2016 Bid Mixes New and Old

Construction, thy name is Olympics.

Those who remember the last-minute dash in Athens in 2004 and recent visitors to 2008 host city Beijing might think that the five Olympic rings represent cranes, forklifts, hard hats, power tools and nuts and bolts.

That, thankfully, won’t be an area of concern should the Summer Olympics land in Los Angeles for a third time, down the road in 2016. A review of proposed venues in the Los Angeles bid for the 2016 Games shows an uncommon degree of readiness, especially in comparison to rivals Chicago and San Francisco, each city vying for the right to represent the U.S. bid.

Local bid officials stress that the preliminary plan is by no means chiseled in stone, subject to change through the multi-step process. Their vision features a tight area of concentration -- clusters in Anaheim, Long Beach, Carson and downtown Los Angeles. The Olympic Athletes Village would be at either UCLA or USC.

For the 1984 Olympics, venues ranged from an equestrian event in San Diego County to rowing and canoeing at Lake Casitas in Ventura County, which included temporary housing for those athletes at UC Santa Barbara.

This time, the venues would be confined to Los Angeles and Orange counties, said David Simon, president of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games. The one exception, which is typical for the Olympics, is that early-round soccer would be played in Las Vegas and San Diego. As in 1984, the soccer final would be at the Rose Bowl.

“No more than six of the 28 sports would be staged at the same venue as in 1984,” Simon said.

And that’s where the balancing act starts for local bid officials. The immense success of the 1984 Games should not be ignored, of course, nor should it loom over the approach for 2016. Simon said the challenge is to show that existing facilities doesn’t necessarily mean old facilities.

Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles and the Home Depot Center in Carson weren’t even a glint in the eye of mogul Phil Anschutz in 1984, and the same can be said of Anaheim city officials with the Honda Center, formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond.

A number of smaller facilities in the 2016 plan have gone up since the 1984 Olympics -- the Bren Center in Irvine, the Pyramid in Long Beach and the Galen Center at USC, to name a few.

The impressive list of new facilities will go a long way in combating the perception that this bid would simply be a repeat of the 1984 formula.

“It’s an issue we’re going to have to deal with,” said Tim Leiweke, the president and chief executive of Anschutz Entertainment Group who is vice chairman of the bid committee. “What we have to convince people that this is not ‘84, different people leading the bid, completely different facilities. And most of all, we’re a completely different community.

“I’m hoping we can showcase for people, that, yes, we hosted it before, which proves we know how to do it. But our strength is the fact that so much of our bid is new and different than anything they saw 30 years ago.”

Said Richard Foster, president of United States Aquatic Sports: “It is quite different from 1984. I think that’s a manageable thing. That was 22 years ago, and when you project it to 2016, that’s a huge amount of time.”

Additionally, the existing venues in the area have the built-in advantage of a constant stream of use by local sports teams and yearly tournaments, said Barry Sanders, chairman of the bid committee.

“The venues are built for constant use for professional teams -- a quality you may not get at a venue when things were put up in a hurry,” Sanders said. “And you don’t have a shake-down period. The public knows where to park.”

There is familiarity with the proposed swimming venue, even though it is not an existing facility. The U.S. Olympic Swimming trials were held in Long Beach in 2004 when two temporary pools were built for the event in the parking lot of Long Beach Arena.

The 2016 plan would have swimming, water polo and synchronized swimming at the same spot. Simon said that diving was an option for the pool at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, but the facility would need renovation.

Foster, former president of USA Water Polo, helped bring the swimming trials to Long Beach in 2004, and he is trying to convince Simon to hold the open water swimming events, which will debut during the Beijing Games, at Marine Stadium in Long Beach.

Marine Stadium is proposed to host rowing, which would be a throwback to the 1932 Olympics.

One of Los Angeles’ trump cards over the other two bidding cities is the presence of an existing Olympic Stadium, the Coliseum. The U.S. Olympic Committee won’t select a bid winner until March or April, with the International Olympic Committee’s final decision on a 2016 host city coming in October 2009.

Leiweke spoke about the lessons of the 2012 bid, in which Los Angeles was eliminated early on.

“The last time out we maybe relied too much on our experience and our knowledge,” he said. “I think it’s important we think outside the box on this one and don’t take it for granted. I know that’s what happened last time. Quite frankly, we were too high on ourselves. I think we should believe we’re in last place.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

If Los Angeles is awarded the 2016 Olympic Games, here are the projected venues-existing and planned-for each event:

1. Mountain biking (Griffith Park)*

2. Soccer (Rose Bowl)

3. Equestrian (Santa Anita Park)

4. Volleyball (UCLA Pauley Pavilion)

5. Rhythmic gymnastics (Gersten Pavilion)

6. Track and field (L.A. Memorial Coliseum)

7. Weightlifting (Nokia Theater)

8. Boxing (USC Galen Center)

9. Artistic gymnastics (Staples Center)

10. Field hockey (East Los Angeles College)

11. White-water kayak (Raging Waters, San Dimas)*

12. Shooting (L.A. County Fairplex, Pomona)*

13. Modern pentathlon (L.A. County Fairplex, Pomona)*

14. Soccer (Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas)

15. Volleyball (The Forum)

16. Archery (Home Depot Center, Carson)

17. Tennis (Home Depot Center)

18. Track cycling (Home Depot Center)

19. Soccer (Home Depot Center)

20. Team handball (Pyramid of Long Beach)

21. Judo (Long Beach Arena)

22. Swimming (Long Beach Swim Complex)*

23. Beach volleyball (Long Beach Volleyball Complex)*

24. Fencing (Long Beach Convention Center)

25. Synchronized swimming (Long Beach Swim Complex)*

26. Water Polo (Long Beach Swim Complex)*

27. Taekwondo (Long Beach Convention Center)

28. Diving (Belmont Plaza Pool)*

29. Sailing (Long Beach Marina)

30. Rowing (Long Beach Marine Stadium)

31. Canoe/kayak (Long Beach Marine Stadium)

32. Basketball (Honda Center, Anaheim)

33. Table tennis (Anaheim Convention Center)

34. Wrestling (Anaheim Convention Center)

35. Basketball (Anaheim Arena)

36. Badminton (Bren Events Center, Irvine)

37. Equestrian three-day-event (San Juan Capistrano)

38. Soccer (Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego)

*Planned venue

Source: David Simon, SCCOG. Graphics reporting by Joel Greenberg