Report: Los Angeles close to hosting 2028 Olympics

The City of Angels is getting closer and closer to hosting another summer Olympics.

According to Matthew Futterman and The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee is “progressing toward an agreement“ where Paris would host the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Los Angeles would host the games four years later in 2028.

The IOC announced earlier this month that the executive board would meet on June 9 to discuss setting the host cities for both 2024 and 2028 at the same time, as opposed to awarding each set of games seven years away. The 2024 host is scheduled to be determined on September 13 in a member vote in Lima, Peru, so that could become a double vote.

Los Angeles, which joined the race for the 2024 games when Boston withdrew after backlash from the local community, has insisted they are focused just on 2024; a sentiment shared by Paris. The Wall Street Journal does say that the IOC is more willing to give Paris the 2024 games and make LA wait four more years because Paris’ bid relies on funding from the government that may not be given in 2028, while a good amount of LA’s is privately funded or the infrastructure is (or will be) already built.

In addition, the WSJ report says the IOC is willing to make it worth the wait for LA, with concessions such as financial assistance from the IOC as well as funding for youth sports programs in the city being awarded along with the games, if this is the route the IOC will go.

Now, if LA is to host the Olympics in the Summer of 2028, it is also appearing more and more likely that Los Angeles Football Club will host some soccer matches at Banc of California stadium. As Angels on Parade wrote in November, the official “LA 2024” campaign released a video where LAFC’s home would be hosting preliminary soccer matches in the Olympics and Paralympics, as opposed to the idea from the original bid that had the stadium being changed to an aquatics center.

Other venues named at the time were the Rose Bowl, which could be for knockout rounds or even the finals, and the LA Galaxy’s StubHub Center, which was named as a four-sport venue, including soccer.

If the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028, it will have been 26 years since the Olympics were in the U.S. (Salt Lake City Winter 2002); 32 years since the Summer Games were last in America (1996 Atlanta); and 44 since they were held in Los Angeles. A 2024 Paris Olympics would come on the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Paris Games. LA and Paris are the last two possible hosts for the 2024 games after Budapest, Hamburg, and Rome all withdrew.

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