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≡ IOC COORDINATION COMM. ≡
“We leave the city happy, satisfied, very confident with the road ahead.”
That’s Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba, the head of the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission for the 2028 Olympic Games, giving the essence of Thursday’s news conference, at the end of three days of presentations and tours by the LA28 organizing committee.
LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman added:
“We did make progress this week. … It’s been nearly six months since we last hosted our Coordination Commission and I’m pleased to announce we’ve driven significant progress. …
“We’ve put a lot of hard work over the past six months to really continue to push forward our program and our delivery ethos and it’s nice to have a group of people who are truly experts at the Olympic Games recognize the work we’re doing. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s really appreciated.”
He explained that the Commission meetings brought about 16 IOC members and 20 or more IOC staff and functional-area experts to Los Angeles to review the planning efforts:
“We are really confident in the progress we have made and we’re focused on what we’ve always done, to deliver the greatest Games we are capable of delivering in this city, in the most fiscally responsible way, that pays dividends for every member of the Olympic Movement and our community.”
After the announcement of Honda as the first Founding Partner announcement in four years, Wasserman noted:
“I feel really optimistic about our revenue progress, the pace of partnerships. Obviously, without revenue, we don’t have money to spend and so we will be incredibly aggressive to generate as much revenue as we can, to create as much opportunity as we can to deliver a spectacular Games.”
Asked about the budget and any worries about a deficit, Wasserman was firm:
“I take nothing for granted, but I am incredibly confident. Frankly, losing money is not really an option for us. We understand that while there is a backstop from the City, that is not something we ever intend to get close to and we have built our entire [expense plan] to be tracked against the revenue we create, which is why we are being so aggressive, and have been for a long time on generating as much revenue as possible, because it creates certainty on what you can spend money on.
“And we will make the appropriate adjustments as required, so that we manage this budget to break even at worst.”
Hoevertsz was asked to compare the preparation level of LA28 to other Games, and noted:
● “You cannot compare Games to Games. Each edition of the Games is different, they have their local context, the have their local difficulties, the local challenges.
“In this case, we were thinking that 11 years is a long time, but I think it’s not one day too many. Because even though there’s no construction, L.A. is a different kind of Games. It’s a unique market, it’s a unique commercial market. They have other issues.
“So we have been involved since the beginning, and we’re very happy with where we are at this moment. We have a fantastic team, under the leadership of Casey and [CEO] Reynold [Hoover], very talented people, very capable people.”
● “I think the big emphasis I would like to put on the progress that is being accomplished, especially in the last six months … if we look at it now, the team that is assembled now is consisting of people with a lot of Games experience as well, people that have done this before.”
She also noted the move of the expanding organizing committee to its lifetime headquarters at the USC Tower in downtown Los Angeles as a sign of the maturation of the effort.
Hoevertsz was especially enthusiastic about not having to deal with construction, as is usually the case with most Games, and especially praised the existing “Olympic Village” already in place at UCLA’s on-campus housing:
“That is fantastic, not just having this already in place and being ready for the athletes, but it is something … you have a village, where you have this village and this campus experience, that not many people have around the world.”
IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi (SUI) was excited about the expertise in Southern California that can help the organizing committee to stage the Games, explaining:
“You have so many talented organizations that can be part of delivering these Games, that for each and every sport, you have choice to make. And they have an incredibly smart strategy of how to go at this very fortunate market, where many players will be able to deliver the magic. Within six months, a lot has been achieved, and we couldn’t be more happy than this.”
Hoover and Wasserman also announced that the 2028 Olympic Torch Relay will go to all 50 states, a first for a U.S. Games, with details available probably in 2027.
As for transportation, Wasserman repeated his belief that the plan will develop well:
“The 17 days of the Olympics and the 10 days of the Paralympics are not a normal 17 and 10 days in Los Angeles. There are lots of things that change: traffic patterns, in 1984, people don’t remember … [there were] truck deliveries only between midnight and 5 a.m., and so it’s not a normal environment.
“And what that does is allow us to optimize the transportation system for all people involved: fans, athletes, officials, volunteers, everybody, efficiently and effectively, which is ironically why people say ‘ the best time to be in L.A. was the ‘84 Olympics, because there was no traffic.’
“And so we are very clear that that was a great experience and we’ll do our best to replicate that. We feel very confident in the plan. Obviously, L.A. has invested unto itself a lot in infrastructure here, in transportation infrastructure, far more than existing in ‘84, and that, combined with the support of the Federal government around our transportation delivery, we feel very confident that it will be a different version of the success we had in ‘84 in terms of ingress and egress and access and experience when it comes to transportation.”
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