Sports Infrastructure,Legacy and the Paradox of the 1984 Olympic Games

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games created a new sponsorship model for organising committees, changed perceptions about the value of hosting the Games, encouraged greater reliance on television revenue and generated a $232.5 million surplus. Although observers rarely cite sports venues as a 1984 legacy, the Los Angeles Olympics resulted in the construction or improvement of nearly 100 sport facilities in Southern California in three decades following the Games. These sports spaces served more than 500,000 young people annually. Much of the construction funding came from grants made by the LA84 Foundation, which was endowed with Southern California's share of the 1984 surplus. The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC) achieved a surplus by producing substantial revenues while tightly controlling costs. A key element of cost control was limited spending on Olympic venues. The LAOOC built only three new venues, relying on existing stadiums for all other venues. The LAOOC's construction budget was significantly lower than those of other Olympic organisers in the 1980s and 1990s. Thus, by building very few new venues for the 1984 Games, the LAOOC laid the groundwork for a legacy of sports fields, tracks, gymnasiums and pools built or improved after 1984.