Bach also said he hopes the decision on the next U.S. bid city will involve discussions that are “a little bit more oriented on facts than emotions”.
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Bach said: “We need to demonstrate that we are indeed walking the walk and not just talking the talk”. “I think it’s at least viable in their case”. Later, the USOC announces it’s dropping Boston as its host city. Only two cities submitted bids: Beijing, which gets nearly no snow, and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
But that experience is its selling point. “And if that’s confusing to the IOC president, then it shows exactly why the IOC is in the position they are, in not having multiple countries bid for the Olympics”, Walsh said.
The demands that the IOC makes to host cities is unreasonable.
The Games would be split between stadiums and arenas in both Southern and Northern California.
May 21 – Boston 2024 Chairman John Fish steps down and is replaced by venture capitalist and Celts owner Stephen Pagliuca. The USOC believed the bid wouldn’t prevail over great bids from Paris, Rome, Budapest, or Toronto.
He also assured that the extension of the underground metro system to the Olympic Park in Barra which is the main transportation project connected to the Games, would be ready in time.
Blatter was not in Kuala Lumpur, apart from last week’s trip to Russian Federation for the World Cup draw he has insisted on staying safely at home in Switzerland, where he has remained ever since the corruption arrests of May 27.
“Los Angeles has great history, lots of experience”, he said.
Boston’s bid fell apart over concerns about the city footing the bill for any cost overruns from the Olympics.
The Boston 2024 bid seemed to come out of nowhere … before the general public could fully wrap their arms around the idea, the USOC handed Boston the torch and said, ‘run with it!’. “This requirement for a taxpayer guarantee is something that they’re going to have to look at long and hard, and clearly it’s something that Mayor (Martin) Walsh pointed to today as a potential obstacle or hurdle moving forward”. With USC now invested in the Coliseum, which hosted the ’32 and ’84 Games, you could see the very same stadium bring the Games.
Meanwhile for Los Angeles, it would be just one of two cities to have hosted the Summer Olympics three times, the other being London. Wallechinsky estimated polling right now could start about 60% in favor of hosting the Games, which is something the IOC likes to see when choosing cities.
Despite those hurdles, Los Angeles is not a city that needs to be sold on the Olympics.
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There’s still time, though, to save face if chairman Larry Probst and Blackmun make quick phone calls to leaders in Los Angeles, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and agent/power broker Casey Wasserman.
