Los Angeles city attorneys are close to finalizing financial and other agreements outlining the city’s responsibilities for hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics, officials told a City Council committee Wednesday.
The city is negotiating an agreement with the LA2024 Exploratory Committee, an independent organization campaigning to bring the Olympics back to Los Angeles, to make clear what responsibilities the city will be taking on if it commits to hosting the international sporting event, Assistant City Administrative Officer Ben Ceja told a council committee overseeing the Olympic bidding effort.
The agreement could be reached by the end of November, then come to the City Council by December, Ceja said.
Deputy Chief City Attorney Jim Clarke said negotiators are “very close” to a deal on indemnification issues, “which is very important to protecting” the city.
The city and LA2024 have until Feb. 17 to work out an agreement and submit guarantee letters and other documents to the International Olympic Committee, so at the latest, the documents must be reviewed by the City Council by January, Ceja said.
There is a “hiatus” in the talks this week because members of LA2024 are in Lausanne, Switzerland on Olympics-related business, Clarke said.
Some council members have expressed concerns that hosting the Olympics could put the city on the hook to pay for any cost overruns. The United States Olympic Committee’s first choice for host city, Boston, dropped out after some residents and elected officials raised concerns about the potential financial burden.
Los Angeles City Council members today also pushed for alternative Olympic Village sites to be considered. The LA2024 Committee is proposing that a railyard in Lincoln Heights be used for the village.
The council members did not touch on the recent ISIS-related attacks in Paris, another candidate for the 2024 Summer Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach told a French newspaper this week that the attacks will have no bearing on Paris’ chances, as the Games will be held in nine years, and with terrorism being “global” and not limited to a single country or city.
Los Angeles, which hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, is bidding for a third chance, along with Paris, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest. If held in Los Angeles, the 2024 games would be the first summer Olympics in the United States since they were held in Atlanta in 1996.
