On Wednesday, The Bill Simmons Podcast on The Ringer.com published an episode where Casey Wasserman, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics chairman, was interviewed. In this episode, Wasserman discussed many logistics surrounding LA28, which is set to take place in four years.
On the podcast, Wasserman said that LA28 has more contracted revenue than what the upcoming Paris 2024 games are expected to generate. He confirmed that the Games will need to generate $6.8 billion to break even and that 85% of that total budget will be spent within the last 18 months before the competition starts. Within that budget is a $615.8 million contingency.
“You better know what you’re about to spend because you don’t have time to course-correct if you go over budget,” Wasserman said of the 18-month spending plan. “Once you start, you kind of have to finish because [on] July 14, 2028, that Torch is showing up at Sofi [Stadium] whether we like it or not.”
Per Wasserman, American universities, private donors, sponsorships, and philanthropy will back the funding for the Games, and it will not receive funds from the public. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Omega, Airbnb, Samsung, P&G, Visa, Delta, and Hershey are already partnered with LA28.
The Games has a domestic sponsorship revenue goal of $2.5 billion, and as of July 2023, it has achieved 35% of that total. By comparison, the Paris 2024 budget was 4.397 billion euros ($4.811). It also has a target amount of 1.24 billion euros set for sponsorship revenue, with 97% of that goal being reached by the end of 2022.
“It’s like the operational equivalent of seven Super Bowls a day for 30 days,” Wasserman said of LA28.
Wasserman also confirmed the location of several events to be held at LA28. Most notably, he said that Sofi Stadium (home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Charles) will be used for another event in addition to the opening ceremony. Other sports locations he explicitly mentioned include:
- Basketball: Likely to take place in Intuit Dome (the home of the Los Angeles Clippers), as confirmed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Previously, the Crypto.com Arena (home of the Los Angeles Lakers) was a proposed menu.
- Surfing: Either Hungtington or Trestles Beach (a location that Wasserman said had a lot of “operational complexities” due to a lack of parking space)
- Golf: At the Riviera Country Club
- Soccer: The semi-finals and finals will “likely” take place in the Rose Bowl Stadium. Meanwhile, Wasserman suggested that several Major League Soccer arena will host the preliminary matches.
- Tennis: The 10,000-seat tennis stadium in the Dignity Health Sports Park
- Cycling: The 3,000-seat velodrome in the Dignity Health Sports Park
- Track and Field: Inside the Las Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just like at the 1984 LA Olympics. Wasserman said that a temporary track will be the most expensive thing that will be built at the games, as the original track in the Coliseum was taken out after the 1994 Northridge earthquake – a testament to the organizers’ promise to use as many existing venues as possible.
Swimming will operate in a temporary pool at Dedeaux Field, the home to USC’s baseball team.
The upcoming Paris Games will be the only opportunity for Wasserman’s team to witness a summer Olympics in person, as the Tokyo Olympics were held amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Los Angeles was named the host city of the 2028 Olympics in 2017, a year after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
“They’re doing things differently, the city is different, it’s a government entity that delivers the games,” Wasserman said of Paris 2024. “But having said that, the scale they operate is close to ours. The complexity of a big city, the complexity of politics, the complexity of being respectful to residents, and all the things that exist and have to continue to exist while the games are going on and to make the games an incredible experience and a positive experience. So there’s a lot to learn operationally.”