By Rory Carroll and Amy Tennery
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wildfires that devastated neighbourhoods across Los Angeles have provided fresh motivation for critics of the 2028 Games and complicated the effort to host the world's biggest sporting event, but experts say a relocation would be unlikely.
The fires that officials said could rank as the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history continue to rage after several days, with desert winds and a parched landscape presenting extremely hazardous conditions.
Governor Gavin Newsom has already moved to assure that Angelenos will be ready to host the Games, a massive undertaking even under the best circumstances, and said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that the Games will provide a chance for the "community to shine."
LA28 President and Chairperson Casey Wasserman met with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-o-Lago on Wednesday and said he was grateful for Trump's "unwavering commitment" to Los Angeles hosting the Games.
"We look forward to partnering with him and his Administration to deliver a safe and successful Games our nation can be proud of," Wasserman said in a statement.
Wasserman also pointed to Los Angeles' "resilience and determination."
"The strength of our communities and our unity in tough times make this city extraordinary, and when Los Angeles welcomes the world in 2028, our spirit will shine brighter than ever before," Wasserman said.
But Eric Sheehan, a key figure in NOlympics LA, a coalition of community groups that have long opposed the 2028 Games, said that the fire and the local response show a city that is ill-equipped to host the quadrennial sport spectacle.
"These fires cement the message that we've been spreading since before we got the bid in 2017, which is that Los Angeles should not host this Games because it cannot take care of its residents and host the largest - as LA28 is calling it - the largest sporting event in American history at the same time," Sheehan told Reuters.
The fires have so far spared key Olympic venues, with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which is expected to host men's and women's soccer, being used as a staging ground for firefighters battling the blazes.
SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) Stadium in Inglewood, which will host swimming, to Crypto.com Arena in downtown LA, which will host gymnastics, are also so far unscathed.
Organisers have said that the roughly $7 billion budget for the Games is privately funded as it aims to be among the rare few host cities to turn a profit off the Olympics. But taxpayers would be expected to cover any costs over and above that figure.
Last year, the U.S. government pledged $900 million in federal funds to improve the city's public transportation ahead of the Games. Organisers previously told Reuters that they expect Trump to keep that promise.
NOlympics said those transit projects would largely serve tourists at the Olympics and not average Angelenos.
"We deserve a resilient LA that can protect its residents from fire," said Sheehan. "We deserve that whether or not we're going to have an Olympics."
CANCELLED GAMES UNLIKELY
A cancellation or relocation of the 2028 Olympics - or the eight World Cup matches that SoFi Stadium is set to host next year - is extraordinarily unlikely, experts say, with few editions of the Games disrupted in the past.
World War One forced the cancellation of the 1916 Summer Games, while the 1940 and 1944 Summer and Winter Games were called off due to World War Two.
In 2020, organisers made the unprecedented move to postpone the Tokyo Games for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jonathan Aronson, an expert in communication and global governance and professor of communications at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said the fires would amount to "a blip on the radar" when it comes to LA hosting the Games.
"Finding someone else to host them at this stage would be almost impossible," he said.
"It's such a short time frame and there are so many moving pieces that are already in motion. It will simply continue."
He noted that the city has the advantage of being home to many existing sports venues.
Nathan Line, a professor at the Dedman College of Hospitality at Florida State University whose research focuses on hospitality, tourism marketing, and consumer behavior, said he "didn't see a world" in which LA does not host the Games.
"LA has been preparing for these Games for more than a decade," he said.
"The devastation in Los Angeles County is ongoing and we don't know how bad it is. But no matter how bad it is, they're going to rebuild."