SportsTravel

LA28: Updates on Five Major Areas of Focus, Two Years Before the Flame is Lit

Venues, public transportation and more will define the success or failure of the next Olympic Summer Games

Last month, just days after hosting its eighth and final FIFA World Cup match, Los Angeles marked the official two-year countdown to hosting an even bigger global spectacle: the 2028 Olympic Summer Games.

This week, another important part of the massive preparation for those Games takes place, as the second LA28 Ticket Drop runs from August 10 through August 20. Those interested in buying tickets must have registered by July 22 for a chance to be randomly selected for a time slot in Drop 2.

More than four million tickets have already been sold, and 14 million tickets in total will be available to the Olympic and Paralympic Games that summer. That puts the existing record of 12.1 million tickets sold to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games well within reach.

The 2028 Games will be historic in other ways too: it will allocate more Olympic quota spots to female athletes than male, debut two new sports (flag football and squash), and it will not require the building of any new permanent infrastructure for the first time since the 1948 Games in London.

With less than two years remaining until the Games begin on July 14, 2028 and two years this week until the Paralympics start on August 15, 2028, organizers are optimistic that they will achieve their lofty goal of producing a record-setting Games

“We’re exactly where we should be and where we want to be,” LA28 Chief Operating Officer John Harper told ABC7 Los Angeles. “We’re in the middle of our operational planning, and we couldn’t be more excited for the next two years.”

As that deadline nears, SportsTravel investigates what lies ahead for LA28’s preparation in five key areas.

Venues

The 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games will only utilize existing or temporary infrastructure, so no new permanent venues are being constructed. The LA28 Games Plan sets out the 25 “Zones” in which each of the 800+ competition events across 36 Olympic and 23 Paralympic sports will be staged.

Among the most notable existing sites will be 2028 Stadium (also known as SoFi Stadium) and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which together will co-host a unique Opening Ceremony on July 14, 2028. More details will be confirmed in due course.

The Coliseum will be the first stadium to hold events across three Olympic Games (following the 1932 and 1984 editions), and it will also host the Closing Ceremony on July 30.

The 2028 Stadium in Inglewood, normally home to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, will also host swimming competitions at LA28. It staged eight FIFA World Cup matches this summer, including a quarterfinal on July 10.

During the World Cup, Los Angeles hosted a FIFA Fan Festival and five official World Cup 26 Fan Zones, which had welcomed more than 215,000 fans even before the semifinals. A spokesperson for SoFi Stadium also confirmed that people from 200 countries had purchased tickets to World Cup matches in Los Angeles, and thousands of residents and visitors participated in 300+ community events across the region during the tournament.

Public Transportation

Sports fans will be able to travel between LA28 venues in a multitude of ways, although planners and LA28 organizers are pledging a “greener, lower-emission Olympic and Paralympic Games” without cars.

Public transit will be expanded, with more Los Angeles Metro rail and bus lines serving to transport travelers across the region. Dedicated venue-specific shuttles will run between major transportation hubs and rail stations, and park-and-ride lots will allow drivers to park outside congested zones and transfer to transit or shuttles.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup served as something of a warm-up for LA28 preparations. It saw the introduction of the LA Metro’s Games Enhanced Bus Service, which provided 186,000 rides for the seven matches at Los Angeles Stadium, to transfer fans safely and quickly to avoid peak congestion.

Two new transport modes will come into force in 2028.

The Games have partnered with Archer Activation to offer 10- to 20-minute eVTOL electric air taxi (including electrical vertical takeoff and landing) flights between LAX, Santa Monica, and other venues.

Separately, Harbour Breeze Cruises, Hornblower Yachts and SF Prop have submitted proposals to LA Metro to operate shuttle boats connecting Long Beach and San Pedro. Transport options could vary from conventional diesel boats accommodating 75 passengers to large hybrid-electric ferries for as many as 350 passengers, while costing around $4 and being integrated within Los Angeles’ TAP card.

Finally, walking and cycling routes will be emphasized and incentivized around venue perimeters to further ease road congestion and reduce reliance on public transit during the Games.

National Governing Bodies

For national governing bodies in the United States, the goals are clear: to win as many medals as possible, inspire future generations, and put strong foundations in place for the following Olympic Games in Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.

“USA Track & Field’s goal is to win the most medals in history at the LA 2028 Games,” said USA Track & Field CEO Max Siegel. “The work needed to accomplish that goal is well underway. We have increased our investment in high-performance programs, including especially initiatives that directly impact athlete preparedness. We have also worked to create new domestic competition opportunities for athletes to achieve world rankings without having to travel overseas.”

USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews said his NGB is “treating these two years as one long runway, not a countdown.” Since 2022, Andrews noted, USA Fencing has grown to 85,000 members, “and our job now is to convert Olympic attention into lasting participation. That means meeting people where they are.”

To that end, in September USA Fencing is staging a Creator & Celebrity Fencing Showdown at The Seaport in New York that will put swords in the hands of creators with a combined audience in the hundreds of millions. The NGB will also be making community stops across the U.S. in the run-up to LA28.

Although the delivery of an Olympic Games might mark the finish line in terms of preparations, a lot of structural work still has to be done in the next two years. Federations and organizers will prepare qualification pathway events, athlete support, broadcast and content plans, and fan experience enhancements before the main competitions even get underway.

“The lesson is that the event has to live beyond the ticketholder,” he said. “For a sport like fencing, that’s the opportunity: most of the people who fall in love with our sport in 2028 will never hold a ticket to the venue. We have to bring fencing to them.”

From a legacy standpoint, LA28 and the City of Los Angeles partnered through youth sports initiative PlayLA, which has received approximately $160 million in investment from LA28 and the IOC. The program is designed to provide low-cost and free sports opportunities to children across Los Angeles while growing adaptive sports access for youth with disabilities, emphasizing how these Games can create opportunities for everyone and all future generations.

Hospitality Packages

On Location is the only authorized hospitality provider for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Its ticket-inclusive hospitality packages provide official Olympic Games tickets, hotel add-on opportunities, tailored food and beverage offerings, priority entry to venues, access to official private suites and in-venue hospitality lounges, and on-site guest support.

Packages will come in different tiers, ranging from the Leisure Tier (with entry-level hosted hospitality) to Premium Tier, Signature and Signature+ Tiers (shared lounges, private suites, athlete meet-and-greets), and Platinum Access (bespoke multi-day or multi-sport itineraries).

Hotels are already advertising for LA28, even if visitors cannot yet book their stays during the Games. However, LA28 currently does not have an official hotel accommodation partner, and short-term rental platform Airbnb has been the worldwide unique accommodations partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2017.

Amidst an accommodation shortage in the region, Airbnb will serve athletes, coaches, staff, and fans during the Games, supporting their individual needs, while not contributing more infrastructural burden to the city.

According to a Deloitte report commissioned by Airbnb, total visitor demand will exceed available traditional hotel capacity on 13 of the 19 competition days, leaving 320,000 visitors scrambling for lodging on peak days. The same report estimates that STRs in Los Angeles and Orange counties can accommodate 102,600 people each day, and the World Cup indicated how many new hosts in the region joined the platform during the World Cup.

“The FIFA World Cup is the biggest hosting event in Airbnb’s history,” said an Airbnb spokesperson. “Over 100,000 homes have been listed on Airbnb for the first time. For LA28, there’s a big opportunity for local residents to benefit from the influx of visitors.

“Deloitte estimated that LA-area hosts renting out their space during the World Cup could earn thousands. That’s meaningful extra income when living costs are high, and it points to the kind of benefit L.A. residents could see again during the Olympics.”

Volunteer Program

In addition to selling more than four million tickets and surpassing $2 billion in TOP sponsorship revenue, more than 300,000 prospective volunteers have registered for the Games.

LA28 organizers recently opened applications for fans worldwide to apply to become one of the 60,000 volunteers making up the Volunteer Crew for the Games. Leading the charge is Carl Lewis, who won four gold medals at the 1984 Games in L.A. and has been named an Official Ambassador of the LA28 Volunteer Program, in partnership with Delta.

Volunteers will be supporting Olympic events, not just in Los Angeles but also in Oklahoma City (which will host softball and canoe slalom) as well as New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San José and San Diego, each of which will host soccer matches.

Applicants can express their interest in any of the eight categories available, including communications, driving, experience, medical, Ceremonies, operations, sport and technology. Other roles, such as medicine and language translation, will require applicants to have more specialized skills.

Meanwhile, L.A. Works, a marketplace connecting Angelenos with non-profit and community-based service projects, will continue to expand community volunteering opportunities ahead of LA28.

To celebrate the two-year milestone, LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover joined Lewis, 1984 Olympic Games volunteer Paul Madwin, Delta Air Lines representatives and LA28 community volunteers for a beautification event at Griffith Park, which will host the cycling road races at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The event took place alongside Friends of Griffith Park, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the park for future generations.

The LA28 Games-time volunteer portal provides additional information about the volunteer process, including eligibility requirements.