Washington’s sports scene got buzzing this week when a newly formed group announced it will seek to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Washington and the surrounding area. While the price of staging the Summer Olympics can easily soar into 11 digits—the London Games last year cost $14 billion, for instance—the Washington bid’s backers say they can do it for less than $6 billion.
That’s might be a bit too optimistic of an estimate, but one of the reasons the organizing group, DC 2024, gives is because of the Washington area’s existing sports venues. Though many new facilities would need to be constructed, including an Olympic Stadium at the center of it all, a DC-centered Olympics could almost surely draw on nearly every big stadium and arena between Richmond and Baltimore.
Here are just a few of the venues that, if this Olympic vision actually materializes, could be pressed into hosting the world’s athletes.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
