Menu
Olympics

LA 2024 looks at other site options for Olympic Village

Los Angeles 2024 may be forced back to the drawing board for the single largest component of its $6.4 billion plan to host the Summer Olympics.

Last week, senior Los Angeles City Council members called plans to build the Olympic Village on an active rail yard impossible to execute and likely far more expensive than the current $1 billion budget.

A proposal to redevelop a site that’s now an active rail yard has drawn scrutiny.
Photo by: LA 2024
An LA 2024 spokesman confirmed the hunt is on for alternatives.

In August, the nonprofit bid group published a proposal to develop housing for 16,500 athletes at Piggyback Yard, a 125-acre site along the Los Angeles River just northeast of downtown. But site owner Union Pacific Railroad is not looking to sell, and the cost projections are unrealistic on their face, Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said.

“For this as the Olympic site, I’m pretty deeply skeptical based on what I know about Piggyback Yard,” O’Farrell said. “And I don’t see how we get there by 2024.”

O’Farrell, who has evaluated redevelopment options as chairman of the council’s arts, parks and Los Angeles River committee, estimates it would cost $600 million to buy the land, $300 million to relocate the rail yard, and “hundreds of millions” more in environmental cleanup.

The bid budget pegs the village at $1 billion total, with a to-be-named private developer partner contributing $925 million and enjoying the long-term upside once the village is converted into private housing after the Games.

“We’re talking about quite an extensive and complicated option if we want an Olympic Village there,” O’Farrell said. “I just don’t see how we can get there, especially when there are other options.”

The nonprofit bid group would not directly address the concerns raised by O’Farrell and others on the City Council’s Olympics oversight committee. But spokesman Jeff Millman said there are plenty of willing developers, viable site alternatives and a clear need for more housing stock in the city.

“And while [Piggyback] is an attractive possibility, we’re also looking at two dozen other parcels across our city to find the right location for the athletes, for our city and for our budget,” Millman said in an email.

Historically, Olympic housing plans have been fraught with financial risks. Vancouver taxpayers lost at least $230 million when the housing partner there defaulted on loans before the 2010 Games, and the British government took at least a $450 million loss when it sold a failed private development to the Qatari ruling family before the London 2012 Games.

The village is the bid’s largest single construction component, surpassing even the potential of up to $800 million in overhauls and improvements to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. While the bid committee projects an overall operating surplus with minimal direct public spending, the obvious problems with the village budget has politicians concerned.

“I don’t think that’s real,” said Councilman Joe Buscaino, speaking of the $1 billion estimate.

A Union Pacific spokesman said nothing has changed since fall 2014, when Executive Chairman John Koraleski said in a letter that the railroad is planning a major expansion on the site and doesn’t intend to sell.

LA 2024 says it will present a plan for the village in February, when the first phase of its official bid is due to the International Olympic Committee.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/23/Olympics/LA-Olympic-Village.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/23/Olympics/LA-Olympic-Village.aspx

CLOSE