Los Angeles was picked Tuesday as the U.S. bid city for the 2024 Summer Olympics, despite numerous questions over event costs and the logistics of housing thousands of international athletes.
With the selection, Los Angeles joins Rome, Hamburg and other cities in vying for the games, which bring worldwide attention and tourism dollars to host cities but also carry monetary risks.
Against the backdrop of a Santa Monica beach, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun announced the selection of the nation’s second-largest city for the 2024 Games, thanking Los Angeles “for standing up once again as America’s bid city.”
“You have waited patiently, never losing sight of the great prize of hosting the games, a prize you know so well,” Blackmun said, referencing the 1932 and 1984 games that took place in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles was snubbed by the USOC earlier this year after the committee chose Boston as the host city. But amid concerns over cost overruns, Boston pulled out of the competition, forcing the U.S. Olympic Committee to quickly negotiate with Los Angeles leaders before a Sept. 15 nominating deadline.
The USOC’s announcement Tuesday came hours after the Los Angeles City Council voted 15-0 to sign off on negotiations for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games, a vote that allows city officials to pursue the games but doesn’t obligate the city to host the event.
Exiting City Hall’s council chambers after personally thanking several council members for their vote, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters that the Olympics is in the city’s DNA.
“We know how to do Olympics,” Garcetti said. “We know how to do them well.”
Later, the mayor broke into French at a news conference, saying it was a “great day” for the Olympics and Los Angeles, an apparent message to France, which is also seeking to bring the games to Paris.
The International Olympic Committee in 2017 will announce the winner of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Organized by the private nonprofit Los Angeles Exploratory Committee 2024, Los Angeles’ Olympic bid proposes using locales from downtown’s Staples Center to Santa Monica’s beaches for sporting events for the 2024 Games. The expected 17,000 athletes would be housed in a planned Olympic Village near downtown on rail-yard property owned by Union Pacific.
Garcetti contends taxpayer money won’t be at risk and said he expects a $161 million surplus for Los Angeles from the games.
It will cost at least $4.1 billion to host the games, organizers say, while an additional $1.7 billion is needed from private investors, pushing the total cost to roughly $6 billion, when insurance and contingency funds are added.
Olympic host cities regularly encounter cost overruns, said Victor A. Matheson, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., who studies the Olympics.
“In the overwhelming majority of cases, you have games that involve significant public subsidies,” said Matheson, pointing to the London 2012 Olympics, which ballooned from a budgeted $5 billion price tag to $12 billion.
In some cases, cities have seen surpluses, such as Los Angeles, which reaped more than $200 million after the 1984 Games.
A report released last month by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso said they could not “verify, validate or further explain” the initial budget released by LA 2024.
Several City Council members cited concerns about costs at Tuesday’s hearing but said they felt confident in their initial agreement for the games, which states that the council and the mayor must authorize any public funds commitments, “including but not limited to providing a financial guarantee to cover any Olympics-related costs.”
“This council should be prepared to walk away if the terms are unfavorable,” City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said during the hourlong meeting.
Blackmun said the City Council’s tight reins over the Olympic agreement would not impact the IOC’s decision in selecting a host city. As it stands now, the City Council could balk at agreeing to pay for some cost overruns, threatening the deal to bring the Olympics to L.A.
“I don’t think it’s a hindrance at all,” Blackmun said of the council’s involvement in negotiations. “I think it’s a reasonable process.”
One major hurdle remains in establishing an Olympic Village, however. Landowner Union Pacific hasn’t yet signed off on a plan for development of the site, nor has it agreed to sell the site to the city.
Additionally, the Union Pacific site has long been sought for purchase as part of the proposed 11-mile L.A. River restoration. Lewis McAdams, co-founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River, said in an interview Monday he was flabbergasted to read news reports that the city wants to buy the land for housing, rather than prioritize it for the river.
“I resent that the future of the L.A. River is being discussed by people without any transparency,” McAdams said.
LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman, the public face of the nonprofit, insisted during the Santa Monica news conference that there’s no risk in hosting, saying the Olympics and Paralympic games “aren’t a gamble.”
“With our venues and infrastructure and L.A.’s passion for the games, our bid is affordable, sustainable, exciting and ready to go,” Wasserman said.
Besides Wasserman, the five-member LA 2024 board also includes T-shirt mogul James Perse and film producer Bill Gerber. Both are reportedly close friends of Wasserman, who runs a sports marketing and talent management company.
LA 2024 spokesman Jeff Millman said the makeup of the nonprofit is expected to change in the coming months.
Asked if any board members anticipate making money off a Los Angeles Olympics through their own respective companies, Millman wrote in an email that “all potential business relationships or other conflicts of interest that those board members may have will be vetted and subject to approval by the full board.”
Garcetti is scheduled to arrive in Switzerland today to present the city to the IOC. The delegation also includes Blackmun, Wasserman and USOC Chairman Larry Probst. The delegation will tour the IOC headquarters in Lausanne Thursday morning and return to Los Angeles that evening.
