LA aims to repeat 1984 Olympic host success

DESPITE the prestige, hosting the Olympics has often left cities in dire financial straits. But Los Angeles, which looks all but set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, is the exception.

The Los Angeles organisers of the 1984 Summer Olympics put on the only games to ever turn a profit by driving a hard bargain with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) while avoiding construction of new sports venues.

The city is well positioned to turn the same trick again, after the IOC agreed to include $1.8 billion (R24bn) in funding for the 2028 host city contract, which is set to be awarded to Los Angeles.

After stadium delays and other cost overruns turned the 1976 Games into a financial disaster for Montreal, only New York and Los Angeles had been willing to bid in 1979 to become the host for 1984.

The US Olympic Committee preferred the sprawling California metropolis. And with no serious competitors, the Los Angeles organising committee was able to extract unprecedented concessions from the Swiss-based IOC.

In particular, after the Montreal overruns, Los Angeles was able to avoid being on the hook if projects went over budget.

And because the city, as the second-largest sports market in the world’s largest economy, had a surfeit of professional and major-college teams, there were plentiful outdoor stadia and indoor arenas.

Ultimately, only the swimming complex and velodrome had to be newly built, assisted by major corporate sponsorships.

Despite a Soviet-led boycott mostly by communist countries, television revenue quadrupled compared to the Montreal Games.

In the end, the Los Angeles games produced an operating surplus of some $215 million, which continues to be spent in part on youth sport programmes.

Leading up to the bidding process for 2024, recent Games have again seen soaring costs, scaring off potential suitors.

The 2008 Beijing Games ran to more than $45 billion, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi topped $50 billion, as Russian President Vladimir Putin spared no expense in the Black Sea resort.

The Summer Games last year in Rio de Janeiro officially cost $12 billion, an estimate that excluded many non-sports costs, and the event left the city and the host state in dire financial straits.

With only Paris and Los Angeles in the running, the IOC decided to award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games at the same time. A deal announced Monday allows Paris to go first, while the Californian host gets rewarded for its patience.

At a time of financial uncertainty for host cities, Los Angeles was once again able to use its enviable, existing infrastructure as a bargaining chip.

“This deal was too good to pass up,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. He also touted some $160 million to be contributed toward youth sports efforts prior to 2028.

“We are very happy that, as part of this Host City Contract, we are able to increase the access of the city’s youth to sport, and encourage the healthy lifestyle of Angelenos for the next 11 years,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.

But Los Angeles has no shortage of sceptics.

NOlympics LA, a coalition of leftwing groups opposed to the Olympic bid, accused Garcetti of believing that sports can save the city from poverty. “We think he’s delusional,” the group tweeted on Tuesday.

“Despite any good intentions expressed by the bid committee, the IOC is still one of the least transparent and most brazenly corrupt institutions in the modern world. Their goal is to turn a profit at all cost, not to care about the cities they invade,” the group alleges. – ANA-DPA