L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city’s bid for the '24 Games would do better if not for IOC ethics rules that keep most voting members from visiting the city. "I feel stronger and stronger ... if we’d have the opportunity for 90-something IOC members to spend the kind of time -- which would have been reasonable and can be reasonable potentially in the future -- with a city for a couple days, I think Los Angeles’ strengths would have shown for themselves,” Garcetti said. “They would have risen above another really good bid as well, and I’m hoping [commission members] can communicate that.” Garcetti’s comments came as he wrapped the second day of the IOC evaluation commission’s official site visit. The commissioners are the only IOC members allowed to visit bid cities after travel restrictions were enacted after the '02 Salt Lake City vote buying scandal. The group in L.A. included just eight of the 89 members who can vote in the contest after illnesses and schedules forced three to miss the trip. They spent the day Thursday touring proposed Olympic venues. L.A., generally seen as a slight underdog in a close race, believes it must overcome a sense of Paris being owed the Games after three recent failed bids. An in-person experience is crucial to that effort, because it was a chance to show off the Olympic plan’s unusually appealing features, like the neatly manicured, vibrant UCLA campus, which will serve as the athlete’s village during the Games. Athlete housing is typically built from scratch, and often is associated with cost overruns and construction delays. IOC officials on Thursday singled out the UCLA experience for special praise. “One of the things we concluded, and I don’t know if you went to UCLA this afternoon, is we all want to go back to studies,” said IOC Olympic Games Exec Dir Christophe Dubi.
TOURING THE VENUES: After starting with Staples Center, the IOC members on Thursday split into three groups to cover more ground. Over the course of the day, they hit 37 of 38 venues, missing only Lake Perris -- 74 miles inland from downtown, where rowing and canoe-kayak will play. They used an augmented reality tool to view the L.A. Memorial Coliseum as it would look after major renovations, and used VR at the Rams’ sales office for its Inglewood development to see how that stadium will look when complete. Media members also saw the $700M dorm development at USC that will house reporters. One of L.A.’s potential weaknesses, the distances between some of the venues, was indirectly referenced a few times by participants discussing the “long day.” But traffic delays were minimal. Much of L.A.’s argument for the Games is in the technical details, specifically the critical mass of proven, already-built sports venue and infrastructure. But as the sun set behind the Santa Monica Mountains on the beach, Garcetti argued L.A. has a certain je ne se quoi too. “I think L.A. is the emotional choice,” he said. “I don’t think it’s just the rational choice.” The IOC will conclude its visit and head onto Paris for a similar experience Friday night.
