{"id":6952,"date":"2017-07-12T08:46:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T14:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6952"},"modified":"2017-07-12T08:55:25","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T14:55:25","slug":"la-olympics-really-placeholder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/07\/la-olympics-really-placeholder.html","title":{"rendered":"An LA Olympics? Really? (placeholder)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOlympic_flame_at_opening_ceremony.jpg;<\/p>\n

In this case, the question mark doesn\u2019t denote whether it\u2019ll happen or not \u2013 the news reports yesterday are that this is a definitive yes, most likely in 2028, after an unusual Olympic Committee decision in which they awarded the 2024 and the 2028 games to LA and Paris with the instruction to work it out between themselves which goes when.<\/p>\n

As the Los Angeles Times<\/a> reports,<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is all but guaranteed to host the Summer Games for a third time after Olympic leaders made the unusual decision Tuesday to name two winners in the bid race between L.A. and Paris, giving 2024 to one city and 2028 to the other.<\/p>\n

After the historic vote by International Olympic Committee members gathered in Switzerland, one key question remained.<\/p>\n

Can the cities agree on who goes second?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one step closer to making it happen,\u201d L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters at a news conference in Lausanne. \u201cI have full confidence we will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though his counterpart, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, expressed similar optimism, the French have repeatedly dismissed the idea of waiting another four years. It has been widely speculated that L.A. bid leaders \u2014 who have been more flexible on the issue \u2014 will seek financial or other concessions in return for accepting 2028.<\/p>\n

But if the IOC, L.A. and Paris cannot reach an accord, the final selection in mid-September will revert to a winner-take-all vote for 2024 only.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This report came as a bit of a surprise as I hadn\u2019t really read anything prior except for reports that the Olympics had become toxic due to their cost. \u00a0(I was quite certain I had blogged on the subject of Chicago\u2019s failed bid but apparently this was long enough ago that I really just, as was my practice pre-blogging, spent overmuch time in comment sections of other blogs talking about what a horrible idea it was.) \u00a0Reportedly, LA\u2019s proposal was much more cost-efficient:<\/p>\n

L.A. \u2014 which hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984 \u2014 would rely almost entirely on such facilities as the Coliseum, Pauley Pavilion and Staples Center. UCLA would house athletes and USC would accommodate the media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia<\/a> lists a number of venues which already exist, some constructed for the 1984 Olympics, others current or future sports stadiums for professional teams. \u00a0The athletes\u2019 village would be located at UCLA (the site implies these are just existing dormitories not otherwise in use, but doesn\u2019t explicitly state that). \u00a0Sounds economical, almost reasonable, right?<\/p>\n

But the costs are still staggering: \u00a0of the total $6.2 billion in costs (much of which seems to be\u00a0insanely-high operating costs of one sort or another), $1.4 billion is labelled as \u201cvenue infrastructure\u201d \u2014 and costs being shouldered by others (e.g., the new Rams stadium) aren\u2019t even included. \u00a0How this breaks down isn\u2019t specified \u2014 does this include new mass transit lines? \u00a0\u201cTemporary\u201d stadiums? \u00a0Million-dollar giant Olympic rings to re-brand existing venues?<\/p>\n

Hence, my label of this post as a \u201cplaceholder\u201d because I don\u2019t have the time right now to dig further into whether this is a too-good-to-be-true well-run, non-corrupt games without the ballooning cost that has become the norm. \u00a0If these early news reports result in more follow-ups and analysis, I\u2019ll share these \u2014 and, readers, please feel free to add what you know in the comments.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: Opening Ceremony in Athens, 2004. \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOlympic_flame_at_opening_ceremony.jpg; By I, Alterego, took this photo and release under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (Own work) [GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this case, the question mark doesn\u2019t denote whether it\u2019ll happen or not \u2013 the news reports yesterday are that this is a definitive yes, most likely in 2028, after an unusual Olympic Committee decision in which they awarded the 2024 and the 2028 games to LA and Paris with the instruction to work it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[682,454],"class_list":["post-6952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-los-angeles","tag-olympics"],"yoast_head":"\nAn LA Olympics? Really? (placeholder)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Olympic Games that's well-managed, without corruption? 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