Los Angeles has apparently given up its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, a move that effectively means Paris will host the Games in seven years. LA is then expected to be the host city in 2028.
“To be blunt, LA 2024 has never been only about LA or 2024,” LA’s bid leader, Casey Wasserman, writes. “Even when the issue of a dual award for the 2024 and 2028 Games was initially raised, we didn’t say it’s ‘LA first’ or it’s ‘now or never’ for LA: that sounds like an ultimatum.
“We could have used that strategy, but we didn’t because we thought it was presumptuous to tell the IOC what to do and how to think. We’re better partners than that. It has always been our contention that LA 2024 had to make as much sense for the Olympic Movement as it did for the people of LA - and we’ve stuck to that premise.”
On Friday, it is expected that the IOC will confirm the host cities for 2024 and 2028 will be announced at a meeting in Lima on 13 September.
In the wake of Wasserman’s statement, an LA 2024 spokesman insisted it had not yet given up on hosting the 2024 Olympics.
“LA has not conceded 2024. Indeed, LA has a firm belief that it is the best host for the 2024 Games given the current situation in the Olympic movement,” said the spokesman.
The attraction of hosting the Olympics has dimmed in recent years with huge expenses and redundant venues haunting the IOC. Hamburg, Rome, Budapest and Boston have all dropped out of the bidding process for 2024, partly due to protests from citizens concerned their cities would be saddled with debts.
“There is an absolute consensus among sports economists that it is economically damaging to host the Games, unless one puts a very high value on the local population enjoying the party,” David Forrest, an economics professor at the University of Liverpool, told the Guardian in February. “The only publications attributing benefits to hosting are by consultancies paid by politicians to validate their vanity projects.”
LA (1932 and 1984) and Paris (1900 and 1924) would join London as the only cities to host the Summer Games three times, should the IOC confirm that Paris will host in 2024, with LA hosting four years later.
