The LA 2024 Olympic Bid Committee on Monday revealed it’s proposing to hold the opening and closing ceremonies for the Summer Games simultaneously at both the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the planned NFL Stadium in Inglewood.
The plan, contained in bid documents to be submitted to the International Olympic Committee next month, is unprecedented in Olympics history and underscores the strength of Los Angeles’ rich array of venues. The proposal would mix the old – the Coliseum was built to host the 1932 Summer Games – and the new – the NFL Stadium at Hollywood Park that is scheduled to open in 2019.
“Hosting Olympic Ceremonies across two iconic stadiums has never been done,” LA 2024 Chief Executive Gene Sykes said in statement. “But LA’s wealth of stadiums and technology mean we can think about ‘What’s next?’ instead of just asking what has been done before. LA 2024’s Olympic Games opening ceremony will captivate more people in Los Angeles, across the United States, and around the world than any opening ceremony in history.”
Under the plan, the opening ceremony would begin with a torch relay down the peristyle of the Coliseum in front of 70,000 spectators. Then, the torch relay would proceed through the streets of Los Angeles until it reaches the new LA Stadium at Hollywood Park, where the parade of athletes and the other main events of the opening ceremony would take place in front of a crowd of up to 100,000.
Spectators at the Coliseum would watch the events at the NFL Stadium on giant view screens. They would also see the Coliseum’s historic cauldron be lit at the same time as the cauldron at the Inglewood stadium.
This order of events would be reversed for the closing ceremony two weeks later. The main ceremony would be held at the Coliseum, with spectators at the NFL Stadium watching on view screens.
Los Angeles is one of three cities seeking to host the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games; the other two are Paris and Budapest. The IOC is scheduled to meet in September in Lima, Peru to select the host city.
Public policy and energy reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @howardafine.
