On March 28th, the Los Angeles City Council approved several changes to the 2028 Olympic plan originally proposed by Team LA28 last June.
Among the changes approved was the relocation of swimming outside the city of Los Angeles, moving it instead to Inglewood, where it will take place at SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams. SoFi Stadium, the nation’s newest and most advanced pro sports stadium, will become the largest swimming venue in Olympic history, with 38,000 seats.
“The City of Los Angeles has been an incredible partner throughout this intricate process, led by the efforts of Mayor Bass, Council President Harris-Dawson, and Executive Director Krekorian, to finalize the 2028 Games Plan,” said LA28 Chief Executive Officer, Reynold Hoover in a press release. “Los Angeles will host an incredible lineup of sports including some of the most popular, dynamic and newest events which are unique to LA28 and will be played across the city, including in the Valley, for the first time in Olympic history.”
“This venue plan sets the stage for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to engage every part of our city like no Games in history,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “The changes approved by the City Council will improve the financial plan for the Games and help us ensure that LA28 will leave a lasting legacy and turn a profit for the people of Los Angeles — as did our 1932 and 1984 Games. I applaud the City Council for their approval of this plan, and I thank the organizing committee for their continuing hard work to make sure the 2028 Games will make all of America proud as we welcome and inspire the world.”
SwimSwam covered the announcement in June regarding SoFi being selected as the swimming natatorium, but it wasn’t official until the Los Angeles City Council approved the relocation of swimming events outside the city.
Prior to the June announcement, LA28 originally planned to host swimming in a temporary venue at Dedeaux Field, the home of the USC baseball team. However, plans changed following the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, which took place inside Lucas Oil Stadium — the home of the Indianapolis Colts.
Here’s what the stadium is planned to look like for the 2028 swimming events:
In addition to approving swimming’s relocation, the council also approved two new sports to be held within the city – Flag Football, which will make its Olympic debut in 2028, and Lacrosse, which will return as an Olympic medal sport for the first time in over a century. LA28 will use the Stadium in Exposition Park, next to the LA Memorial Coliseum, for Flag Football and Lacrosse.
All of the following sports were also approved for relocation outside the city of Los Angeles:
- Olympic Swimming
- Paralympic Swimming
- Olympic Artistic Swimming
- Olympic Basketball
- Olympic Canoe Slalom
- Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian
- Olympic Football Preliminaries
- Paralympic Sitting Volleyball
- Olympic and Paralympic Shooting
Some other notable approvals by the Los Angeles City Council:
- Softball and Canoe Slalom were approved to take place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma rather than in Los Angeles. This is because, according to LA28, there are no suitable canoe slalom venues on the west coast, while the largest softball venue in Los Angeles seats less than 2,000 people. Notably, Oklahoma City is home to the USA Softball Hall Of Fame stadium, which seats 13,000 and hosts the Women’s College Softball World Series annually.
- Olympic and Paralympic Archery were moved to the city of Carson, an LA28 Venue City, maximizing use of an existing facility that will also host Track Cycling, Hockey, Rugby Sevens and Tennis.
- The Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area in the San Fernando Valley was approved to host BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Modern Pentathlon, Skateboarding, and 3×3 Basketball.
As a lifelong swim fan and an LA resident, I was so excited to host the Olympics and watch the swimming in particular. But who in their right mind would travel to the US from overseas at this point? Canadians and Europeans have been canceling all their US vacation plans and their countries have issued travel advisories as ICE has been picking up tourists and throwing them into detention camps.
This time swimming is on the second week switching positions with track and field
Presumably starting the middle Friday or Saturday and ending the last Saturday
What about the 50s? When the f are we going to get that approval?
Hmmm, I’m not exactly a fan, others already complain swimming has so many medals. But if 50s, the mixed medly relay definitely has to go.
We don’t want the 50s
That probably means the 50s aren’t added.
Which is a good thing
How far is the athlete accommodation to Sofi Stadium?
And how long is the trip considering LA traffic jam?
Village is at UCLA right?…SoFi is not too far away
The athletes village is planned for UCLA. SoFi is out by LAX about 13 miles away. Fairly straight shot down the 405 and west of downtown LA when traveling route
33 minutes at 9pm. Add another 20 minutes from 3-7pm.
Or an hour if there is an accident
Damn. As a USC alum I was rooting for Dedeaux Field. Maybe I could have snuck in there, just like 1984 as a recent alum when a ticket taker girl I knew from USC was letting me in every day at the McDonald’s Swim Stadium, which was on the site of our old intramural field.
Every day she would tell me to pretend to use the porta pits then circle around back into the stands. Gad was that easy. Only one time did anyone get suspicious. That was final day with Greg Louganis diving. I pretended not to hear the security guard and dashed up the metal bleachers to a high row.
YOU are sooooooooooo bad — congrats! Cleverness needs rewards, too!
Is it that hard to make a decent softball stadium?
A 13,000 seat softball stadium could be $30-$50 million to build. I don’t know what the cost of a fully temporary stadium would be.
Putting it in Oklahoma just about guarantees it will sell out, at least for Team USA games. They love softball there.
It makes sense in so many ways, but it still seems strange that an event for the LA28 games will be held two time zones away in a part of the country that in no way resembles LA.
It is fairly common to have Olympic events outside of the host city (and going forward, I think more-and-more places will view this as a model rather than an anomaly). Paris had surfing in Tahiti, Brazil had events in Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasilia, and Manaus (soccer).
Tokyo also had events in Sapporo, Yokohama, and Sendai. London had events in Swanley, Dorney, Hadleigh, Waltham Cross, and Isle of Portland.
I know it happens. It’s not that there are events outside of Los Angeles that I find amusing. It’s that there are events outside of California. Phoenix and Vegas wouldn’t have amused me that much. But Oklahoma City. The particular event makes sense for the reasons you outlined. I’m just imagining the athletes looking forward to competing in LA with Hollywood, the beach, and Disney in the background, and softball gets to go to Oklahoma.
lol, I know it would never have happened, but if the brissy Olympic pool plan hadn’t just been announced, I would hilariously have in the back of my mind… oh no, this the pool the states is showcasing, and then next in comparison, we are gonna host swimming at chandler, 4000 capacity half a century old shallow pool😂😂😭👌🏻
Chandler would have been an absolute disaster. It ran out of parking just for trials even though trials didn’t even sell out.
New NAC is going to be so much better.