L.A. in running to be 3-time host

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday named Los Angeles as its candidate for the 2024 Games, replacing Boston’s soured bid and marking a comeback for LA’s dream of becoming a three-time Olympic host.

The announcement by USOC CEO Scott Blackmun came under a summer sun at Santa Monica Beach, where the city’s plan calls for staging beach volleyball on the site where the sport was founded.

“I want to thank Los Angeles for standing up, once again, as America’s bid city,” Blackmun said, adding that the city’s proposal squares with the Olympic movement’s goals of watching the bottom line while investing in projects that dovetail with community needs.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city was inspired to bring the games back to the U.S. for the first time in 28 years.

“This is a quest that Los Angeles was made for,” the mayor said. “This city is the world’s greatest stage.”

Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council cleared the way for Garcetti to strike agreements for a 2024 bid. The 15-0 vote came about a month after Boston was dropped from contention amid shaky public support and questions about taxpayer spending and liability.

Garcetti has said Los Angeles, home to the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, would stage Games that are both spectacular and profitable.

The city’s selection as the U.S. nominee marks the start of a two-year competition. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city in September 2017, and Rome; Paris; Hamburg, Germany; and Budapest, Hungary, are also in pursuit of the 2024 Games.

A key issue has been whether approval of the reso- lution by the City Council would saddle Los Angeles with potential cost overruns for an event that historically runs over budget.

The city’s 2024 plan outlines more than $6 billion in public and private spending.

Over the years, the Olympics have been notorious for cost overruns, and studies have questioned whether host cities benefit economically.

Many financial details of the Los Angeles plan remain vague.

The bid calls for building a $1 billion athletes village on a rail yard the city doesn’t own, and government analysts have warned that developing the site could significantly exceed the projected cost.

A private developer would invest most of the $925 million to build the village, but who would build the site, how the company would be selected and what type of financing would be used is unclear.