IOC PANEL FINDS GOOD IN BOTH 2024 BIDS
Poll: Los Angeles more supportive of effort than Paris
Bids from Los Angeles and Paris to host the 2024 Olympic Games received praise from the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission in a report released Wednesday. The report included new polling numbers on support of each bid that show Los Angeles with an advantage of 15 percentage points.
Commission chair Patrick Baumann called both bids “outstanding,” saying they were low-risk, high-reward propositions for the cities and the IOC.
“With Los Angeles and Paris, the Olympic Games are in very good hands,” Baumann said, noting commission members highlighting the innovative aspects of the Los Angeles bid and the historic parts of Paris’ bid. “The two projects are different in nature, but each city presents a proposal which is genuinely authentic and reflects the best of what each has to offer.”
The 180-page report comes after the commission made three- day visits to each city in May. Its release comes with the IOC set to meet next week to vote on a recommendation to award the 2024 and 2028 Olympics simultaneously.
In addition to the evaluation of the bid and technical analysis of the cities’ plans, the report included recent polling that showed Los Angeles garnering more support and less opposition to the Olympics.
In February, the IOC also polled 1,800 people in the bid cities, the regions and elsewhere in the country. It found 78% support and 8% opposition for Los Angeles in the city. In Paris, the IOC’s polling found 63% support and 23% opposition.
That follows a February 2016 report from Loyola Marymount that found 88% support for Los Angeles’ bid.
“With no permanent venues to build and overwhelming public support, LA 2024 can concentrate on putting the best assets of the top global sports and entertainment market to work for the Olympic and Paralympic Movements,” Casey Wasserman, LA 2024 chairman, said in a statement. “We think that makes Los Angeles an ideal Olympic city and an ideal partner for the IOC right now.”
The report noted Los Angeles’ venue inventory exceeded the Games’ needs.
The commission noted as a challenge the implementation of a strong transport plan between Los Angeles’ four planned sports parks, saying it would “require significant efforts to manage and reduce traffic.”
And it highlighted awareness of Paralympic sport as a challenge in the United States.
Among challenges the commission noted for Paris is the clean-up of the River Seine, where it plans to host triathlon and marathon swimming.
It estimated the security threat would be very low to low for the Games and Olympic-related travel, but it estimated the threat to the cities as low for Los Angeles and medium for Paris.
The report is intended to guide IOC members as they head toward a vote Sept. 13 in Lima.