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Santa Monica to Continue Olympic Negotiations

 


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By Jorge Casuso

October 9, 2024 -- Santa Monica will continue negotiating an agreement to host volley ball at the 2028 Summer Olympics but needs to get specific answers to pressing questions.

LA28's standard agreement the Council was asked to weigh in on would bring international renown to the birthplace of beach volley ball at the risk of losing $12.1 million ("Council To Weigh Hosting Olympic Volleyball," October 4, 2024).

The proposed agreement does not spell out "potential financial and legal risks," the scope of services -- including security -- the City would have to provide or the level of reimbursement for those services.

It prevents the City from hosting public and private events on the popular venue and could shut businesses, opening the City to legal claims, staff said.

ALA 28 officials who attended the meeting declined to answer questions from the Council and staff members had the same answers to many of the concerns expressed by the Council:

'"We' don't know,' is the simple answer," a staff member said.

Still the Councilembers were torn.

Councilmember Gleam Davis said Santa Monica was the ideal venue for Olympic volley ball the Pier's iconic solar powered Ferris Wheel displaying the Olympic logo in the background.

"The Eiffel Tower will have nothing on the Pier," Davis said, referring to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. "The shot will be at the top five on Instagram for years to come."

"It's almost like there's no other appropriate place to do it," Davis said.

Mayor Phil Brock said he "desperately" wants to host the Olympics but worried that "you sign something, and you have no idea what you're signing, how much you will be reimbursed, how much this will cost."

"If someone were to ask you to do this on the street, you would walk away and laugh at them," Brock said. "I want the Olympics here, but all those are big ifs."

Lana Negrete, whose family kept a scrapbook of the 1984 LA Olympics she attended when she was four, echoed the concerns.

"It would be completely irresponsible" to enter into the current agreement, she said. "It would really be destructive to City services."

Negrete noted there were "a lot of unknowns and uncertainties" and asked if the City Attorney's office had seen such an agreement, which would also prevent the City from pesuing legal action.

Assistant City Attorney Susan Cola said the City had "never entered into this kind of agreement" and "never seen so many unknowns."

Councilmemmber Davis, who as an attorney has litigated lawsuits for decades, was also concerned that "we have an agreement to agree to agree somewhere down the line."

In the end, the Council directed staff to continue negotiating with LA28 in the hopes officials would understand both the unique advantages Santa Monica offers and the City's precarious financial position.

"I absolutely want too host beach volley ball here," said Councilmember Caroline Torosis, "but we have to be realistic. We have to keep the lights on at home, and that takes some give and take.

"I don't want to go into this with rose colored glasses," said Torosis. "I want to go into this with eyes wide open."

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