Failed U.S. Bid Might Benefit L.A.

The potential end of New York’s bid for the 2012 Summer Games opens the door for the return of the Olympics to the United States in 2016, perhaps back once more to Los Angeles, where virtually every venue is ready to go and a surplus in the millions is all but guaranteed.

This week, New York state officials blocked plans for a $2.2-billion stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, the centerpiece of the New York bid. The move came despite what Olympic insiders called significant progress by bid chief Dan Doctoroff in quietly positioning New York for the International Olympic Committee’s July 6 vote in Singapore.

A New York failure -- it’s not yet clear that the New York team will even go to Singapore -- means there will be a European winner for 2012: Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow are the other cities in the race. That sets the stage for the return of the Games to North America, probably the United States, in 2016, the IOC preferring a rotation of the Games around continents. The 2008 Summer Games will be held in Beijing, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

A win by Paris, long considered the 2012 front-runner, might well boost the odds of the return of the Games to California because Paris has carefully drafted a plan in line with IOC President Jacques Rogge’s call to downsize. Los Angeles and San Francisco employed that strategy in their unsuccessful 2012 bids.

“New York hasn’t lost,” Los Angeles attorney Barry Sanders, chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, cautioned Wednesday when asked about 2016.

He also said, “We are in the business of supporting the Olympic movement and embodying Los Angeles’ Olympic efforts. Of course, if the opportunity presents itself, with the concurrence of the city and at the direction of the U.S. Olympic Committee, we would love to bring the Games back to Los Angeles when it’s appropriate.”

An official with mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa’s transition team did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment. Last October, the Los Angeles City Council endorsed the notion of bringing the Games back as soon as possible.

Anne Cribbs, who led the 2012 San Francisco bid, said Wednesday, “We’ve always said we wanted to host the Olympic Games and had great venues and were capable of having great Olympic Games. We had a great bid [for 2012] and are certainly interested in the future.”

Los Angeles has bid for the Olympics 12 times. The Games were staged in L.A. in 1932 and 1984 -- the latter, led by businessman Peter Ueberroth, turning a $232.5-million profit.

USOC officials have said this week their focus is still on 2012. “New York is still in the decision-making mode,” Ueberroth, USOC chairman since 2004, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Until we find out the final outcome of their deliberations, it would be inappropriate to make any comments.”

A Los Angeles 2016 Games, by any measure, is many possibilities and complications away. But the possibility of a New York bid for 2016 suddenly seems distant.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Tuesday, “I don’t know that we would consider a bid for 2016. I think after this it would be difficult to try convince the USOC that New York would actually deliver, but there’s always hope.”

Paris’ 2012 campaign involves using 13 temporary venues to cut costs, an echo of the L.A. 2012 notion as well as a blueprint for Rogge’s call to take the Games to Africa or South America, perhaps as soon as 2016.

It remains uncertain, however, whether widespread enthusiasm exists within the IOC for an African or South American Games, or whether candidates from those continents yet possess the needed logistical, economic and security wherewithal, a particular concern in the aftermath of the 2004 Athens Olympics, which were plagued by security worries and construction delays.

Rio de Janeiro was cut from the IOC’s 2012 list. The 2007 Pan American Games there figure to serve as a test of Brazilian organizers.

South Africa will stage soccer’s World Cup in 2010, but a year too late for the IOC’s 2016 vote, which will be held in 2009.

Meanwhile, a majority of the IOC’s leading sponsors remain U.S. corporations.

And the USOC is eager for a domestic Games to boost revenues. The Games have been held in the United States four times since 1980, most recently in Salt Lake City in 2002. A 2016 American Games would come 20 years after the prior U.S. Summer Olympics, in Atlanta in 1996.

A few months after the close of the Salt Lake Games, the USOC selected New York as the American candidate for 2012 -- over San Francisco.

Los Angeles had been eliminated in an earlier round, in part because it had already played host to the Games twice. Also cut were Washington, Houston, Cincinnati, Dallas and Tampa, Fla.

But if Paris wins, the 2012 Games will be its third. Paris staged the 1900 and 1924 Summer Games. London, too, would be staging its third Summer Games if it wins for 2012, having been the host in 1908 and 1948.

Meanwhile, in 2003, the IOC committed itself to downsizing the Games.

The 2012 L.A. bid, projecting a surplus of about $100 million, called for extensive use of existing facilities, several of them new since 1984, including Staples Center and Arrowhead Pond. Of the roughly three dozen venues in the 2012 plan, only 14 were used in 1984.

Only one venue, a shooting range, needed to be built from scratch. Construction costs for the shooting range, and other projects, including replacing the track at the L.A. Coliseum, amounted to less than $100 million.

The USOC, though, wanted something new -- like a stadium.

New York proposed building a 75,000-seat stadium atop a 13-acre platform over an operating rail yard on Manhattan’s far West Side. It was billed as the key to a far-reaching expansion of New York’s undersized convention center.

With the stadium financing plan rejected, the New York bid now has three options, according to sources close to the situation: Seek conditional approval for the West Side stadium, find an alternative or withdraw.

Bloomberg said Tuesday, “I think one of the problems here is that we have let down America.”