A futuristic stadium that will be home to the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams will be a key feature in the city's bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, but officials on Wednesday would not say what events were planned for the venue.
The stadium, which will be built in Inglewood and cost close to $2 billion, was not in the original LA24 bid proposal because the NFL had not yet settled on plans to return to the city.
But when the NFL decided last month to approve St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke's request to relocate his team to Los Angeles and build an 80,000-seat, glass-roofed stadium, the LA24 committee was quick to add it to the pitch.
"When the Kroenke stadium became a certainty, it was too late in our process to include that in a meaningful way, other than to reference that it was a certainty and going to be happening," LA24 Chairman Casey Wasserman said in a conference call. "But suffice to say the most expensive and most technologically advanced stadium ever built will certainly be a key part of our plans going forward."
'Stay tuned'
Speculation is that the stadium, which will be built roughly 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles and is expected to open in 2019, could be used for the high-profile athletics competitions, but Wasserman would say only, "Stay tuned."
"When we are ready to tell people how we're going to use all of our facilities on a definitive scale beyond where we are today, we'll do that at the right time, but not today," Wasserman said.
The race to stage the games is now officially underway, with the International Olympic Committee having received the four candidature files of Paris, Budapest, Rome and Los Angeles.
Earlier Wednesday, Paris bid leaders said 95 percent of their venues would be already existing or temporary to minimize investment, but Los Angeles raised the bar and said 97 percent of the venues were in existence or already planned.
"That is the definition of sustainability in terms of legacy and cost," Wasserman said. "There's no risk involved with venues or facilities."
The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be announced in September 2017.