LA's Olympic Committee To Consider Terms Of 2028 Deal

VAN NUYS, CA — The Los Angeles City Council's committee on the Olympics is set to meet Friday for the first time since leaders of the bid announced their intention to pursue hosting the 2028 Summer Games while ceding the `24 Games to Paris.

The committee has not met since January when it gave the go-ahead to the proposed contract the city would sign if it landed the `24 Games. At the time the idea of 2028 was not even on the table and the city was in a tight competition with Paris and Budapest, Hungary, to host in `24.

Much has changed since the meeting; Budapest dropped out of the running and the International Olympic Committee approved the idea of awarding both the `24 and `28 Games simultaneously.

On Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti and other leaders announced a tentative agreement to host in `28 as long as the Los Angeles City Council and U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors also approve of the change. If that approval is given, the IOC, Los Angeles and Paris will work on a formal three- way agreement in advance of the IOC's meeting in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 13, when the Games will officially be awarded.

So much has changed since the City Council's committee last met, it is still called the Ad Hoc Committee on the 2024 Summer Olympics, and it is likely the name will soon be changed to reflect the `28 Games, just as LA 2024, the nonprofit committee leading L.A.'s bid, changed its name to LA 2028 on Monday.

The committee is scheduled to discuss needed changes to the contract and memorandum of understanding it approved in January for the city to sign with the United States Olympic Committee. LA 2028 leaders are also scheduled to give the committee a presentation.

Los Angeles would receive some significant financial concessions for waiting the extra four years to host. Under the terms of the `28 host city contract, the IOC would advance $180 million to a Los Angeles organizing committee due to the longer planning period and to fund youth sports in the years leading up to the Games.

The IOC also agreed to waive $50 million in fees and contribute up to $2 billion of its broadcast and sponsorship revenues to the Games, more than the $1.7 billion pledged to Paris in `24. The IOC also agreed to funnel any of its profits from the Games back to the city.

On Monday, Garcetti pitched the new deal as a win for Los Angeles because of the financial concessions and the immediate money for youth sports.

"If somebody literally said you can take this deal for 2024 or this deal for 2028, you can have either one, I would take this 2028 deal, because I want the city to feel it immediately. I don't want seven or eight years of kids to be lost and never get to play sports," Garcetti said.

City News Service