OKC leaders share new details as potential host for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics events

OKLAHOMA CITY ( KFOR ) – Oklahoma City leaders held a press conference Thursday tied to the metro potentially hosting two Olympic events in 2028.

The conference followed a Friday announcement that Oklahoma City was being considered to host the LA28 canoe slalom and softball Olympic events.

LA28 leadership submitted an amended venue plan last week to Los Angeles city leaders last week for consideration. The plan includes a letter from the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce confirming that it signed a legally binding agreement in connection with LA28’s proposal to assign the softball and canoe slalom events to Oklahoma City venues.

The letter notes that the agreement includes that the Chamber will assume financial risks associated with hosting the events.

Thursday’s conference featured remarks from Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt and Greater OKC Chamber Chair Teresa Rose.

“The prospect of our city hosting LA28 Olympic events is amazing and historic,” said Holt.

Holt touted the Olympics as the greatest brand in the world and said events in the metro would likely be remembered in the community for decades and decades to come. Holt also stressed that comments and questions answered by Rose and himself would be reserved as Los Angeles city leaders consider the updated plan.

“There will be some limitations to what we can address,” said Holt.

The process to approve or deny the updated plan is expected to take a few months as stated by Holt. According to information posted on the International Olympic Committee website Friday, OKC was considered because it has existing venues capable of meeting the needs of the games.

While Southern California has more professional and collegiate sports venues than any area in the United States, there is no canoe slalom venue that exists locally (or anywhere in the Western US), and the largest softball venue in Southern California seats fewer than 2,000 people, which does not meet the expected spectator demand for softball at the Olympic Games. Instead of building temporary venues for these sports, and in alignment with the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendation that encourages the use of existing stadiums outside the region of the Host City, LA28 will assign canoe slalom and softball competitions to existing, world-class venues in Oklahoma City .

International Olympic Committee

“We have those two venues because our residents committed to them with their votes and their tax dollars,” Mayor Holt said, praising MAPS investments by metro taxpayers.

Both Holt and Rose answered a slew of questions during the press conference. For the sake of transparency News 4 is including a list of questions asked, who answered it and the response to the questions in their entirety. Some of the answers have been edited for the sake of grammatical clarity:

Is there a ballpark on how much this is estimated to cost taxpayers over the next four years?

MAYOR DAVID HOLT: Sure. I mean, the best news is the biggest cost has already been, may have been incurred. We built those venues, right? We’ve got the city manager, Craig Freeman, here. I mean, he could probably tell you, but I, I can only imagine what it would cost to build those two venues in Oklahoma City from scratch, let alone Southern California. But yes, of course, there will be costs beyond that. It may not all be borne by the taxpayers. You know, we look to a multiple, I think, revenue streams for this, including philanthropy. But certainly, you know, we think that whatever cost there is will be far offset by both the economic activity of the events themselves and also just the the elevation of the community that’s going to occur as a result of this. That will be a legacy that will last for decades to come.

What do you foresee as far as business and workforce growth for this?

DAVID HOLT: Well, there’ll be a lot of people working on this. Yes, a lot of people. They’re about to create some jobs, I suspect. Right. So yes, and the economic activity around it all and the athletes that are going to come here, not just for the games, but, you know, especially I think in the case of canoe slalom for months and years in advance, there’s definitely going to be a lot swirling around…I think that’s probably a better question for an economic analyst who we will probably consult in the next four years. We definitely see obviously, as you can imagine, a lot of significant economic benefit which will result in growth and jobs. And we’d like to think new businesses, but, you know, I think we haven’t really done that research yet to say that with any sort of documentation behind it.

TERESA ROSE: I would just add from the Chamber’s perspective, as an economic development organization, those things very often happen organically. I think as we have seen with the film industry, with other industries within our city and state entrepreneurs or within our populace, and it’s going to I think the answer to your question is going to be unforeseen at this time. So it’ll be interesting to go back in five years and see what businesses were started by people here.

What would say to athletes that are worried they’re going to be missing out on the Olympic experience?

DAVID HOLT: I think all we can say is we will prove to you as an athlete that this is going to be a very special experience and maybe it’s going to take the experience itself for everyone to see that. But when it comes to these two sports, and especially softball, you know, this city is going to be electric in the summer of 2028.

TERESA ROSE: Well, and also, just to be clear, this is the LA28 Olympics, and so we will be working in very close partnership with LA28 on creating the environment. This isn’t, we’re not, we’re not over on an island. These athletes that are going to be competing here are separate from the LA experience, the cultural, experience, the expectation we will be sharing with LA 28. So, I’m anticipating that it’s not going to be too far off.

Do you have a sense of the LA City Council’s timeline on voting?

DAVID HOLT: I definitely, I don’t even want to speculate about my own council, much less the LA City Council. So I do know, though, and I alluded to this in my comments, it looks like we’re looking at a couple of months in terms of the timing. But yeah, beyond that, I’d refer any questions about their thought process or reactions probably to LA28.

Do you foresee any infrastructure development or changes in or around the city to meet the need of Olympic events?

DAVID HOLT: Great question. I mean, I think it’s a little early and I also think we have to be realistic about how much one can accomplish in four years. You know, I think we’ll definitely I mean, one thought that comes to mind is, you know, we’re going to want to deliver these venues at at their highest level; and so there’ll be some enhancements there. But I mean, there’s things we could imagine that we’re already kind of working on that we wish might be around in 2028, but we may or may not be able to deliver; and that’s okay. You know, I mean, we will, we could have this next month other than the incredible planning that we need to go into it if we had to…that I can’t think of any specific like major infrastructure thing that will that we’ll want to try to pursue in the next four years because realistically, those types of projects take even longer than that to plan and execute.

ODOT Executive Director Tim Gatz told News 4 he hadn’t heard about the Olympics announcement until Friday. Can you speak to how important that partnership will be playing out the next four years, especially with major construction projects in the works?

DAVID HOLT: Yeah, fortunately we have such a great relationship. [City Manager] Craig Freeman and his team, our public works team with Secretary Gatz. And yeah, we’ll remain in close communication for sure, and I know it looks like you know it kind of makes me think of your question. I’m going to go I mean, like two days after the {Olympics} announcement, U.S. Department of Transportation announces a pedestrian bridge that’s going to take you right to the Whitewater course. I promise that wasn’t planned….Even building that, you know, in the next four years is unlikely. So, you know, we’ll definitely want to work with them to make sure that to the best he can, you know, we’re all accommodating this major influx of people that we would expect to have for this.

Does Oklahoma City have the hotel accommodations to support crowds for the Olympics?

TERESA ROSE: We anticipate that our hotel accommodations will be able to handle it because we have a pretty good idea of the number of tickets, we know, the number of athletes, and so we’re going to be working with all of our hotel partners to make sure that we do have the space to accommodate all of the visitors.

DAVID HOLT: It’s maybe worth noting that the size of the softball tournament is relatively similar to the size of the women’s college World Series. We kind of actually sort of have a knowledge base of that experience. Obviously, we’re adding on to that a canoe slalom event, and then I think what we don’t know, and maybe nobody really knows because it’s a little unprecedented, is how many people will just kind of come to the city to experience this.

Was there any consideration, that was not disclosed to the public, behind a special election coming up to raise the hotel tax and potentially having Olympic events in OKC?

DAVID HOLT: Certainly this is, as we’ve already established, the biggest event that there is; and so, you know, any hotel tax that’s in place you know, has components of it that go to support big events. That is the biggest event that there is so certainly that will assist. It will also do all the other things that we’ve talked about.

Could the proposed hotel tax come into play with the Olympics on assisting with the costs?

DAVID HOLT: Our current structure for the hotel tax does support events, and so certainly this would absolutely, yeah. It’s important that you know, that people understand there’s 50 other things about hotel tax related to the tourism industry it’s also going to do; It’s a great reminder that big events that we want to have in Oklahoma City, whether they’re sports or otherwise, oftentimes expect some sort of support from the local community. It’s very valuable to have as much to maximize that as best we can for events like this; and certainly it will help contribute to our ability to do this.

Are there any concerns about setting unrealistic expectations for Oklahomans if LA city leaders deny the change?

DAVID HOLT: It is what it is. There’s no way obviously that this could have been delivered to Oklahoma City without all the you know, with all the votes already being complete. You know, I mean, because it’s a public process, just like it would be here, you know. So, their agendas had to go out there, their notices for their LA city council had to go out. So, it was time for everybody here to know. But we’ve been very clear that this, you know, still was subject at least partially to a vote of the LA City Council.

Holt and Rose said no other questions would be taken until LA city leaders decided one way or the other.

News 4 sat down with Oklahoma Department of Transportation Executive Director Tim Gatz Wednesday ahead of the Thursday press conference for clarity on his department’s role.

“It’s absolutely a big deal,” said Gatz of the Olympics announcement. “You don’t have the ability to attract events like this and even be in the conversation without making some of the investments [Oklahoma City has] in the community.”

News 4 asked Gatz about improvements drivers can expect in the Oklahoma City-area in the lead up to 2028.

Gatz noted the work going on along I-44 over the 15th street bridge.

“We’ve got a bridge project that’s coming up, that’s a rehab, and it’s going to replace the bridge joints similar to what we did out here on I-35,” said Gatz. “The Mathis Brothers [area] interchange we’ve got some work that’s going to need to go on there. The first phase of that’s probably going to be to rehabilitate one of the I-40 bridges that are over I-40 for right now.”

Gatz highlighted one big project in particular at the Douglas interchange on I-40 near the Tinker Air Force Base.

“That work will be long completed by the time we get [to 2028]. So all that’ll be cleaned up,” said Gatz. “We’ll have a good solid six lanes of I-40 all the way to the turnpike.”

Gatz clarified what some may perceive as a lack of communication between ODOT and city leaders about the potential Olympic events, given constant big projects around the area.

“That’s not a lack of coordination or communication with the City of Oklahoma City because they’re operating under some very strict guidelines, I’m sure,” said Gatz. “We’ve got plenty of lead time. That gives us plenty of coordination time to work with the city and make sure that we’re not starting a big project.”

Gatz expects communication to be paramount following an announcement that the U.S. Department of Transportation is investing more than $17 million into a project to build a multi-model bridge west of the southbound I-35 bridge. The project will connect both sides of the Oklahoma River Trail system, but is estimated to start in 2028.

Gatz said that he doesn’t believe Oklahoma would have received the grant without Oklahoma City’s partnership; but that hard conversation will need to be had about timing.

“Can we get a project ready fast enough and accelerate the work that’s going on down there to beat that Olympic event and those decisions or something,” Gatz asked.

Gatz said that ODOT will likely have to take a pretty hard look, especially since the project would run right in the middle of the river complex and river sports area.

“We’ll be very mindful of that,” said Gatz. “The city is going to have to give us good guidance, you know, kind of on what their scheduling anticipation looks like and what their coordination concerns are.”

When asked if Gatz anticipates any construction project delays that could impact any events he said it was just an exercise in managing the infrastructure and making good decisions.

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