No other city in the world can do what Paris has done over the past three weeks, staging the drama of Olympic competition with the glittering Eiffel Tower and the lush Gardens of Versailles.
The 2024 Summer Games, with their classical setting and great visual beauty, raised an important question.
How can I? Los Angeles Possibly overcome this?
The organizers who will bring the The 2028 Olympics are coming to Southern California They offered a sneak peek during Sunday night’s closing ceremony at the Stade de France. Instead of tradition, they leaned into production values and pop culture.
As if it were a scene from Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise rappelled from the edge of the stadium to the field below and then roared away on a motorcycle. Snoop Dogg played a few verses. Billie Eilish performed, albeit remotely, from Venice Beach.
“We don’t have an Eiffel Tower,” he said. Casey Wassermanpresident of the LA28 organizing committee. “We have a Hollywood sign.”
The next host city always gets about 15 minutes or so near the end of each Olympic closing. These performances usually include music and dancers, and some colorful lights. They are often overlooked.
But LA28 needed to make a splash in Paris. One of the main reasons was money.
For the past six months, Wasserman and his private group have kept their abbreviated production under wraps. It wasn’t until details began to leak last week that they acknowledged hiring Actor Ben Winston became an actor in 1963.
Winston was the Emmy-winning executive producer of “The Late Late Show with James Cordon” and thus partly responsible for bringing carpool karaoke to the world.
The 42-year-old Briton said in a statement that he wanted Sunday night’s performance to evoke “the people of the city, the creativity, the music and of course the sport, all wrapped up with a little bit of Hollywood magic.”
All of this is important because LA28 saw its moment in the spotlight as a crucial announcement, not just to spectators but also to big business. As the International Olympic Committee said: “All eyes will be on you.”
The 2028 Olympics will cost an estimated $7 billion, a figure that is likely to rise, and The organizers have agreed to cover all expenses. with contributions from the IOC, ticket sales and, most importantly, corporate sponsorships.
Despite having deals in hand with Nike, Deloitte and Delta Airlines, LA28 is about $1 billion shy of its $2.5 billion target in the latter category with four years to go.
The numbers are important to Southern California residents because if the Games go over budget, city and state lawmakers have agreed to provide hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Organising committees hope that a flashy presentation will generate excitement and kick-start negotiations for sponsors. The problem, according to Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing executive, is that “not many of them stand out when faced with the full power of the actual ceremony.”
Paris had reason to celebrate after hosting a Games free of major flaws and packed with memorable performances.
World stars like Gymnast Simone BilesTennis player Novak Djokovic and pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis lived up to expectations. Among the French athletes, swimmer Leon Marchand won five medals and NBA sensation rookie Victor Wembanyama He led his teammates to the men’s basketball final, where they lost to LeBron James and the United States
With 9.5 million tickets sold, the venues were packed and loud. There was plenty of French nonsense, as you’d expect, including the Olympic debut of breaking (formerly known as breakdancing) and a viral moment from the lanky Australian B-girl called “Raygun.”
“From the beginning we had a vision… to really combine the excitement of sport with the excitement of our city,” said Tony Estanguet, head of the organizing committee.
“We couldn’t have prepared ourselves for everything we’ve just experienced together,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee. “We wanted emotion and we got passion.”
The closing ceremony featured a spiky, glowing figure, the “Golden Traveler,” who flew in from the night sky. Performers tumbled and danced along a series of interlocking platforms. Acrobats hung from giant wheels that rolled across a futuristic stage while scenes from past Olympic Games were projected from the ground.
Artistic director Thomas Jolly said: “As a theatre and opera director, the stadium setting gives me the opportunity to use the tools of live performance: the lighting, the décor, the costumes, the machinery, the set design.”
It was a creative and deeply symbolic event, very French, so much so that earlier in the day, when workers arrived with leaf blowers, it was hard to tell whether they were part of the rehearsal or just tidying up.
And when popular French band Phoenix played a mini-concert towards the end of the program, the athletes became so excited that they ran on stage and had to be chased away by the public address system announcer.
After two hours or so, Los Angeles took control.
It all started simply enough, when Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo handed the Olympic flag to Mayor Karen Bass, the first time two women have carried out this tradition. Biles was in attendance. Grammy-winning singer HER sang the national anthem.
Then Cruise appeared, illuminated by the spotlights above the curved roofline of the stadium. Looking a little disheveled by the wind, he made his grand entrance and grabbed the flag, racing toward the waiting motorcycle. From there, the action moved to video.
It was a nod to both the film industry and the evolution of the Games into a made-for-television event. Cruise rode through the streets of Paris and boarded a waiting cargo plane – “I’m on my way” – before parachuting toward the Hollywood sign.
A series of athletes took up the baton, with Olympic mountain biker Kate Courtney pedalling the flag to the Colosseum, handing it to famous sprinter Michael Johnson, who ran it to skater Jagger Eaton on the beach.
There, by the ocean (perhaps the only Southern California landscape that can compete with Paris), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eilish and Snoop accompanied by Dr. Dre closed the event with a concert that was extended into an hour-long program on NBC and Peacock.
Whether all this will have the desired effect of generating enthusiasm and dollars remains to be seen. But, having seen Paris up close, Wasserman knows he cannot repeat the Olympics of the past few weeks.
“The 2024 Games were authentically French and Parisian,” he said. “And the 2028 Games will be authentically Los Angeles.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
