First, I want to be very clear about something: I have no idea whether the Los Angeles region in the future will want to bid on hosting the Olympic Games. It’s a big decision involving a lot of money and many cities across the globe have wrestled with the question — which I don’t think has been definitively answered — of whether the Games are worth pursuing, although London seems pretty happy with its Games right now.
That said, it’s hard to ignore Los Angeles’ rich history with the Olympics and the appeal of the Games. The region hosted the Summer Games in 1932 and 1984 and pursued the 2016 games, although Chicago was eventually chosen to represent the United States in the bidding process (and lost out badly to Rio de Janeiro). UPDATE: Los Angeles has been chosen as the host for the 2015 Special Olympics Summer games, the first time in 16 years the event will be held in the United States.
What I think is interesting is that with or without a future Olympics, the transit landscape in Los Angeles County will be noticeably different the next time the Games may land here. The earliest possible date would be 2024, given that the United States Olympic Committee, citing financial reasons, has said it won’t bid for the 2020 Summer Games or 2022 Winter Games. (The finalists for 2020 are Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo).
The 1984 Games here were widely considered successful; please see this excellent post on the Metro Library’s Primary Resources blog. At that time, there was no Metro Rail nor was there Metrolink. Traffic was a major, major worry in the run-up to the games although regional gridlock did not come to pass. Buses successfully ferried people to and from events and many residents and businesses altered their commuting hours to avoid traffic. It was a team win similar, I think, to last year’s non-Carmageddon.
Consider everything that has changed since 1984.
We have four big sports venues now that didn’t exist in 1984 — Staples Center, the Galen Center at USC, the Honda Center in Anaheim and the Home Depot Center in Carson. Staples Center is adjacent to the Blue and Expo lines and near the Red/Purple lines, the Galen Center is next to the Expo Line and the Honda Center is a short walk from the Metrolink and Amtrak station in Anaheim. The Home Depot Center is along some bus lines.
Former Metro CEO Roger Snoble speaks to members of the U.S. Olympic Committee on a tour of Los Angeles aboard the Blue Line in 2007. Photo: Metro.
And while I have no idea if the same venues used in 1984 would be used in the future, some of those are now better situated transit-wise than they were in 1984 — most notably the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the swimming stadium and the Sports Arena, all located in Expo Park and a short walk to three Expo Line stations. The Rose Bowl is a short shuttle bus ride away from the Gold Line in Pasadena. The Long Beach Convention Center (fencing) and marina (sailing) are near the Blue Line. Weingart Stadium at East Los Angeles College, used for field hockey in 1984, is about a mile walk or drive from the Gold Line’s Atlantic Station.
Other 1984 venues will be near future transit lines. Santa Anita Park — which hosted some equestrian events — will be a short ride from the Gold Line’s future Arcadia station, scheduled to open in 2015. The Forum is about a mile walk from the future Florence/La Brea station on the Crenshaw/LAX Line, which is scheduled for a 2018 opening. Pauley Paviion and the tennis center at UCLA are about a mile from the Rapid Bus on Wilshire Boulevard, which should have new peak hour bus lanes by 2015. If funding is found to accelerate subway construction, the Westside Subway Extension could reach Westwood by 2024. The LAX Metro Connector project proposes to build a transit connection to LAX — the type of transit (bus, light rail or people mover) and year of completion likely depends on funding and whether Measure R is accelerated.
Let’s be real. The International Olympic Committee is a political beast — as should be expected. No one really knows exactly what makes a winning bid, but based on the past it seems the IOC values (in no particular order) photogenic places, novelty, climate, infrastructure improvements (read: spectacular and/or gaudy architecture) and, undeniably most important, the prospect for a safe and secure Olympic Games.
Los Angeles is hardly the only American city that has pursued an Olympic Games or made noise about doing it in recent years. There has been talk from Dallas, New York, Chicago and Denver (for the Winter Olympics). Dallas and Denver are both in transit expansion mode, New York is adding to its largest-in-America subway system and Chicago, of course, has one of the largest rail networks in the U.S. It’s also worth noting that many cities throughout the world and here in the U.S. have leveraged the Olympic Games for infrastructure purposes. In 1984, for example, the Tom Bradley International Terminal was opened at LAX as a part of the preparation for the Games. Certainly that’s not a reason to pursue an Olympic bid but something to consider if the bid is successful.
The transit improvements being made in Los Angeles will pay off in a lot of ways — mostly for everyday people living here who need to travel throughout the region. The side benefit is that it will allow the region to confidently bid for the big events along with the world’s other major cities, including the biggest event of them all, the Olympic Games.
What do you think, Source readers? You want the Olympics back? Do you think the region could pull it off? Or would you rather see the Games land elsewhere in the U.S. or world? In keeping with Olympic spirit, please sprint in orderly fashion to the comment board.
Hi Matt;
Good point about BART versus Metro — and I can tell you there are a lot of people at Metro watching as Metro Rail’s average weekday ridership gets closer to that of BART. One important point to consider: the BART numbers do not include the 160,000-plus average weekday riders on San Francisco Muni’s light rail system — the trains that run on and under streets in the city of San Francisco. So BART and SF Muni combined are carrying more than a half million boardings on weekdays, a pretty good haul. I expect those numbers will one day be rivaled by Metro as our system expands. In the next decade, Expo Phase 2, the Gold Line Foothill Extension, Crenshaw/LAX Line, Regional Connector and Westside Subway Extension should, I predict, bring tens of thousands of new boardings to Metro.
Also a good point about transfering to get to events. I think it remains to be seen if a transfer or transfers to reach LAX via Metro Rail (and the eventual LAX Metro Connector project) will deter people. I expect it will some, but not others who will find Metro Rail is still a cheap and predictable way to get to the airport.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
If LA did not get the Summer Olympics anytime soon, could there be a Southern California hosting of the Winter Olympics? Have the outdoor events in the mountains and the indoor events in LA? Lake Placid used artificial snow in 1980.
Matt,
The point I was making was in direct rebuttal to your question “What in the world are you talking about? Also, just because a line goes directly from the airport to a downtown doesn’t mean it is convenient for an Olympics.”
The fact is that having a direct rail access to LAX is a major factor in the selection criteria by the IOC. We do not live in 1984 where we practically got the Olympics by default because no one else wanted to do it. If we want the Olympics, it’ll be in direct competition with other world class cities that have better mass transit than ours.
And let’s face it, Measure R or with the Crenshaw Line, we’ll still have a pitiful transit system compared to Tokyo or London. If it’s between LA to Tokyo, and if the IOC considers transportation infrastructure high upon on their selection list, it doesn’t take much to consider that Tokyo will kick LA’s butts in a heartbeat.
How do you even compete against a city that has been running a city with dozens of rail lines, subways, private and public transit for decades, when LA can’t even fix the problems on the Expo and Blue Lines and can’t even get TAP right? How do you compete with a city which has the world’s most profitable and most efficient monorail system directly to it’s downtown airport (Haneda) to a city where we are just now considering building a LIGHT RAIL to the airport? How do you compete against a city which can place venues in the outskirts of the city that are connected with an arsenal of bullet trains and long distance intercity trains that are timed to an efficiency like a Swiss clock with frequencies that put Metrolink to shame? Tokyo can build new stadiums in the outskirts of the city and tourists, athletes and judges can get there using bullet trains in less than an hour. If they miss a train, there’s another one five minutes later. How about LA? If you build a new stadium in the San Fernando Valley, how do you expect people to get there? Renting a car? Use Metrolink? Miss the train, wait another two hours sitting at a desolate train station?
Sad to say that I see that LA won’t be able to have an Olympics until a lot of problems with our transit infrastructures are fixed first. Unless no one wants to do the Olympics again, LA has to face the reality that our transportation system sucks big time to other world class cities. In that light, that was the reason why I said there are even better cities in the US like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York that are better suited for a candidate city than LA.
If LA is serious about bringing back the Olympics fair game by competing the bid with other cities (instead of the last time where they got it by default), it needs to step up to the plate and get serious about fixing everything that’s wrong with Metro. And the solution to fix such problems in LA takes beyond the solution of “let’s extend Measure R tax indefinitely.”
As much as I would like to see the Games return to L.A., I don’t see it happening. The IOC sees L.A. as its safety net. They don’t necessarily see us as a world class city worthy of being awarded a bid. Truth of the matter is we have never won a true Olympic bidding competition. Both for the ’32 and ’84 games, no other city bid for them. If there should ever be a time when no other city bids, the IOC will probably come begging us to save them once again.
As far as L.A. being able to host the Games with the projected rail lines in 2024, I think we could do it. This day in age, locals can not only adjust their work schedules (as was mentioned in the article re: ’84 Games) but they could probably work from home. The internet in 1984 wasn’t quite what it is today, not to mention what it could be in 2024.
I think L.A. has a good chance of getting the Olympics again. The current transit improvements will certainly help and are a step in the right direction. Hopefully, we’ll get our infrastructure up to world class standards by 2030 or 2040.
The only way LA will ever get the Olympics is when no else wants to do it again. 1932 and 1984, we got it because there was no competition:
“The selection process for the 1932 Summer Olympics consisted of one bid, from Los Angeles, which ultimately hosted the games. The selection was made at the 23rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, in 1923.”
“The selection process for the 1984 Summer Olympics consisted a single finalized bid, with the International Olympic Committee accepting the bid of Los Angeles. A bid from Tehran was withdrawn before the selection. Los Angeles had unsuccessfully bid for the two previous Summer Olympics, for 1976 and 1980. The United States Olympic Committee had at least one bid for every Olympics since 1944, but had not succeeded since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, the previous time a single bid had been issued for the Summer Olympics.”
When there is true competition with other world class cities, LA is way at the bottom of the list. Basically, we’re just a backup city for the IOC in case no one wants to do it again. Everyone knows that transit sucks so bad in this city that there are far better choices elsewhere.
If LA is serious about COMPETING with other cities to bring back the Olympics, that means lots of drastic changes are needed so that LA becomes worthy of competing with other cities for the bid. Otherwise, there’s no denying it, LA just can’t get transit right and it’ll be that way today, tomorrow, and in 2024 and beyond.
And by that, Metro needs to take responsibility for their own actions. They need to stop being the bureaucratic tax sucking entity that it is today and start operating like a business.
They need to stop come crying back to taxpayers to solve their problems and instead find ways to make more revenue on their own.
They need to stop using bait-and-switch tactics like hidden fees and taxes that are illegal (hint hint: TAP!).
They need to stop wasting money on things that make no revenue like artwork and instead focus using tax funds to those that do like creating more retail space for businesses.
They need to end this stupid flat rate policy and move towards something more logical like distance or zone fares like how they do in Tokyo and London.
Simply said, the whole attitude of Metro needs to change from top to bottom.
Every other world class city with excellent mass transit is doing this except LA. Transit agencies in very other city in the world actually WORKS HARD instead of keep coming back to taxpayers for more money or concocting ingenious ways to steal more from Angelinos.
And you expect LA to win the Olympic bid? A city whose only answers to their problem is “hey, why don’t we just extend taxes indefinitely, jack up the fares, and make drastic cutbacks” has a chance of winning against cities like Tokyo and Paris?
A city like LA who are only just now, in 2012 for crying out loud, is only starting to DISCUSS about linking LIGHT RAIL to LAX? Cities in the US that have true direct airport links like Chicago, San Francisco, heck even St. Louis (they hosted 1904 Olympics) has a far better chance of winning a bid than LA.
The Olympics is about competition, working hard, and only the best wins the gold. If LA is serious about the Olympics, they need to put the Olympic spirit in them. You can’t get the gold when LA’s answers is “gimme more money, let me steal more money, and let me slack off”
We can argue about LA’s transit deficiencies all day long, but by any reasonable assessment, our transit infrastructure is head and shoulders above what it was in 1984. That said, will our transit system (and myriad other Olympic pros and cons) net us another Olympics by 2032? Who knows?
Regardless, LA *will* be hosting the Special Olympics World Summer Games in July 2015. Sure, it’s not a full-blown Olympics, but it will be the first time the Summer Special Olympics have been held in America in 16 years, I believe. With 21 sporting events, 7,000 athletes, and half a million spectators, it will at least give our region (and hopefully Metro!) a chance to shine on an international stage.
Hi Alika;
You are correct. The Special Olympics are in Los Angeles in 2015; here’s the website. It’s a great, great event and every bit as important as the Olympics to those who compete and help organize.
Thanks for leaving the comment and information!
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Sad to say, I agree with the comments that LA has a long way to go to bring back the Olympics. The competition out there is just too tough for a city like LA whose still trying to figure out a simple thing like TAP.
Drastic changes to the way how Metro operates is a prerequisite for LA to ever host the Olympics again. And by the looks of it, Metro ain’t listening.
Unless World War III starts and no one wants to do it again, LA will only get the Olympics by default just like they did in 1932 and 1984.
LAX Frequent Flyer,
How did Rio obtain the 2016 Olympics? They have no airport metro connection as the only way to take public transit from their airport is via bus.