With Los Angeles in contention for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the committee came to visit the UCLA campus Thursday to evaluate and discuss the potential preparations and environments for the games.
If Los Angeles is chosen to host the 2016 Olympics, UCLA’s residential Hill would be the Olympic Village and house thousands of participating international athletes.
Pauley Pavilion would be the site for the games’ volleyball tournaments, according to Barry Sanders, chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games.
Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics twice in the past ““ once in 1932 and again in 1984 ““ and is competing for USOC’s 2016 bid with Chicago, which has never hosted the games.
After the committee makes a decision, the chosen American city will be contending with other international cities.
Cities that have expressed interest include: Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Rome; and Tokyo.
But Sanders said Los Angeles having hosted two games in the past should not influence the committee’s decision, pointing to London, which was selected to host the 2012 Games despite having hosted two Olympics previously.
“Los Angeles is the perfect Olympic city ““ it’s a city where people come to realize their dreams, and that’s what the Olympics is all about,” Sanders said.
Thursday morning, the committee was greeted by Sanders, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and UCLA’s Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams in Covel Commons Plaza. Many in attendance had “L.A. 2016″ pins adorning their clothing.
“I can tell you one of the great things about Los Angeles is not only the fact that we’re a world class venue for the Olympic games; this is a city where the world comes together, a city of America’s hope and promise,” Villaraigosa said in his greeting to the committee members.
Both Villaraigosa and Sanders called Los Angeles an ideal place to host the games because of the city’s warm climate, its various sporting venues and arenas, the cultural diversity of its residents, and the city’s connection to the entertainment industry.
Officials also highlighted major differences between the 1984 Games and the projected environment in 2016.
The Hill, which was decorated with “L.A. 2016″ banners, provided 4,500 beds in 1984 but would have to host approximately 16,000 participants and athletic personnel in 2016.
“The residence halls on the Hill are much different today than 1984. There’s more variety in the configurations of rooms, there are auditoriums, meeting rooms, larger, more modern restaurant facilities, bookstores, etc. It’s the same Hill but the mix and number of … facilities is very different from 1984,” Abrams said.
John Sandbrook, executive officer to the administrative vice chancellor, said currently the Hill has about 10,500 beds and that additional construction and renovations are in the works, regardless of whether or not the Olympics are in Los Angeles.
This construction would happen in two phases, adding 1,250 rooms that would accommodate about 3,750 athletes, Sandbrook said. If additional beds are needed, he said some double rooms would be converted into triples.
Sandbrook said UCLA summer sessions and conferences would be arranged around the Games so the Olympics would not affect students’ summer housing.
Having been an administrative staff member during the 1984 Olympics, Sandbrook said he remembers the Beach Boys playing at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center and the international flags that were hung outside of Pauley Pavilion.
“It looked like the United Nations,” he said.
During that period, Sandbrook said the four high-rises served as the Olympic Village, but added that USC also housed some athletes.
The differences between the 1984 and the 2016 games would extend to the city as a whole.
Sanders said in the 2016 games only six venues would be used that existed during the 1984 Olympics, since the city has constructed new ones such as the Home Depot Center and the Staples Center.
He added that while host cities often have to build venues specifically for certain events, Los Angeles already has many of the necessary sites, except for a shooting range planned to be built in Pomona and million-dollar renovations to certain establishments. Thus, committee members could concentrate more on organizational plans than infrastructure development, Sanders said.
“Since we aren’t doing construction, we can spend our time focusing on the ideas and spiritual message of the Olympic Games,” Sanders said.
Addressing concerns that traffic could become a major problem, especially with prospective population growth and increase in motor vehicle use, Villaraigosa said money from the state budget and an infrastructure ballot measure passed last November would allocate enough money to fix and expand the freeway system and other modes of transportation.
The mayor also referred to what he said he believes was a successful cooperation during the 1984 games between the city and local businesses to schedule working hours at different times to help improve traffic flow.
“I can tell you that the Olympic Games are compact in respect to traffic.
“In 1984, people talked about the doomsday and Armageddon, yet traffic flowed because there were leadership decisions made,” Villaraigosa said.
The committee’s tour of Los Angeles continues today, with a visit to possible venue sites such as The Home Depot Center in Carson and the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The committee plans to announce its bid city on April 14, which will then be submitted to the International Olympic Committee for consideration the summer of this year.
The IOC will likely announce the 2016 Olympic host city by the summer of 2009, keeping with the tradition of announcing seven years prior to the games.
“There’s no better city in the world. We have the weather, we have the facility, the enthusiasm, the experience. We are the appropriate place. And we hope the U.S. committee and international committee will agree,” Abrams said.
Next year, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be held in Beijing.