If the United States is going to bid for the 2024 Olympics, that bid will come from Los Angeles.
After a hastily called board meeting on Wednesday, US Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said he was optimistic the USOC could work out a plan to make Los Angeles the bidder. He said he hoped the decision would be official by the end of the month.
The news came two weeks after the USOC dropped a Boston bid that was short on support.
Los Angeles isn't showing any of those problems. Mayor Eric Garcetti has said he'd have no problem signing the host city contract.
In a statement on Wednesday, Garcetti said the city has had "very positive discussions" with the USOC over the past week.
"The LA Olympics would inspire the world and are right for our city," he said.
Earlier this week, city officials said the proposed budget for the Summer Games would be $US4.1 billion ($A5.55 billion), plus a $US400 million ($A542 million) contingency.
Blackmun revealed results of an internal poll out of the LA area from earlier this month that indicated 81 per cent support for hosting the Olympics. Boston was in the 40s.
"That's remarkable and very encouraging," Blackmun said.
The centrepiece of an LA Olympics would be the Memorial Coliseum, which was also used in the city's last two Olympics - in 1932 and 1984. USOC chairman Larry Probst suggested the positive feelings from the successful '84 Games still resonated in southern California.
"People remember that time," he said. "It left a great legacy for the city."
Probst and Blackmun declined to detail what issues might hold up a bid from Los Angeles, though they believed the mayor would honour his commitment to sign the host-city contract. That issue became a major sticking point as the Boston bid disintegrated, the mayor saying he didn't want to expose taxpayers to any potential cost overruns.
Los Angeles would join Rome, Paris, Budapest and Hamburg in the contest. The winner will be decided in 2017.
The US hasn't hosted a Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. At meetings earlier this month, IOC president Thomas Bach said he was expecting the United States to bid.
"I think it would be a lost opportunity," Blackmun said. "On the summer side, there's a whole generation of Americans who haven't seen the games on American soil. We want to address that, and make sure the games come to the US on a regular basis."
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