Last week we said that Rome had (likely) dropped out of the bidding to host the 2024 Olympics. This means that it's now down to L.A. and Paris. Budapest is in the mix too, but it's doubtful that it'll win out against the other two big metropolitan cities.
As L.A. gets closer to securing the bid, organizers have been working to draft up a list of venues across the Southland. They have been meeting with the international federations representing each sport to determine the appropriate spaces for each event, reports the L.A. Times.
Among the newest developments is that volleyball may take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Organizers had initially pitched UCLA's Pauley Pavilion as a venue, but volleyball officials preferred the Honda Center for its larger size.
The Times also notes that golf is now slated to take place at the municipal golf course in the Pacific Palisades, after the course at Griffith Park had been considered. Organizers also plan to utilize the new football stadium that will be unveiled in Inglewood in 2019 as the new home of the L.A. Rams. The Coliseum, the Staples Center, and the StubHub Center are among the other high-capacity venues that may be in play.
And, for the rowing fans out there, Lake Perris in Riverside has been named as a possible spot.
While L.A. and the O.C. may be seeing a good bit of action, it's perhaps Long Beach that'll be having the most fun. Organizers are planning a sort of Olympics carnival out there, as sports ranging from water polo, sailing, BMX racing and marathon swimming will all take place near the Long Beach Convention Center. Rich Llewellyn, legal counsel to the Mayor of Los Angeles, told KPCC that planners are thinking about building temporary facilities out in that area. "One of the things that the International Olympics Committee has asked of its bidding cities is [to] think hard about whether you need a permanent venue. Are you going to be able to use it again? Are you going to be able to fill it again [with people]?" said Llewellyn "You can build a big venue for one time for the olympics but does that make any sense for your community? So I think going forward many of the facilities will be temporary."
These concerns are legitimate, as shown by past examples. The famous "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing, which hosted one of the most magnificent opening ceremonies in the history of the Games, is now merely an "empty monument" that costs $11 million a year to maintain, according to the Guardian. The Guardian also went out to Athens, Greece to take photos of some of the former venues from the 2004 Olympics—many of the structures are now dilapidated. Many believe that the high expense of the 2004 Games helped drive Greece into a punishing economic depression.
In 1984, L.A. had hosted what many considered to one of the most cost-efficient Olympic Games in history. As explained by Gizmodo, one of the main reasons why the city was able to pull this off was because it used its existing infrastructure of facilities, rather than building new arenas. It looks as if L.A. will be following the example that it'd set more than 30 years ago.
