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ByMichaelR.Blood TheAssociatedPress LOS ANGELES The U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday named Los Ange- les as its candidate for the 2024 Games, replacing Bos- ton's soured bid and mark- ing a comeback for LA's dream of becoming a three- time Olympic host. The announcement by USOC CEO Scott Black- mun came under a summer sun at Santa Monica Beach, where the city's plan calls for staging beach volleyball on the site where the sport was founded. "I want to thank Los An- geles for standing up, once again, as America's bid city," Blackmun said, add- ing that the city's proposal squares with the Olympic movement's goals of watch- ing the bottom line while investing in projects that dovetail with community needs. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city was inspired to bring the games back to the U.S. for the first time in 28 years. "This is a quest that Los Angeles was made for," the mayor said. "This city is the world's greatest stage." Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council cleared the way for Garcetti to strike agreements for a 2024 bid. The 15-0 vote came about a month after Boston was dropped from contention amid shaky pub- lic support and questions about taxpayer spending and liability. Garcetti has said Los An- geles, home to the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, would stage games that are both spectacular and profitable. The city's selection as the U.S. nominee marks the start of a two-year compe- tition. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city in Sep- tember 2017, and Rome, Paris, Hamburg, Germany, and Budapest, Hungary, are also in pursuit of the 2024 Games. A key issue has been whether approval of the res- olution by the City Council would saddle Los Angeles with potential cost over- runs for an event that his- torically runs over budget. Council members were as- sured repeatedly that the approval starts a nego- tiation with Olym- pic officials and does not commit taxpayers to future spending to stage the Games. "This is the en- gagement, not the wedding," Coun- cil President Herb Wesson said. The city's 2024 plan, which out- lines over $6 bil- lion in public and private spending, calls for staging events from vol- leyball on Santa Monica Beach to mountain biking in Griffith Park, one of the na- tion's larg- est ur- b a n green spaces. A so-called host city contract, which essentially sticks the city and state — not the IOC — with the bur- den of any cost overruns, became an obstacle in Bos- ton. For Los Angeles, striking a host city contract would come later, if the city is selected to stage the 2024 Games. For now, that temporarily pushes aside loom- ing questions about costs. "We are in this to win it, and I think we will," said Councilman Paul Krekorian. "We can't do that at the risk of exposure to our taxpayers." Over the years, the Olympics have been notori- ous for cost over- runs, and stud- ies have ques- tioned whether host cities ben- efit economi- cally. Rus- sia has b e e n struggling with costs from the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which have been called the most expensive Olympics of all time. Many financial details of the Los Angeles plan re- main vague. The bid calls for build- ing a $1 billion athletes vil- lage on a rail yard the city doesn't own, and govern- ment analysts have warned that developing the site could significantly exceed the projected cost. A private developer would invest most of the $925 million to build the village, but who would build the site, how the company would be selected and what type of financing would be used is unclear. The plan re- fers to necessary environ- mental and planning stud- ies, but no cost estimates are given. City analysts last week said they didn't have enough information to ver- ify the overall 2024 budget or determine the financial risk. The IOC had set a Sept. 15 deadline for cities to en- ter the race for the 2024 Games. The U.S. hasn't hosted the Summer Games since 1996 in Atlanta. SUMMER GAMES LA is 'world's greatest stage' USOC endorses the city for 2024 Olympics bid DAMIANDOVARGANES—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Thankyou! PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. "W e a re i n t hi s t o w in i t, a nd I t hin k we w ill . W e c an 't d o t ha t a t t he r is k of e xp osu re t o o ur t ax pa yer s. " — L A C ou nc il ma n P au l K re kor ia n LIONEL CIRONNEAU — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE U.S. athlete Carl Lewis runs the men's 200-meter race on Aug. 8, 1984in Los Angeles. Lewis won the gold medal. The U.S. Olympic Committee has formally named the city of Los Angeles as the U.S. bid to host the 2024Olympics on Tuesday. 9-5:30 M-F 910 Main St., Suite C 530.527.2510 gummsoptical.com Labor Day Sale!!! 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