LA Olympic bid shelves $1 billion village plan

The Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid team on Monday confirmed it had dropped ambitious plans for a $1 billion athletes village, announcing the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus would now house athletes during the games.

LA 2024, which is competing against Paris, Rome and Budapest for the right to stage the games, had initially planned to construct a brand new village on the site of a railyard near downtown Los Angeles.

However the plan had been the subject of scrutiny after local officials warned environmental clean-up and other costs could reach $2 billion for the proposed site, even if the property's owner Union Pacific agreed to sell up.

LA 2024 said the decision to switch the Olympic athletes village to UCLA would help reduce costs while bringing the bid more closely into line with the Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative, aimed at making the Olympics more manageable.

A media village would be based at the University of Southern California (USC) campus near the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is planned as the main venue for the Games.

"LA 2024 is first and foremost focused on the athletes and when we looked across the city at possible accommodations options, it became clear that we can offer the best personalized experience for athletes and other participants through existing facilities at UCLA and USC," LA 2024 chief executive Gene Sykes said in a statement.

"With these excellent residences at USC and UCLA, LA 2024 has developed an innovative Games Plan that aligns closely with Olympic Agenda 2020's sustainability and fiscal discipline goals."

The host of the 2024 Olympics will be chosen by the International Olympic Committee at a meeting in Peru in September 2017.

The United States last hosted a summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.

Los Angeles, which hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, has constructed a bid which aims to capitalize on existing venues such as the downtown Staples Center, home of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.

The bid also incorporates famous city landmarks, with mountain biking in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, beach volleyball on the golden sands of Santa Monica and Hollywood Boulevard hosting the marathon and road cycling.