Los Angeles reaches deal to host 2028 Olympics, according to report

Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics after the city reached a deal with the International Olympic Committee, according to a Los Angeles Timesreport.

The deal will allow Paris to host the 2024 Games, which has been expected.  The Times cited a source close to the negotiation saying the deal had been reached. 

An announcement by the IOC was expected later Monday, the Times reported. 

The IOC paved the way for the historic dual award with a unanimous vote earlier this month to try to reach a deal with the two cities. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo celebrated by bursting onto the stage after the vote and thanking IOC President Thomas Bach, giving an immediate indicator that the parties were interested in working something out.

Bach called the IOC’s decision “a golden opportunity” then, and the agreement allows the IOC to secure the future of the Summer Olympics for more than a decade while giving each of the cities an event they have coveted.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has been trying to bring the Summer Games back to the United States for more than a decade, with failed bids for 2012 with New York and 2016 with Chicago. Los Angeles will host the first Summer Olympics in the country since Atlanta in 1996.

Since Bach opined a process that “produces too many losers” last winter, the IOC has been building toward a dual award. It was one made easier by Budapest’s withdrawal from the bidding process in February.

Paris has long been seen as the favorite to secure the 2024 Games after taking a much harder line stance on the idea of a dual award. For months, Los Angeles praised the notion while saying it was committed to winning the Games for 2024.

Both cities impressed the IOC evaluation commission, which called them “outstanding” in its report. Each relies heavily on existing venues, and leaders from both cities entered negotiation looking for ways to collaborate in their unique situation of planning the Games simultaneously.

Though unusual, the dual award set in the agreement is not unprecedented. According to Olympic historian Bill Mallon, the IOC in 1921 awarded the 1924 Games to Paris because Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, was retiring and wanted to have the Games in his home country. At the same time, the IOC awarded the 1928 Olympics to Amsterdam.

Los Angeles protested, and was later selected as host of the 1932 Games.