Los Angeles Olympics: City Council Clears Hurdle For 2024 Games

The Los Angeles City Council reached a unanimous decision Tuesday to allow Mayor Eric Garcetti to move forward with plans for a 2024 Olympic Games bid and potentially freed up more than $6 billion in public funds for the extensive project, according to reports. A month removed from Boston’s failed bid amid lackluster public support, the 15-0 vote now moves LA to the forefront of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s attempt to lure the summer games back to the United States. The city now challenges the other nominees: Rome; Paris; Budapest, Hungary, and Hamburg, Germany.

A huge swath of the city’s spending will go toward erecting a $1 billion athletic village for the participating athletes on a rail yard, but LA does not currently own the land for the projected site. The Associated Press reported council members, who have batted the idea around for more than a week, were at first concerned the city would be stuck with debts or cost overruns.

"We are in this to win it, and I think we will," Councilman Paul Krekorian said. "We can't do that at the risk of exposure to our taxpayers."

Furthermore, the city must also decide which private developer would build the village as well as what kind of financing the project would entail.

Though the obstacles involved with constructing the village stand in its way, the vote kick-starts LA's two-year bid process to convince the International Olympic Committee to allow it to host the games for the third time. Previously serving as host in 1932 and 1984, LA would join London as the only three-time hosts if it is successful.

The IOC’s final decision will be announced Sept. 15, 2017, in Lima, Peru.