LA 2024 is the Los Angeles committee that works with Garcetti’s office to develop the LA plan for the games and bring the Olympics back to its city. So far, none of the official material from its website made any mention of Long Beach as a venue for any of the events.
In a phone interview with the Signal Tribune last September, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia confirmed that he has expressed interest in renewing that partnership with his neighbor to the north, if the IOC does pick LA for 2024. Long Beach has been the venue for a few of the past Olympic events, including the last time LA hosted the games in 1984.
Garcia said in the interview from last year that the official plan submitted to the IOC was more of a “template,” however his office had already been in talks with LA before and after the plan was released.
“We feel pretty good about the fact that [when] the final plan is put in place,” he said last September, “which will happen in the next year and a half or so, that we will be part of! the bid. So, that’s something that’s been a work in progress.”
Jeff Millman, a spokesman for LA 2024, confirmed that Garcia was correct that the plan formally presented to the public had not been finalized. Millman said in an emailed statement to the Signal Tribune that LA 2024 is considering venues in Long Beach, among the other cities in the area.
“LA 2024 released an initial venue plan in February,” Millman said, “and is reviewing venue options for many sports across Southern California, including in Long Beach, for its final submission to the IOC due in February 2017. If a venue is added to the plan, LA 2024 would seek a use agreement with the venue operator.”
Last fall, Garcia said that sailing, diving, archery, beach volleyball and rowing were among the events that he would like to see Long Beach host again. The Long Beach mayor was not available for an interview for this story this week.
There is one other sport that had not been mentioned by anyone in the context of the LA 2024 Summer Games. Last week, the IOC announced that they would be adding surfing to the list of new events for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
When asked whether LA 2024 has considered a venue for surfing, Millman said in a statement that the event has only been added for the Tokyo Games.
Even if the event becomes a more permanent fixture among the other sports in future Olympiads, Long Beach has very slim chances of participating in surfing.
Long Beach used to be known as a premium surfing spot, however there are now breakwaters that were constructed in the harbor areas decades ago. There has been a diligent effort by environmental groups to remove at least part of the Long Beach breakwater, but the impact to the region is currently under study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has stated that the study that began in February 2016 is expected to take up to three years.
Seamus Innes serves as the chair for the Long Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, one of the advocacy groups keen on getting rid of the breakwater. He offered a “best-case scenario” that construction on the breakwater project could start in 2020. He acknowledged in a phone interview that he has been told that the three-year study could take less than three years, but it would be difficult to complete the study in that short time frame. He further explained that even if the study could be done quickly, it would be an “insanely positive assumption” that engineering, permits and contracting could be done within a year, but, he added, it “is not very realistic, but you know, possible.”
Long Beach used to be known as the “Waikiki of Southern California,” according to the Surfrider Foundation website.
Innes was asked about the city’s reputation for surfing. He explained that Long Beach didn’t have enormous waves.
“It’s just back in the day,” Innes said, “we had a really nice sandbar out at the LA River mouth, and the waves would just peel along that sandbar. But now that’s where the Queen Mary is and Shoreline Village and all that, so we wouldn’t expect that to return.”
The chances of Long Beach getting surfing back in time for the Olympics may be dim. It certainly won’t be ready in time for LA’s deadline to submit their final plan to the IOC in February. However, perhaps the chance to host other events may be within reach for the city by the sea.
