Los Angeles 2024: Mayor Agrees to $400 Million Summer Olympics Cost Overrun Contingency

Los Angeles will represent the U.S. in the 2024 Summer Olympics bidding process after the country’s Olympic Committee finalized their decision on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. The choice followed a late-term rejection of Olympic-host-city terms by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who faced a vocal campaign against the bid and cited risk of cost-overruns to taxpayers. As we noted in July, many of the reasons why Boston rejected the bid don’t apply to Los Angeles. But cost-overruns are still a possibility.

For Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, that liability starts at $400 million, a sum the city will have to put aside in addition to paying $150 million in insurance, according to the Times. Such an agreement -- rejected by walsh -- has been inked by Garcetti, according to the Orange County Registrar. The City Council has approved the risk. What makes Los Angeles different from Boston? L.A. Times sports columnist and ESPN panelist Bill Plaschke argues that, for one thing, the city’s successful (and profitable) 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

“The Olympics are such a financial risk that the mayor of Boston politely handed back the USOC invitation and surrendered its nomination for fear that the city simply couldn't afford it,” Plaschke wrote. “But Los Angeles is different. Los Angeles is almost Olympic ready, mostly Olympic friendly, and very Olympic cool. The risks here are much less, the history much deeper, and the rewards much greater. With the proper financial protections in place, for the opportunity to expose generations of Angelenos to the sports event of a lifetime, it's a risk worth taking.”

Not everyone in Los Angeles were on board with that risk. City Council Mike Bonin has argued that the USOC should put the bid forward without a risky contract, as had been done for the 1984 bid. Those arguments didn’t win out, and the #LA2024 ship has sailed, trending on Twitter Tuesday.

The Olympic bid is far from a done deal. The USOC still has to take L.A.’s proposal to the IOC and show that it’s stronger than rivals Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest. Yet unlike in Boston, polls have shown a warmer response, and a large majority support it. Now, attention is turning from incredulity to competition.

"Let Paris and Rome know we're in it to win it," said city council member Paul Kerkorian, according to the Register.