TRAINING SITE AND HOTEL PROMISED IF L.A. GETS GAMES.

Byline: GENE MADDAUS

Staff Writer

The Anschutz Entertainment Group introduced plans Monday to build a new training facility and hotel at the Home Depot Center in Carson in conjunction with Los Angeles' bid for the Olympic Games.

AEG has committed to build the facilities if L.A. is awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics. The sites would be used by athletes both for training and participating in the Olympic Games.

Billed as Phase 2 of the Home Depot Center project, the plans look more like they were drawn for Phase 1 1/2. AEG has already won approval from the California State University Board of Trustees for a more ambitious expansion, which would also include a new field house, a dormitory and a restaurant.

But since getting the approval a year ago, AEG has given little indication of whether or when it intends to build the entire project.

"All of that is still under discussion, still in the planning stage," said Rod O'Connor, general manager of the Home Depot Center.

The scaled-down plans introduced Monday call for a 150-room hotel and conference center and a training facility. Though AEG displayed architectural renderings of the buildings, most of the details remain to be determined.

The agreement beefs up Los Angeles' proposal a mere three weeks before the U.S. Olympic Committee chooses the U.S. entrant in the international competition on April 14. Chicago is also competing to be the Olympic site.

Tokyo, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and several other international cities are preparing bids of their own. The International Olympic Committee will make the final decision in October 2009.

O'Connor said that if Los Angeles is not selected to host the Olympics, AEG will reassess whether to build the second phase.

One of Los Angeles' main selling points is that the infrastructure needed to host the games is already in place. In fact, the new buildings at the Home Depot Center would be among only two or three new permanent structures built for the games.

"Having the buildings in place means we are not going to be spending our time engaged in an urban-renewal project, which is consuming in terms of time and resources," said Barry Sanders, chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games.

Sanders said the hotel and training center in Carson would fit into the overall vision of the L.A. bid.

"We're in a position to host major international events over and over again," Sanders said.

"This is an opportunity to keep the spotlight on these athletes for years."

gene.maddaus(at)dailybreeze.com

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