Los Angeles To Host 2028 Summer Olympics, Paris Hosting 2024 Games

Los Angeles officials are set to announce on Monday a deal with the International Olympic Committee to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. The city would thus yield the 2024 hosting honors to Paris.

LA hosting 2028 Summer Olympics

The Los Angeles 2024 Olympic Bid Committee has scheduled a press conference for 8 p.m. EST on Monday at the StubHub Center. Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to reveal the news.

This will mark the first time since 2002 that the United States will host the Olympics. Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Games that year. The last Summer Games in the U.S. were held in Atlanta in 1996.

Los Angeles (1932, 1984, 2028) and Paris (1900, 1924, 2024) now join London as the only cities to host three Olympics. Paris and LA had both been in contention to host either the 2024 or 2028 Games for several months.

Both the 2024 and 2028 Games — which will follow the 2020 Games in Tokyo — will be officially awarded at the 130th IOC session in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 13.

Los Angeles City Council president Herb Wesson’s office on Monday confirmed the deal has been reached.

“LA 2024 and the Olympic Organizing Committee have worked out a deal for Los Angeles to host the 2028 Olympic Games,” said spokeswoman Caolinn Mejza. “The LA City Council will hold an ad-hoc meeting on Friday to discuss accepting the deal.”

After the deal was officially reached, Garcetti and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo held hands to celebrate the moment.

Garcetti recently said Los Angeles would only accept the hosting opportunity if the city did not suffer greatly economically because of it.

“I don’t want the Olympics at any price,” Garcetti told ESPN in June. “I won’t accept these Games if they put the city in debt or at risk. I won’t do it if there’s not a genuine human legacy and instead it’s just a vanity party for 2 1/2 weeks.”

He also said the 2028 Games were likely the better option in an interview with Buzzfeed earlier this week.

“They are making it financially — and we are negotiating this — so attractive we would be stupid not to take 2028,” said Garcetti.

Up until September 2015, Boston had been a strong contender to host the 2024 Olympics. At the time, the grassroots #NoBostonOlympics campaign raised questions about the taxpayer cost of hosting the Games. Public approval tumbled, and Boston’s hosting bid fell apart.

Soon afterwards, an independent poll found that 88 percent of LA residents were in favor of the city hosting the 2024 Olympics.

Among the other cities that had vied for the following two Summer Games were Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; and Rome.

The IOC has struggled to reach deals with cities willing to host the Olympics. In 2015, six European cities backed out of their bids for the 2022 Winter Games, leaving Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Beijing as the final candidates. Beijing eventually won.

Los Angeles’ privately funded $5.3 billion budget includes no new permanent stadiums. It instead benefits from an infrastructure boom in Southern California, which includes the $2.8 billion future home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers and the new LAFC soccer stadium. Furthermore, USC has pre-existing plans for a $270 million renovation of the historic Memorial Coliseum, and UCLA’s dorms will serve as the athletes’ village.

Garcetti stated he doesn’t expect requesting any government funds. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics are the only Games in modern history to run at a profit.

“The cost to taxpayers to put this plan together is nothing,” Garcetti said. “There’s risk. Eyes wide open, it could be something. But I’m close to 100 percent confident.”

President Donald Trump tweeted earlier this month that he was striving to bring the Olympics back to L.A. He met in the Oval Office with IOC president Thomas Bach to pledge his “full support,’’ the White House said in a statement then.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – JULY 10: IOC President Thomas Bach shakes hands with Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti on July 10, 2017 in Lausanne, Switzerland. (Photo by Robert Hradil/Getty Images)

Article by Pablo Mena

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