(ATR) Leaders of the Paris 2024 Olympic bid scouted out the proposed venues of the Los Angeles 2024 bid on Wednesday to the surprise of the L.A. team.
Paris 2024 chief executive officer Etienne Thobois was joined by three other bid executives on tours of the L.A. Coliseum, the Galen Center and a University of Southern California housing complex. The Coliseum is proposed to stage the ceremonies of the Games while the USC housing site would be used as part of the media village.
A USC spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the executives spent several hours taking pictures and video inside the venues. Scouting out the opposition’s venue is not against IOC regulations but contact between bid teams is highly-regulated.
A spokesperson for the Paris 2024 bid tells Around the Rings the visit abode by all IOC guidelines.
"A small delegation from Paris 2024 has been visiting a variety of facilities and venues in the Los Angeles area," the spokesperson said. "It was a fact-finding mission and conducted in an appropriate manner."
LA 2024 spokesperson Jeff Millman told the L.A. Times that "while surprising, we have no objection to Paris 2024 leaders wanting to tour our venues because they are not secrets."
The Paris team was also scheduled to tour the UCLA housing complex on Friday morning. UCLA would serve as the site of the Athlete Village if Los Angeles is chosen as the host city by the IOC in September 2017.
Los Angeles is competing with Paris, Budapest and Rome to host the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
Italian IOC Members Say Mayoral Threat Weakened
Members of the IOC from Italy Mario Pescante and Franco Carraro believe the next mayor of Rome will eventually support the city’s 2024 Olympic bid.
"I think that after the elections, whoever becomes mayor will be happy to examine the problem and understand that the Olympic bid is the only real prospect for the future of the city," says Pescante.
Pescante added that the other candidate cities are being carried by their respective mayors and that similar support would help further the bid.
"Roma must make a clear decision," he says. "The negative speak against the bid since the day after the elections must disappear because otherwise, although some damage has already been done, the image we give would be detrimental."
Virginia Raggi, the favorite to win the Rome mayoral race, has reportedly softened her anti-Olympic stance just days before the run-off vote on Sunday.
On Monday, the 5-Star Movement candidate welcomed a referendum on Rome’s Olympic bid if the city’s residents petitioned for one. Her opponent, Roberto Giachetti of the Democratic Party is backing Rome’s Olympic quest.
"The Games can definitely be a chance of development and growth, I've no doubts about it," Raggi said in a live TV debate on RAI 3 on Sunday.
Raggi promised that if she wins the race to be mayor she will "evaluate this issue in a serious way".
Carraro agrees that the threat to the bid has been weakened and that there should not be a future referendum.
"The City Council a year ago has given the green light and I hope that the city will continue to pursue this project," Carraro says. "The buzz about the eventual victory of Virginia Raggi has attenuated the opposition a little thankfully."
Written by Kevin Nutley
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