Evaluating LA bid for 2024 requires imagination

LOS ANGELES >> Evaluating Los Angeles’ readiness to host the 2024 Olympic Games takes some imagination. That’s because a lot of the pitch still relies on images on a computer screen, or a blueprint of what’s to come on a dusty construction site.

Los Angeles Olympic organizers often say their plan for two weeks of international competition is virtually realized, stressing that it requires no new construction of permanent venues. The concept for the LA Games, they say, is ready to go because “it already exists.”

But there is a lot that International Olympic Committee members won’t see as they visit Los Angeles this week in the run-up to a September decision on whether LA or Paris will get the 2024 Games.

Some of the opening ceremonies, including the famous Parade of Nations, would take place in a $2.6 billion NFL stadium just outside Los Angeles that today is a gouged, fencedin lot crisscrossed by tire tracks.

The city notorious for its clotted freeway traffic will make use of a “growing public transit system,” the LA proposal boasts. Indeed, Los Angeles has billions of dollars of planned rail lines, but how many will be ready for the Games in seven years is largely a guess, given the uncertainties that come with major construction projects. Some aren’t scheduled to be completed until 2023 and 2024.

City planners describe the Los Angeles International Airport as the “gateway” for the Olympics. But anyone familiar with the airport knows it inflicts daily misery on travelers, including knotted traffic in and out of terminals. An impressive new terminal opened several years ago for international flights, but many others feel like a walk into a grimy past. Billions of dollars in improvements are planned.

LA’s bid is closer to completion than many in past years, but in many ways it comes down to a promise of what’s to come.

This week, IOC members are looking for “the ability to deliver,” said Chicagobased sports finance consultant Marc Ganis. They want to see “commitment and competence,” he said, not just sketches and mockups.