Countdown to LA28: Four Years Out From the L.A. Games, Here’s All You Need to Know

With the start of the Paris games, the clock is ticking for L.A.’s turn in four years. How will the city — and you — handle the Olympics? Your burning questions answered...

To Build or Not to Build?

The Opening Ceremony for the 2028 Summer Olympics will involve both the Coliseum in Exposition Park and Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. While details have not been publicly revealed, the symbolism is clear: It unites L.A.’s past and present — mashing up the focal point of the 1932 and ’84 Games, and the glistening $5.5 billion home of the Rams and Chargers (and six sold-out Taylor Swift concerts).

That then-now split will continue for the following 16 days (and again during the Paralympics), though with a twist: Unlike nearly all previous Olympics, not a single venue is being built specifically for Los Angeles 2028 — which keeps the price tag at a “reasonable” $6.9 billion. Instead, events will take place in a combination of historic structures and newer, existing projects.

The arrangement involves a series of geographic “sports parks,” with the concentrations allowing for work efficiencies and security perimeters. Olympics reps note that the lineup is being finalized and subject to change, but current plans have the Downtown sports park hosting, among other events, weightlifting in the Peacock Theater, badminton at USC’s Galen Center and fencing, table tennis and more at the Convention Center.

“The most expensive thing we will build is a temporary track for the Coliseum,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said on The Bill Simmons Podcast in March, noting the venue will encompass all jumping, throwing and other field events. “The scale of the track is huge,” he added. “It will go 14 rows up into the Coliseum, so Row 1 will be Row 15 if you’re at a USC football game.”

The Valley sports park could include equestrian events such as dressage and jumping in the Sepulveda Basin. Carson’s expansive Dignity Health Sports Park (home to soccer’s L.A. Galaxy) would see tennis and, in a state-of-the-art velodrome, cycling. Wasserman said organizers are looking at Huntington Beach or Trestles in San Diego County to host surfing.

Sailing and BMX cycling could be in Long Beach, while the venerable Rose Bowl likely will host the medal games for soccer. Golf will take place at Riviera Country Club, and plans call for volleyball to be held in Anaheim’s Honda Center. Steve Ballmer’s forthcoming $2 billion Intuit Dome is expected to anchor basketball.

A perennial Olympics highlight, gymnastics, is currently slated for the Kia Forum in Inglewood. You’ll find Mayor Karen Bass there. “I absolutely love gymnastics,” she tells Los Angeles .

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New Competitions Made for L.A.

Pradeep Patel and his Southern California Cricket Association cohorts were thrilled in October when the International Olympic Committee voted to make cricket one of five new sports for the 2028 Games. “We were all hoping and praying it would get approved,” says Patel, president of the association, which has 52 teams in five divisions, with many matches played on fields in Van Nuys. Thanks to the Olympics, he adds, “We think there will be a growth spurt in the sport.”

Other additions for LA28 include:

FLAG FOOTBALL There will be men’s and women’s competitions engaging in this high-octane, non-contact version — with neither helmets nor pads, and likely five players a side. In the run-up to the IOC vote, Niccolò Campriani, sports director of LA28, said more than 20 million people in 100 countries play flag football. The NFL has indicated that pros could be on the field.

SQUASH The intense and strategic racket sport, which aficionados call “physical chess,” is one of the easiest events to stage. Campriani told the IOC it has “one of the lowest venue costs and complexity across all sports.”

“You can solve a problem like traffic for 17 days when you change people’s behavior patterns, like in 1984.”
— Casey Wasserman

BASEBALL/SOFTBALL The sports, part of the Tokyo 2020 lineup (though not in Paris), return to the Olympics, riding the momentum of a thrilling 2023 World Baseball Classic. In 2020, the U.S. Olympic baseball team comprised mostly minor league players, and it’s unknown if Major League Baseball will pause its season to allow Shohei Ohtani and other stars to take the field.

LACROSSE The sport originated with indigenous people in North America and most recently was an Olympic event in London in 1908. Its return is via the fast-paced “lacrosse sixes” version, with six players per team on a 70-by-36-meter field (traditional lacrosse has 10 players on a larger field).

LA28 chief operating officer John Harper calls lacrosse “the fastest-growing sport among youth” and adds, “international membership has almost doubled in the last decade.”

Navigating the ‘Car-Free’ Games

Jaws drop when people learn that, because of tight security perimeters and protocols, there will be no parking for ticket holders at Olympic venues. So how will Angelenos and visitors navigate what some (errantly) call the “car-free” Games? Think: mass transit.

Seleta Reynolds, Metro’s chief innovation officer, describes “mobility hubs” that will be created throughout Los Angeles County, near rail stations or elsewhere. Attendees reach the hubs then board a bus, which will travel in a dedicated lane that’s part of a “Games Route Network.” After the event at the stadium/arena/velodrome, etc., the reverse happens.

“The idea is it will be the easiest, fastest and most enjoyable way to get to one of the venues, where you don’t have to worry about where you will go, how you will park, how much it will cost,” Reynolds says. To make it happen, Metro will bolster its 2,000-bus fleet with another 2,500 or so borrowed, leased or purchased buses. With the Games four years away, details about everything from staffing to funding are still being hammered out, and the price tag could reach $1 billion.

It’s a huge ask, as people from Glendale to the South Bay and beyond have to reach the hubs. That could mean utilizing everything from new rail lines to ride-share.

And that’s just part of the transportation plan. Many fear L.A.’s already white-knuckle gridlock will only worsen during the Games. But LA28’s Wasserman notes that before the 1984 Olympics, Mayor Tom Bradley identified solutions, including working with trucking companies to temporarily restrict deliveries to late-night hours. A world of Amazon and DoorDash drivers complicates matters, but Wasserman believes there are fixes.

“You can solve a problem like traffic for 17 days when you change people’s behavior patterns, like in 1984,” he says.

Mayor Bass agrees and cites the lessons of COVID, with Zoom and the cloud alleviating the need for everyone to drive to the office. “Given today’s technology, and given the fact that we all spent three years acclimating to remote work, I think the city will be fine,” she says.

Much remains to be worked out. Reynolds notes shade and water must be available on hot days at the mobility hubs. Signs and other directional information are necessary, including those for international visitors. But Reynolds believes the benefits can endure after the Closing Ceremony.

“The Olympics are a turning point or a catalyst for us to get people to try things they might not normally try,” she says. If Angelenos learn they can leave the car at home, “those habits might stick after the Games,” she adds. “And that will be a benefit to everybody.”

Athletes Will Live (and Eat) Like Bruins

The Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympics is July 26. The COVID-delayed Tokyo Games began July 23, 2021. Rio kicked off on Aug. 5, 2016. So why are the L.A. Games launching earlier, on July 14? Blame the Bruins, the Trojans and academic calendars.

The more than 16,000 athletes participating in the 2028 Games will be housed on the UCLA campus, while USC’s Exposition Park facilities will serve as media headquarters. Timing is tight.

It’s the earliest Opening Ceremony since the 1924 Games in Paris. “Very simply, we [need] time to get into the dorms when the students get out, and we [need] time to get out before USC starts in August,” Wasserman says. “UCLA ends in June. So we have a window of about 40 days for the Olympics and Paralympics when we can operate.”

Athletes will stay in 14 residential buildings in Westwood, with single- or double-occupancy units. There will be access to campus dining halls and restaurants. “We serve roughly 30,000 meals daily to our 15,000 on-campus student residents and are prepared for the volume, quality and breadth of variety required for these athletes,” Pete Angelis, assistant vice chancellor of UCLA Housing & Hospitality, tells Los Angeles .

The size of each nation’s delegation will help determine who stays where. It’s not yet known which athletes will end up in buildings UCLA dubs “deluxe” — including the fittingly named Olympic Hall, which opened in 2021 — and who might reside in the, er, “classic” high-rises.

Related: LA28 Venue Plans for Olympic Games Revealed

The Lowdown on High Security

A gargantuan feat on the road to the 2028 Games: finalizing a security plan that safeguards not only the 16,000-plus Olympians and Paralympians, but also the hundreds of thousands of ticket holders, along with 10 million county residents.

Step one was getting a National Special Security Event designation from the Department of Homeland Security. This is typically granted 18-24 months before activities like national political conventions. L.A. got the nod in January, giving the Secret Service four-and-a-half years to play the lead role in convening city, county, state and federal entities that will focus on everything from thwarting terrorism to crowd management to cyber security.

More than 150 heads of state are expected in town. The LAPD has about 9,000 sworn personnel, but the cops also have to protect and serve the rest of L.A. Expect involvement from the Sheriff’s Department and local police agencies.

A certainty of the Games is that every venue will have a security perimeter and precautions in place. Mayor Bass, who spent a decade in Congress, notes that U.N. General Assembly sessions in New York occur without incident.

“There is a lot of national experience that we will be able to take advantage of here,” she says. “I feel confident that the city will be safe.”

The security, crowds, traffic and summer heat might prompt some to opt to leave town. Bass recalls that people voiced similar concerns 40 years ago, yet the Games emerged as a financial triumph that changed how the world sees L.A.

“We’re in such a stronger position today than we were then,” Bass says, adding she considers the Games an opportunity, not a risk. “I understand that sentiment, but I am hoping Angelenos take advantage. We will be one of the only cities on Earth that will have welcomed the Olympics three times.”

With reporting by Jeff Rabhan