Facing an early test of support at home, Los Angeles’ 2024 Olympics plan stalled on Wednesday amid questions about potential runaway costs and the impact on neighborhoods already strangled by traffic and congestion.
The Los Angeles City Council had been expected to vote on a proposal to give Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti broad authority to execute agreements linked to the bid, a steppingstone toward entering the international competition for the Games.
However, the vote was pushed backed until at least today after it became clear members were struggling with questions from potential taxpayer debt to how construction and its headaches would transform the US’ second-largest city.
“What protections do we have? Is this going to be a blank check?” Los Angeles Councilman David Ryu asked after the meeting.
At this juncture, any delay could have consequences.
The US Olympic Committee (USOC) last month cut talks with Boston, which was initially selected as the US contender for the 2024 Games. With Los Angeles the likely stand-in, the USOC faces a Sept. 15 deadline to enter a bid with the International Olympic Committee.
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson credited Garcetti for proposing an ambitious plan, but added that “we are not going to do anything that will put the residents of this city in harm’s way.”
In a later statement, he said: “we cannot let our excitement trump our responsibility to the taxpayers and must ensure all documents have been thoroughly vetted.”
The plan calls for US$6.4 billion in public and private spending, leaving a US$161 million surplus.
Over the years Olympics have been notorious for cost overruns, and studies have questioned if host cities benefit economically. Russia has been struggling with costs from last year’s Sochi Olympics, which have been called the most expensive Olympics of all time.
In related developments, Japan plans to slash construction costs for a new national stadium, the centerpiece of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by one-third from the previous estimate of US$2.1 billion, several ruling party lawmakers and senior government officials said yesterday.
The government plans to put a cap for the stadium’s construction costs at about ¥160 billion (US$1.3 billion), compared with the previous plan, scrapped last month amid public anger over skyrocketing costs, of spending ¥252 billion.
The stadium will be designed to house about 68,000 people, big enough for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, said the lawmakers and officials, who declined to be named because an official agreement has yet to be made.
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