Los Angeles is treating this like an infrastructure project - it gained numerous benefits from the last two times it hosted, and will likely gain more of the same this time.

Los Angeles of all cities (based on history) has a good chance of running a profitable Olympics.

From the article.

>The bid contains nothing in the way of improved infrastructure, relying instead on public transportation projects already in the works. But LA 2028 faces challenges.

And they're planning on reusing buildings.

>Local organizers plan to use existing venues such as Staples Center, Pauley Pavilion and the Rose Bowl. Only a few temporary facilities will be needed at relatively little cost.

And they don't know what they're spending the money on.

>Organizers have been talking with City Council members about where to spend the money and are expected to present a plan next fall.

Although I am somewhat "anti-Olympics," my acquaintances in Salt Lake City say the 2002 Olympics were very successful in sort of modernizing the entire city. There is apparently a very clear before-and-after with regards to infrastructure, public spaces, transit, etc., all for the better.

But that was a rare exception, as far as I can tell. Most Olympic cities appear to have that kind of effect as a goal and fall short. I read a proposal a while back that the summer Olympics just get permanently moved to Greece and that sounds like a great idea to me.

SLC's Olympics (at least, on the organizational side and after Romney took over from the previous organizers) were modeled after the LA 84 Olympics run by Peter Ueberroth. Prior to Romney's coup, the SLC Olympics were hemorrhaging money and deeply in the red.

Atlanta also used its Olympics to modernize the city, and much of that infrastructure still remains.

Surprisingly, LA in the past did not use the Olympics to modernize the city. Its bids were submitted on the basis of largely not building anything for the Games, because every time LA's bid on the Olympics, the Games have been out of favor due to the enormous costs of hosting. (For the 1932 games, LA was unopposed.) LA's success in hosting profitable Olympics without much building is, quite ironically, one of the biggest factors in other cities thinking that they could also host the Games.

It's not uncommon for the olympics to be profitable, especially when hosted in a city that mostly has the infrastructure in place already. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_the_Olympic_Games

LA, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Calgary, London, Beijing, etc. all did quite well with the olympics in the past.

I see where Sochi and Beijing are listed as having made money. With the amounts spent on holding those events (dozens of billions) I’m skeptical of those claims.

Not to mention a loosening of alcohol laws

Let’s hope they do it this way. Munich in 1972 did a very good job building up infrastructure that is still In use.

Olympics facilities are not infrastructure.

Trains to airports are though.

In formal terms it’s another case of the. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal–agent_problem

People making these decisions don’t care if it’s a net loss to other people as long as they personally benifit. As long as the rest of the US subsidies it, LA can still profit.

Of course, they won’t build housing, schools, libraries, services, or hospitals, so it’s hard to see how this will benefit the people of LA at all.

They’ll build public transit, which is a benefit to the people of LA. Perhaps not worth it, but still a benefit.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics

"The 1984 Summer Olympics are widely considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics[4] and serve as an example of how to run the model Olympic Games. As a result of low construction costs, coupled with a reliance on private corporate funding,[5] the 1984 Olympic Games generated a profit of more than $250 million."

Peter Ueberroth is still alive, perhaps he could consult.

I honestly doubt some sports have any value to the masses at all, such as bobsleigh. The Olympics increasingly operates like a corporation and is used as political tool.

Haven’t you ever seen Cool Runnings? Bobsled is the ONLY sport I’ll watch.

I personally find it the most boring one, it doesn't seem accessible to the masses, therefore runs afoul of the very ideals of the Olympic Games. The Philippine team has to train in Canada. I'm OK with it as a sport, but I don't think it should be put into the Olympics.