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Inglewood, Coliseum Factor into LA’s 2024 Olympics Bid

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Two prominent football stadiums could shape Los Angeles‘ bid for the 2024 Olympics, as a proposal calls for the Coliseum to split the opening ceremonies with a future stadium in Inglewood.

Unveiled by Los Angeles 2024, the latest proposal calls for the opening ceremonies to be shared by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the facility in Inglewood, which is expected to open in 2019 for the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The Inglewood stadium is already planned for some major events, with the NFL slated to hold Super Bowl LV at venue in 2021.

Certainly, the 2024 Olympics would be a prominent stage for what will be a relatively new facility. It would also represent an acknowledgement of Los Angeles’ heritage, as the Coliseum’s long and distinguished history includes turns at hosting the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.

In planning the event, organizers are taking advantage of the size of both venues. The tradition of the Coliseum makes it a desirable Olympic venue, but LA 2024 officials are clearly seeking the modern technology that the Inglewood stadium will offer as a way to enhance the ceremonies. More from The Orange County Register:

Under the plan revealed Monday, the opening ceremony, proposed by LA 2024 for July 19, 2024, would open with a torch relay down the peristyle of the Coliseum as part of a live entertainment event in front of 70,000 spectators. The torch relay would proceed approximately eight miles through Los Angeles’ neighborhoods to the enclosed Inglewood stadium on the former site of the Hollywood Park racetrack.

The Inglewood stadium, which will hold 100,000 for the event, will stage the formal elements of the opening ceremony, including the parade of nations and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. The cauldron would then be moved to the Coliseum, described by an LA 2024 official as the “sports cathedral of Los Angeles” and host of the 1932 and 1984 Olympic ceremonies.

The Coliseum will host the extinguishing of the cauldron and the other formal elements of the closing ceremony on Aug. 4 while a “live viewing and high-tech entertainment” will be held simultaneously at the Inglewood stadium. The Hollywood Park venue, which will be located in the heart of a 298-acre sports, entertainment and commercial development by Rams owner Stan Kroenke, is scheduled to be completed in 2019 and was awarded Super Bowl LV in 2021 last year. The Coliseum would also host the 2024 Games’ athletic centerpiece – the nine-day track and field competition.

The plan was shaped by months of discussions with veterans of past Olympic opening and closing ceremonies productions as well as virtual reality and other technology experts, and will continue to evolve as technology does, LA 2024 officials said.

The biggest hurdle left for the 2024 Olympics bid is approval from the International Olympics Committee (IOC). Candidates must submit stage III of their plans by February 3, which is one of the last major steps left before the IOC announces its decision in September. Paris and Budapest are both competing with Los Angeles for the 2024 Olympics.

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