Southern California Committee Plans to Make Bid for a 2004 L.A. Olympics

It seems like only two years ago that the Summer Olympics ended in Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games already is working toward bringing the Summer Games back to Los Angeles.

But don’t start training for the torch run yet.

The committee is planning to bid for the 2004 Olympics.

“We already have competition,” SCCOG President John C. Argue said during a luncheon Tuesday at the Biltmore Hotel to mark the anniversary of the 1984 closing ceremony. “The competition is St. Louis. I love St. Louis in the summer.”

Argue said the committee is concentrating on 2004 because the 1996 Games figure to be awarded to Athens and because Peking is considered a front-runner for 2000. In October, the International Olympic Committee will decide the site for the 1992 Summer Olympics from among six cities, including favorites Barcelona, Spain; Birmingham, England, and Paris.

“The SCCOG tried to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles in 1972 and failed, 1976 and failed and 1980 and failed,” Peter Ueberroth, former head of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, said at Tuesday’s luncheon. “They finally succeeded in 1984, when no one else would compete with us. I figure that if SCCOG starts its bid with 2004, we’ll have another Games in Los Angeles in 2016.”

Argue accepted Ueberroth’s jab in the good nature that it was intended.

“The important thing is to get the Games back here,” Argue said. “When is the unimportant thing.”