LA 2024 team attends European Olympic meetings amid concerns back home

As questions continue to swirl around a key aspect of its initial plans, the private committee seeking to bring the 2024 Summer Olympic Games to Los Angeles will be busy the next few days with a slate of European meetings.

On Thursday, LA 2024 will begin two days of workshops at International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

After that, bid Chairman Casey Wasserman and board member Janet Evans are scheduled to travel to the Czech Republic for an assembly of the European Olympic committees in Prague.

Back at home, City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell has raised concerns about LA 2024’s proposal to convert the Piggyback train yard near downtown into an athletes village. O’Farrell estimated on Wednesday that it could cost up to $2 billion just to purchase the land, clean it up and relocate the rail facilities.

LA 2024 officials did not seem overly concerned -- for weeks they have been quietly discussing alternative sites.

“We’re also looking at two dozen other parcels across our city to find the right location for the athletes, for our city and for our budget,” spokesman Jeff Millman said from Lausanne. “This city is certainly not lacking for developers, and we’ll be working with them in the months ahead on our plans.”

In the world of Olympic bidding, proposals tend to change frequently over the two years between when an initial bid is submitted and when the IOC votes to select a host. Significant alterations continue as the winning city spends the next seven years actually building venues and transportation routes.

This week’s IOC workshops will include discussions on numerous evolving bid issues, so LA 2024 has shown up with a sizable portion of its staff.

The contingent includes Chief Executive Gene Sykes and attorney Brian Nelson, along with two executives recently added from Wasserman’s sports management agency: Danny Koblin, who now serves as LA 2024’s chief bid officer, and John Harper, the new chief operating officer.

Paid consultants Bill Hanway and Doug Arnotare are also in Lausanne, as are Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Manav Kumar, deputy counsel for L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The IOC has invited all five bid cities -- including Paris; Rome; Hamburg, Germany; and Budapest, Hungary -- to its headquarters this week.