In 2017, the International Olympic Committee awarded the City of Los Angeles the 2028 Olympics. Right after being awarded the 2028 games, the mayor of Los Angeles signed a host contract, which forced the city to be the “financial backstop” and therefore responsible for “paying off any debts” that arose from the games. Even better, as the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 2017 story, the city will have “more than a decade to prepare.” Most importantly, the Olympic Committee from Los Angeles was clear that taxpayers would not pay for the games and that instead “they expect to cover all expenses through revenues from broadcast rights, sponsorships, ticket sales and other sources.”
My goodness, that sounds quite familiar. It is almost as if I have heard that before. Oh wait, I have…many times! When Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Olympics, they were quite confident about the finances. The initial estimate for the games was roughly $4.6 billion. To top it off, the organizing committee’s budget was going to be paid through “sponsorship, IOC contributions and other private funds, at zero cost to the public.” Of course, it did not go down this way. The event ended up costing Tokyo about $13 billion. How much did Japanese taxpayer pay? $7.1 billion.
When Rio De Janeiro won the right to stage the 2016 Olympics, they also claimed that it would cost them $4.6 billion to host. The group representing Rio during the bidding process even promised to “balance their budgets.” Olympic officials proclaimed that hosting the Olympics would “benefit Rio’s residents for years to come.” The actual cost was between $13-$15 billion. Sadly, rather than helping residents, these games ended up being a nightmare for locals.
“Since the games concluded, several venues have reportedly fallen apart. The Olympic pool turned orange; Maracana stadium turned into a ghost town and had the power cut off because of $930,000 in unpaid bills due to a dispute between the IOC and city. Additionally, the alleged economic benefit of hosting the games — something many economists have debunked — hasn’t occurred in Rio. According to AP, the state of Rio de Janeiro is late in paying teachers, hospital workers, and pensions, and crime in the city has risen to almost record-breaking levels” – 06/15/17, Business Insider
Back to Los Angeles. We are two years out from the Olympics. Are we wrapping up the final issues? Not exactly. You see, city officials have not come to an agreement with LA28 on who pays for “transportation, policing and other public services” for upcoming visitors. As the Los Angeles Times wrote in a recent editorial, the Olympics were promised to come at “zero cost” to local taxpayers thanks to all costs being “reimbursed by LA28 and the federal government.”.
About that federal government money…One thing that I find crazy is that the federal government passed a bill recently that included $1 billion to “reimburse state and local governments for security, planning and other Olympics-related costs.” Yet, according to the Times, nobody will know exactly “what the money can be used for….until next year.” How on earth can that be?
Right now, LA 28, the group who bid on and will oversee the games in Los Angeles, is falling short of their goal to receive at least $7B from corporate sponsorships. Now, LA28 disputes this and claims that they reached their goal of $2.5B. But they also admit that the $7B number is their total budget. I think LA28 is changing their minds as to what is their goal. If taxpayers were not going to pay for anything, why would you set a goal so far short of your budget?
Another fight continues to be that LA28 and the city both believe that the other should pay for “additional city services” that total “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.” This has apparently pissed off the city council so much that they are hinting at possibly suing LA28. However, my favorite quote is from Connie Rice, a retired civil rights attorney who told the Times that she has “seen 10th-graders plan their prom better than the city is planning these Olympics.”
