ATR First: 2028 Olympics Decision Must Go Through LA Council

(ATR) Los Angeles City Council will hear from the people before signing off on any 2028 Olympic decisions.

Herb Wesson, LA City Council president, tells Around the Rings that the council does not "act based on speculation," given recent reports of a double Olympics award. Wesson says all council members are focused on securing the 2024 Games, and have not been in any talks concerning the 2028 Games.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti appeared to open the door to a 2028 Olympics award in suggesting the IOC fund youth sports programs as an incentive. ATR understands Garcetti’s comments were referring to questions raised to both cities during meetings in April at the 2017 SportAccord Convention, after which talks have not been revived.

"I have not been engaged in any conversations with anyone about us saying we would be accepting of 2028; we are still focused on LA 2024." Wesson said. "The city council we don’t back away from a challenge but I want to make it crystal clear support is for a 2024 Olympic award, and we believe that’s where the mayor is."

Speculation over what the IOC will do with regards to awarding the 2024 Games is swirling ahead of next week’s Executive Board meeting. ATR reported that the IOC is considering a scenario where members vote for both Olympics at the same time. Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reported that the IOC is leaning toward awarding Paris the 2024 Games, giving Los Angeles the 2028 edition.

Wesson says until the scenarios become any sort of reality, they remain "great cocktail chatter." He says that the LA City Council has operated consistently within the rules of engagement pertaining to a 2024 decision. If the IOC were to change the rules, Wesson says a number of steps would have to be taken before LA could even conceivably accept a 2028 award.

"We would have to see exactly what they decided, what their statement would be related to a possible double award, and then at that time we would go through a process to determine where we were," Wesson said. "It is that simple."

The process LA would have to go through would be "of some significance," Wesson says. Part of that process would require a set of public meetings and securing significant public support. Large public support has been one of the selling points that LA 2024 has been pushing during the bid.

"No one questions that 80 percent of this city would be supportive and if we didn’t believe from the onset that we had that level of support we would not have gone forward," Wesson said. "The people in this city definitely have a big say."

"[The speculation], I think, kind of reinforces one of the reasons why I think LA should be awarded the 2024 bid," Wesson said. "The IOC, if they weren’t concerned about having successful Games and financially successful Games, wouldn’t be talking about adjustments to their policy. I think that helps makes the case for us in 2024."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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