The 2024 and 2028 Olympics have officially been given to Paris and Los Angeles respectively. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) made the announcement after a vote which took place in Lima, Peru on Wednesday.
The shortlist of host cities was limited due to the increasing cost of hosting the games. However, officials from both Paris and Los Angeles have stressed that their cities already possess 90 percent of the facilities needed to host, which is expected to reduce the cost drastically. Los Angeles estimates that the game will cost the city roughly $5.3 billion which is considerably less than previous games. Tokyo is expected to spend $12.6 billion for their games in 2020 and Brazil is still struggling to pay off their debt of roughly $13 billion.
In an interview with NPR, reporter Ben Bergman noted the financial strain that Olympic games place on host cities, “Few governments want to risk the billions in cost overruns that have become synonymous with recent Olympics.” This is why the IOC awarded dual bids at the same time according to Bergman.
This will be the first Olympics hosted in the United States since Atlanta in 1996, which is infamous for a terrorist attack at the Centennial Olympic Park killing one person. In France, the 2024 games will be the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Paris summer games. Since Los Angeles will be hosting the games eleven years later than expected, they will receive $300 million from the IOC to help with preparation.
Paris is expected to build an Olympic stadium similar to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. The stadium will hold swimming and diving events, and will cost around $892 million. The Coliseum and new NFL stadium in Inglewood are expected to share the duties for the opening and closing ceremonies for the LA games. The Staples Center and Rose Bowl will also hold several events, with the UCLA campus set to be the site of the Olympic Village.