Los Angeles faces new bidding process in race for 2024 Olympics
The 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, pictured, generated a profit. The city’s projected budget for the 2024 Olympics is $4.1 billion.
The past few weeks have brought more clarity to the race for the 2024 Summer Olympics, with Los Angeles joining an international field of candidates that includes Paris, Rome and Hamburg, Germany.
What comes next is still a bit of a mystery.
The bidding process for 2024 will change significantly after recent reforms by the International Olympic Committee that, among other things, seek to make campaigning for the Games less costly.
The IOC has done away with shortlisting candidates, green-lighting everyone through to the final vote, and has created three stages of progression with only a general timeline.
Some 7,000 pages of information are scheduled to be released later this month.
“It’s pretty remarkable that they are just now announcing all of this,” said Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University in Oregon who follows bidding. “Who knows what they are going to do next?”
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Los Angeles bid leaders say they have already raised $35 million in private funding for their effort. Bidding expenses for recent candidates have soared well above $50 million.
The IOC sought to address rising costs with its “Agenda 2020” package last December.
“I think it’s going to be much better,” said Anita DeFrantz, an IOC member from Los Angeles. “Candidates will save money.”
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Under the old format, bidders began by studying Olympic requirements, attending seminars and preparing detailed applications that might win them a spot on the short list.
After that came more meetings and planning. IOC officials would visit each city to prepare a report for committee members, who would cast their votes after final presentations.
The new process begins in mid-September when cities submit their applications.
The first stage is called “Vision, Games Concept and Strategy.” According to an IOC document, it involves such issues as venue plans, infrastructure analysis and financing strategy.
The next stage, “Governance, Legal and Venue Funding,” begins in June 2016. The bid committees will need to produce a capital investment budget and file certain guarantees.
Normally, candidates send a contingent to observe the Olympics, which in this case would be the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
For the “Games Delivery, Experience and Venue Legacy” stage, which runs from December 2016 to the vote in September 2017, the candidates will provide more detailed plans before making their final presentations.
The IOC has yet to provide specific dates for seminars, meetings or inspection team visits.
Despite all those pages set to be released, some in the Olympic movement expect that changes will represent only a small percentage of the new information.
Still, as Los Angeles embarks on its bid for 2024, there are questions about what to expect from the IOC.
“They’re changing the rules as we go,” Boykoff said.
Twitter: @LATimesWharton
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