Things are clear, there is no longer room for doubt: in their vision of the Summer Games in 2024, the Americans are not denying themselves anything. “New Games for a new era”, they have been insisting since the start of the campaign. The Los Angeles team presents itself as champions of innovation and creativity. In view of his latest discovery, revealed Monday January 16, 2017, his claim does not seem exaggerated.
8 months before the IOC vote, while the three candidate cities are impatient to be able to give their communication an international dimension, Los Angeles 2024 has unveiled its project for the opening and closing ceremonies. It doesn't look like anything known. A sort of UFO, located light years away from the rules and customs of the Olympic universe.
In the event of victory in the race for the 2024 Games, against Budapest and Paris, Los Angeles would organize not just one, but two opening ceremonies. Seventeen days later, the Americans would also double their stakes during the closing ceremony. Two events organized simultaneously in two different stadiums.
Friday July 19, 2024, the opening ceremony would begin at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the stadium of the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The legendary Californian venue would have previously undergone a thorough facelift. Its renovation is expected to cost $270 million, a sum provided by the University of Southern California (USC). The flame of the Games would cross the stadium, occupied for the occasion by 70.000 spectators.
After an extended tour of the Coliseum (photo below), the Olympic torch would continue its journey through the streets of Los Angeles, passing some of the city's most famous sites. Head to the NFL stadium, a 100.000-seat venue whose work has just started in Hollywood Park, not far from Los Angeles airport. Located in Inglewood, it is due to open its doors in 2019. It will be shared between the Rams and the Chargers, the two future NFL franchises in the Californian metropolis. Touted before construction was even completed as the “most technologically advanced stadium in the world,” it has already been chosen to host the Super Bowl in 2021.
The opening ceremony would then take place its usual scenario: parade of athletes, speeches, Olympic flag and lighting of the flame. At the same time, the 70.000 spectators at the Coliseum would have waited with a Hollywood show and a concert, before experiencing the second part of the ceremony in “virtual reality”.
Same concept seventeen days later, for the closing ceremony, but in the opposite direction to the opening. This time, the flame would begin its journey in the American football stadium, before continuing its journey to the Coliseum, where the main stage would be set.
The Californians have done their math: a double ceremony would not only have the merit of dusting off the codes of the genre, it would also shatter all Olympic records. In total, 170.000 spectators, a supposedly historic television audience, media coverage more extensive than ever.
Comment from Gene Sykes, CEO of Los Angeles 2024: “Hosting the Olympic ceremonies in two legendary stadiums has never been done. But Los Angeles’ wealth of sports venues and technology leaves us wondering, “What next? ”, rather than thinking about what has been done in the past. These ceremonies will attract more people than ever, in California, in the United States and around the world. " Not false.
