Garcetti Asks IOC: Why Wait for 2028?

(ATR) Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says the city is fully prepared to host the Olympics today.

With the dramatic setting of a Pacific Ocean sunset, the mayor and 2024 bid chair Casey Wasserman held their second press conference for the visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission.

Speaking on Santa Monica Beach, Garcetti rhetorically asked the IOC – why wait 11 years to bring the Games back to LA instead of just seven?

Garcetti spent part of his day traveling with members of the IOC inspection team. The group is visiting Los Angeles this week, followed by Paris next week. They took the commission on a tour of all but one of the 30-plus venues outlined in the bid before closing the day in scenic Santa Monica.

Responding to a question about the possibility of the IOC awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Games, Garcetti said his position is unchanged.

"My thought is still the same, I’d love to go to Paris - in 2028 - and see my friends there. I think it would be a great Olympics, I truly do. I always campaign like I’m 10 points behind and we’ve never believed that we are anything but the underdog in this campaign.

"Over the last two years, today was the day we had been waiting for," Garcetti continued. "A day to actually get out from the hotel, to get out from written descriptions of the city and to allow the IOC Evaluation Commission to feel the spirit of Los Angeles."

Patrick Baumann, the IOC member in Switzerland who is the chair of the Evaluation Commission, answered questions from reporters just before Garcetti and Wasserman.

He said he was impressed with what he saw on the venue tour.

"Today’s visit underscored one particular point, which is that the legacy value of hosting the Games is so important and can play an incredible role in the lives of many people," Baumann said with the Pacific Ocean at his back. "We saw that the 1984 Games impacted the lives of all the citizens of Los Angeles."

Baumann said the highlights of the tour were the proposed Media Village at the University of Southern California and the Olympic Village at the University of California at Los Angeles.

"We ended up seeing USC and UCLA and these were really, very impressive," Baumann told reporters. "Very impressive because these two beautiful campuses have everything for what the Games will be needed for, whether it’s for the media at USC or athletes at UCLA.

"We stayed a long time there because those will be key pieces of a possible Games here in LA. I’m sure that the media will have first-rate facilities at USC and the athletes will have great accommodations, great training facilities and great food at UCLA."

Because of the spread of venues across the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the 13-member commission split into three groups to make sure nearly every venue would be seen on this visit.

Thursday marked the arrival of commission member Habu Gumel, IOC member in Nigeria and president of the Nigerian NOC. He was delayed due to his election as treasurer this week at the general assembly for the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa in Djibouti.

Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi joked that the quality of the UCLA facilities made them all want to go back to university. He also lauded the vast experience that LA’s venues have with hosting major events.

"Not only do these venues exist, but they host a range of events," Dubi said. "Some numbers are very impressive actually, over 200 days of operations a year.

"So it means not only you have the venues, you have the teams ready to host any event including the sporting events for the Games. All in all it was a very good day for the commission on our side."

Wasserman told Around the Rings that the feedback they received from IOC members today was "incredible".

"I can’t speak for other groups, but I know that our group was certainly impressed and the small tidbits I heard from people we passed at UCLA was all very positive."

The inspection concludes on May 12 with another working session with LA 2024. The session will be followed by a full press conference with the IOC delegation and bid leaders. The IOC then travels directly to Paris to inspect its plans for 2024 from May 14-16. The IOC decision will be made in September in Lima, Peru.

Reported and written by Kevin Nutley in Los Angeles.

Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.