The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, will announce Monday – from 5:00 pm – the commitment of his city to host the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
Initially candidate for the 2024 Games, Los Angeles has chosen – within the framework of the principle of double allocation and in a perfectly controlled strategy – to position itself on the 2028 deadline.
As the Mayor of the City of Angels said last week, financial attractiveness was one of the major arguments that led the American candidate to choose the second option.
This evening, in a statement sent to the international media, the Bid Committee announces in fact « its intention for Los Angeles to host the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games 2028 and its agreement with the Host City Contract 2028 ».
Specifically, the IOC will make a more advantageous contribution to the Host City of the 2028 Games, at a minimum of $ 1.8 billion and up to $ 2 billion.
Sports programs for young audiences in the Los Angeles area are envisaged for an amount of $ 160 million (€ 135.12 million) included in the IOC contribution. But the opportunities offered by the Games planning period longer than usual (eleven years instead of seven), explain the fact that the overall contribution could reach the key figure of $ 2 billion.
With regard to marketing, the choice of 2028 proves to be more advantageous and potentially more lucrative for the stakeholders.
While the Host City of the 2024 Games will have the opportunity to implement its marketing program and its commercial activities from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2024, the Host City of the 2028 Games will be able to establish the various programs from the January 1, 2021 until December 31, 2028.
Most importantly, the Marketing Plan Agreement must be signed by the IOC and the Organizing Committee before December 31, 2018, whether for the 2024 Games or for the 2028 Games.
In addition to the modalities relating to commercial rights, the Olympic institution has demonstrated a significant upgrading compared to the data of 2024 City Contract. This applies to revenues related to the Games’ broadcasting rights, but also for investments related to the general assistance of the IOC to the organizers of the event.
Indeed, revenues from the broadcasting of the Games would stand at $ 898 million in 2028, against $ 855 million in 2024.
As for general assistance, the IOC has estimated $ 125 million its contribution to the host city of the 2028 Games, against $ 116 million dollars for the winner of the 2024 Games.
For Mayor Garcetti, « this is an historic day for Los Angeles, for the United States and for the Olympic and Paralympic Movements around the world. Today, we take a major step toward bringing the Games back to our city for the first time in a generation and begin a new chapter in Los Angeles’ timeless Olympic story.
This agreement with the IOC will allow us to seed a legacy of hope and opportunity that will lift up every community in Los Angeles not in 11 years’ time, but starting now and continuing in the years leading up to the Games.
LA 2028 will kick-start our drive to make LA the healthiest city in America, by making youth sports more affordable and accessible than ever before ».
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Los Angeles Bid Committee – through their respective Boards of Directors – will now review the details of the agreement with a view to finalizing the agreement in August.
If approved, the IOC will act as the principle of a tripartite agreement with Los Angeles and Paris, and will convene the 131st Session in Lima (Peru) to allow ratification of the agreement by the electoral members of the institution.
This ratification – more than likely now and without any unforeseen event – will take place on September 13.
Following the communication of the Los Angeles bid, the IOC has published the reaction of Thomas Bach, a major and decisive player in the principle of the double allocation of the Games of 2024 and the Games of 2028.
« We are very confident that we can reach a tripartite agreement under the leadership of the IOC with LA and Paris in August, creating a win-win-win situation for all three partners. This agreement will be put forward to the IOC Session in Lima in September for ratification » said the IOC President.
With the formalization of a positioning on the Olympic edition of 2028, Los Angeles’s bid reiterates in any case its commitment – or even its requirement – to be a reliable and quality partner for the Olympic Movement.
This credo, hammered over the past few months, is intended to echo the hosting of the 1984 Games for which the City of Angels had not met any competition in a particular geopolitical context marked in particular by The Cold War with the former USSR.
By adopting this strategy of dialogue and openness to a long-term partnership, Los Angeles and the US Olympic authorities have undeniably demonstrated an effective pragmatism.
The IOC’s contribution will make it possible to meet certain expectations, while the improvement programs for transport or accommodation will have an opportunity for development and deployment on the territory in a more space-time.
The preparation of the Games will therefore be only more adequate and the lessons learned from both the tripartite agreement and the reception by Paris of the 2024 Games will serve as constructive elements to further adapt the holding of the 2028 Games.
USOC Chairman Larry Probst said : « LA 2028 will help connect the Olympic Movement with the youth of the world and provide the IOC with long-term stability and sustainability, and demonstrate the viability of hosting the Games to future bidders ».
On the side of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, the satisfaction is of course present tonight.
Launched in June 2015, the Paris 2024 bid went through a campaign of more than two years marked by successive withdrawals from Hamburg (Germany), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), but also Boston (Massachusetts).
Initial discussions between the Mayors of the last two contenders at the Games took place last April in Aarhus (Denmark) on the sidelines of the SportAccord 2017 Convention.
Since then, the two mayors – as well as the leaders of the two candidatures – have remained opposed : the firmness of an offer considered to be only valid for 2024 on one side (Paris), and an intelligent opening towards of the Olympic Family to design a new model of the Games on the other (Los Angeles).
The remarks broadcast this evening by the communication services of the City of Paris illustrates in this sense the duality in the approach of the two contenders.
« I am pleased that my friend Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, is making another important step today.
Discussions between our two cities and the IOC will continue throughout the month of August.
We want to offer the IOC members the most ambitious agreement possible for the future of Olympism. We will do everything to make Lima a historic moment » said Mayor Hidalgo.
Today, stakeholders in the organization of two Olympiads 2024 and 2028 seem to be satisfied with the imminence of a tripartite agreement.
The fact remains that the chaotic procedure encountered by the IOC in the call for candidates for 2024 has considerably rebuffed the game. At this level, Los Angeles may have shown a greater lucidity.
If an agreement is formally ratified, on September 13 in the Peruvian capital, the interpretations could be diverse.
Some will say for example that Paris won the battle for which she had filed her letter of intent and then the three components of her Bid Book.
Others will argue that Los Angeles emerged from this battle as the big winner, especially with regard to the financial contributions made by the IOC to the city of the West Coast of the United States.
Still others may feel that the IOC is finally – because of its central position inescapable – the real winner of an eventful Olympic race.
From this last point of view, it is a fact that the IOC will succeed in a prowess, making a race devastated by abandonment, a potential generator of new opportunities with two experienced Host Cities and each with the specificities necessary for the success of the Olympic model.
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