Dec. 01--Los Angeles and three other American cities that want to bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics faced a Monday deadline to submit their technical proposals to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
All of the candidates --including Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. -- have assembled packages that place the cost at somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion, not including construction of infrastructure such as hotels and roads.
With the USOC and International Olympic Committee talking about making the Games less expensive, that would mark a significant reduction from the money spent by previous hosts such as Russia, which spent a total $51 billion on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
With South African officials saying they want to prepare a bid for 2024, any potential American candidate would face considerable opposition.
Los Angeles could be a cost-effective site with ongoing upgrades to public transportation and much of its venue structure in place. But vying for a third Games could prove difficult -- the been-there, done-that factor -- and San Francisco could be more attractive to foreign IOC members.
The USOC has yet to commit to putting forward a U.S. submission. The final four will make their presentations at the committee's board meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 16.
A final decision is expected sometime within the next two months. The IOC will select a host in 2017.
