As President Trump stood before the Capitol on Friday morning, swearing the oath of office, a group of Los Angeles City Council members gathered some 2,700 miles to the west to discuss their city’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The simultaneous events might have seemed unrelated but the inauguration of a new American leader repeatedly found its way into the conversation at City Hall.

“The Olympic movement is needed more today than ever,” Councilman Gil Cedillo told the sparsely attended meeting. “More at this very moment, at this very minute, it is needed. It is a movement of unity, it is a movement of tolerance.”

The primary reason for the morning session was to debate finances: If Los Angeles is selected for 2024, the city would be asked to sign a “host city contract” promising to cover any financial shortfall should the mega-event run over budget.


A council ad hoc committee endorsed the idea, with a full vote expected on Wednesday.

“I’ve been seen as kind of a fly in the ointment,” Councilman Paul Krekorian said. “I really am at a point now where I have zero concern about impacts on the taxpayers of Los Angeles.”

Money was only part of the debate.

In competition against Paris and Budapest, the private LA 2024 bid committee must craft a narrative — a compelling story for why the Games should come to Southern California.


And that’s where Trump and partisan politics come in.

L.A.’s narrative needs to address dual questions: What can Los Angeles do for the Olympic movement? What can the Olympic movement do for Los Angeles, if not the entire U.S.?

In recent months, bid leaders and city officials have repeatedly suggested the Olympics might help unite a polarized nation.

“I keep looking up at the clock and realizing where our nation is right now as we are sitting here, what’s happening in Washington right now,” Krekorian said Friday.


Some of the International Olympic Committee members who will vote to select a host city next September have expressed concern about Trump and some of his statements regarding NATO, immigration and international trade.

Speaking on LA 2024’s behalf at an international sports assembly last fall, sprinter Allyson Felix addressed the issue without mentioning Trump by name.

“Please don’t doubt us,” she told the audience in Doha, Qatar, adding: “I want to tell you about the America that I love, and the America that needs the Games to help make our nation better — now more than ever.”


New leadership also raises concerns about whether the Games would be designated as a National Special Security Event, which would trigger federal assistance.

“This is something we shouldn’t take for granted in terms of keeping up the pressure on the federal government,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said.

LA 2024 leaders have estimated that, by using existing sports venues throughout the region, they could stage the Games for $5.3 billion and break even with revenue from sources such as broadcast rights, corporate sponsorships and ticket sales.

Through months of negotiation, the bid committee has won council support by promising to set aside $491.9 million in contingency funds, take out multiple insurance policies on the event and guarantee the city a continued role in planning.


“One by one, we have managed to put everything we need in place,” said Gene Sykes, LA 2024’s chief executive.

Bid candidates must deliver a final packet of documents to the IOC by early next month. Local government approval of the host city contract — which would not be signed until IOC voters make their selection — is part of that submission.

But council members wondered if financial guarantees might go only partway to winning the IOC’s trust.

“At this very moment, almost at the exact minute, our country just went forward in ways that are a product of 18 months of vile divisiveness and hate-mongering,” Cedillo said. “And the world is concerned about that.”


david.wharton@latimes.com

Follow @LAtimesWharton on Twitter