[dragonsky]

L.A.'s Olympic bid gets AEG aid
March 27, 2007

The people who brought Staples Center and the Home Depot Center to Southern California, Anschutz Entertainment Group, gave the people who are trying to get the Olympic Games back in Los Angeles in 2016 some extra ammunition Monday.

Rod O'Connor, general manager of the Home Depot Center, announced at a news conference that, were Los Angeles to get the bid for the 2016 Games, his company would expand his facility with a 125-acre project that would include a training facility and hotel/conference center.

The price on that project was put at $50 million to $60 million and the combination training center and hotel was seen as an enhanced attraction to athletes from afar with an on-site place to stay.

The Home Depot Center in Carson is a hotbed of Olympic-sport training, with facilities for soccer, tennis, track and field and velodrome cycling.

The timing of the announcement appeared to be for maximum impact on United States Olympic Committee decision-makers, who will decide April 14 on whether Los Angeles or Chicago is put forth as the U.S. candidate city in the international race for the 2016 Olympic bid.

If the 2016 bid doesn't go to Los Angeles, O'Connor said AEG would "revisit our options."