race for the 2024 Games including Paris Rome Hamburg and Budapest.

Although the high costs of staging the biggest sporting event on the planet has dissuaded some cities from chasing the Olympics Garcetti emphasised that the Los Angeles bid benefitted from the fact that many venues were already built.

“It is important to stress that we are not changing the face of our city to fit the Olympic Games” Garcetti said.

Blackmun said Los Angeles’s bid was in keeping with the International Olympic Committee’s recent pledges to scale back the vast spending associated with the Games.

The decision to award the Games will be taken in 2017. Leading British bookmakers Ladbrokes have installed Paris as the early favourite with Rome 4/1 and Los Angeles and Hamburg at 7/1. Los Angeles re-entered the running for 2024 after USOC’s original choice Boston withdrew amid fears of taxpayers being left on the hook for cost overruns.

LA24 the nonprofit running the Los Angeles bid last week issued a detailed 200-page draft bid book that bullishly projected the games could deliver a surplus despite a $4.6bn price tag.

Local businessman and philanthropist Casey Wasserman the chair of LA24 said an Olympics in Los Angeles “can be and will be the most responsible Games possible.”

LA24 said the Games could generate $4.8bn resulting in a profit of around $161m.

Los Angeles city analysts however sounded a note of caution last week stating it was “difficult to determine the fiscal impact and risk to the city of hosting the 2024 Games at this time.”

A review of the budget detailed in the bid book warned that costs for one of the key construction projects the Olympic Village may “significantly exceed” the projected $1bn it was expected to cost.

Tuesday’s city council vote backing the Olympic bid contains wording that allows Los Angeles City ongoing scrutiny of possible bid costs.

“This is the engagement not the wedding -- and now we’re in the prenup stages” council leader Herb Wesson said.

AFP

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