Los Angeles (AFP) – Organizers of Los Angeles’s bid for the 2024 Olympics on Thursday added the cities of Anaheim and Long Beach to their plan for the Games while reiterating a pledge to deliver the spectacle on time and within budget.
Anaheim’s Honda Center and Long Beach’s Convention Center, Arena, Waterfront and Pier would stage events as part of a plan to spread the games across a wider area of southern California.
The Riviera Country Club golf course in Pacific Palisades, which has hosted the US Open and two PGA Championships, was also confirmed as the venue for golf.
The Long Beach venues would host handball, BMX cycling, water polo, open water swimming and triathlon as well as sailing.
Anaheim’s Honda Center, home of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, would host volleyball.
“We’re very pleased to add more world-class existing venues to our fiscally responsible and innovative Games Plan for 2024,” LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman said in a statement.
“By relying on Southern California’s wealth of top sports, housing and transportation infrastructure, LA 2024 will minimize construction risk, operational struggles and costs, and can focus on providing athletes with the perfect stage to perform their best, without distraction.”
The International Olympic Committee will vote to award the 2024 Games at a meeting in Lima next September.
LA officials meanwhile declined to be drawn on the crisis which has engulfed rival bidder Rome. The Italian capital’s bid was dealt a potentially fatal blow this week after the city’s mayor refused to give formal backing because of debts.
“We’re focused on our Games,” Wasserman said. Pressed further, he added: “Our bid has maintained its approach in terms of fiscal responsibility.
“That has nothing to do with any other city. We’ve been consistent since day one of this process and we’ll be consistent through the balance of this process.
“We’re not in a position to comment on anyone else’s bid or politicians in their country.”
As well as Rome and Los Angeles, Paris and Budapest are also bidding for the Olympics.
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