The U.S. Olympic Committee moved a step closer to nominating Los Angeles to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games on Wednesday.
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No sooner had Boston tossed off mantle of America’s Olympic bid city, Los Angeles civic leaders seemed ready to pick it up.
The USOC all but picked Los Angeles, hedging its statements by noting there are still “complicated issues” to be resolved and calling it a “potential bid”.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has also assured USOC officials that he would sign a host city contract with the IOC that includes guarantees against financial shortfalls in putting on the Games.
“The board authorized Scott Blackmun to work with Los Angeles to further explore the viability of a bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
The poll conducted earlier this month showed 81 percent of L.A. residents support hosting the Summer Games, almost double what similar surveys found in Boston.
Denver global Airport, site of tomorrow’s USOC meeting. In any case, various venues are now set up here, which could help make the Games in Los Angeles billions less expensive to put on than they would be about anyplace else.
“You have to lay what happened more at the feet of Boston”, he said. The IOC members elect the 2024 host city at their 2017 session in Lima, Peru. That became a major sticking point as the Boston bid disintegrated.
“I think there absolutely will be some public dialogue and the Mayor Garcetti is very committed to that obviously that will be led by Mayor Garcetti and by Casey Wasserman”.
“I think LA has been there and understands the tremendous upside but they’re also very aware that with any bid project there is risk but they have taken a hard look at that and the calculus they have done suggest the benefits outweigh the risks”.
“That is a great legacy for the city and it was extremely successful financially”.
The best guess is the fact Los Angeles already has played host to the Olympics in 1932 and ’84. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., were named as the two other finalists in the initial selection when Boston won. “On the summer side, there’s a whole generation of Americans who haven’t seen the games on American soil”.
Now Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome are in the race to host the 2024 Games while Baku and Toronto are still considering their options.
The USOC is hoping to finalize plans by the end of August prior the IOC deadline but Probst and Blackmun refused to reveal any details on what needs to be discussed and worked out prior to coming to an agreement.
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“We want to address that”.
