IOC Visit To L.A. Could Be Pivotal To City Landing '24 Games

The IOC's host city evaluation commission arrives in L.A. tomorrow for "four days of touring proposed venues and meetings" with LA 2024 and city officials that "could prove pivotal" to the city’s Summer Games bid. The commission heads to Paris next week before presenting reports to the full IOC in July. The '24 and possibly '28 Games will be awarded in September (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 5/8). Central to L.A.'s bid is the fact that a '24 Games there "would require no new venue construction, with events held in an array of existing arenas or stadiums that are already under construction" (AFP, 5/7). The site visits come as the '24 race "encounters historic uncertainty" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/8 issue).

Meanwhile, the Paris bid is "welcoming the election of pro-business Emmanuel Macron as France's new president, after concerns that a win for his populist rival Marine Le Pen could have damaged the bid" (AP, 5/7).