Following the rescinding of Boston’s candidature due to a lack of public support, the USOC has been forced to move quickly to find another potential host with the global Olympic Committee (IOC) having set a September 15 deadline for interested cities to submit a letter of intent.
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Tory has said he wants to carefully weigh the pros and cons before making a decision, and that won’t happen until after the Parapan Am Games, which wrap Saturday.
“L.A. has been there and understands the tremendous upside”, Blackmun said.
Those old enough to remember 1984 will recall that numerous Soviet-bloc nations boycotted the games after the U.S. boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow, in protest to the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan. It showed 81 percent support for hosting the Olympics.
The Canadian Olympic Committee is pushing for Toronto to make a pitch, saying last month’s Pan Am Games proved the city can handle a major multi-sport competition.
“Los Angeles gave us our best chance to win”, Blackmun said. The Boston budget was around $4.6 billion.
Los Angeles is looking to join London as the only cities to host the Summer Olympics three times. Some analysts said IOC voters might prefer to go somewhere new.
Those estimates, however, go against recent Olympic history.
Those Olympics, boycotted by the Soviet Union, put Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton on center stage and, in many ways, transformed the games into the mega-billion-dollar event they are today.
Probst and Blackmun declined to get into details about what issues might hold up a bid from Los Angeles, though they believe the mayor will honor his commitment to sign the host-city contract. USOC officials also said the cost concerns that led Boston to back out of the bid were not an issue in Los Angeles.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Garcetti said his office has had “very positive discussions with the United States Olympic Committee” about how Los Angeles can present a strong bid.
If Los Angeles is chosen as America’s bidder, it could be up against potential foreign bidders such as Rome; Nairobi, Kenya; Casablanca, Morocco; Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Melbourne, Australia; Paris; Hamburg, Germany; and St. Petersburg, Russia. Other cities may declare soon, as well.
At meetings earlier this month, Bach said that despite the Boston debacle, he was expecting the United States to bid.
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Garcetti told the Times, “I think it is right for this city”. On the Summer side there is a whole generation of Americans that has not seen the Games on American soil.
