USOC, Los Angeles move forward with discussions for 2024 bid

The U.S. Olympic Committee has not selected Los Angeles as its bid city for the 2024 Olympics – yet – but its board decided in a meeting Wednesday to move forward with discussions with the two-time host.

The City of Angels seems poised to step in as the U.S. city after the Boston bid was pulled last month following months of increasing opposition and declining political support.

Chairman Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmun said they hope to reach a final decision by the end of the month. Initial bids are due to the International Olympic Committee on Sept. 15.

“You can’t overestimate the importance of the experience,” Blackmun said of LA. “They have strong venues. They have incredibly strong public support. They have incredibly strong political support.

“I think LA has just kind of been there and understands the tremendous upside,” he added. “They’re also very aware that with any big project there is risk, but they’ve taken a very hard look at that and the calculus that they did suggests the benefits outweigh the risks.”

Blackmun said the USOC commissioned a poll earlier this month that found 81% support for the Games in Los Angeles. The bid has the support of the Los Angeles city council, California Governor Jerry Brown and the state’s congressional contingent, he said.

In Wednesday’s meeting, the USOC board considered bids from San Francisco and Washington, D.C. – who were finalists with Los Angeles and Boston in January – but concluded that Los Angeles was the best option to consider.

While declining to discuss specific issues holding up a move for the USOC to officially back Los Angeles as its bid city, Blackmun said, “Our discussions with LA today have been very, very positive, but there are complicated issues in the discussion. Very optimistic that we’re going to be able to get into a place that’s good for us.”

In the likely event the USOC puts Los Angeles forth, it would face stiff competition from other declared cities. Paris, Rome, Budapest and Hamburg, Germany, have already said they will bid, and Toronto and Baku, Azerbaijan, could also join the race.

IOC President Thomas Bach encouraged the USOC to submit another city after Boston left the race.

The United States hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since 1996 when they were held in Atlanta.

“I think it would be a lost opportunity,” said Blackmun. “There’s a whole generation of Americans that haven’t seen the Games on American soil, so we want to address that. We want to make sure the Games come to the United States on a regular basis.”

The USOC and Boston 2024 organizers pulled support of a bid for that city on July 27. Before they announced that decision, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh held a news conference to announce that he would not commit to signing a host city contract that day. Walsh had previously been an ardent supporter of the bid.

Blackmun said Wednesday that the USOC received a commitment to sign the host city contract – which wouldn’t be required until a city is selected in 2017 – from all four cities when it was making its decision in December.

“I think that’s a non-issue in the case of Los Angeles,” he said.

Boston 2024 struggled almost out of the gate after the USOC selected it in January. A WBUR poll that month put support at 51%, but that waned to a low of 36% in March and never moved above 40 percent.

Boston 2024 organizers faced opposition from groups such as No Boston Olympics and No Boston 2024, who argued the Games would leave taxpayers footing the bill for cost overruns and pull resources and political attention away from more vital issues.

An abundance of existing venues could help limit cost overruns and garner support for Los Angeles. The Coliseum is set to undergo a major renovation funded by USC, and LA organizers would propose hosting events in the Staples Center, StubHub Center and Nokia Theater.

“They’ve got a venue plan that we think aligns well with the IOC’s Agenda 2020 in terms of sustainability and legacy,” said Probst, referencing the IOC’s new guidelines that favor bids with existing venues.

That selling point likely helps Los Angeles should the USOC submit a bid for the city, but Paris could boast the same in conversations with the IOC. The City of Light last hosted the Olympics in 1924, meaning the 100th anniversary could make a compelling story with IOC voters.

Los Angeles, meanwhile, could benefit from its history hosting the Olympics or have to overcome a “been there, done that” attitude. The host of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, Los Angeles would join London as the only city to host the Games three times if selected.

The IOC will narrow the field to three or four cities in the spring of 2016 and select the host city in September 2017.