LA28 to study Los Angeles World Cup matches as Olympic test case, CEO says
LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover and LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman pose following a press conference updating progress on the 2028 Olympic Games, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 4, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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LOS ANGELES, June 4 : Los Angeles Olympic organizers will use the city’s 2026 World Cup matches as a key learning opportunity for transport, security and crowd movement as they prepare to stage the 2028 Games, LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover told Reuters.
The World Cup will bring eight matches to Los Angeles, with games at SoFi Stadium, offering Olympic planners a live test of how the region handles a major global sporting event before the much larger Olympics and Paralympics arrive two years later.
“It gives us an opportunity to look at transportation, it gives us an opportunity to look at security, it gives us an opportunity to look at how are they moving fans around,” Hoover said in an interview on Thursday.
“For us, we can take that and then scale it,” he added, noting that LA28 will involve 50 competition venues and about 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
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Hoover said the organizing committee has developed a strong relationship with FIFA and expects lessons from the soccer tournament to feed directly into Olympic planning.
EXCITEMENT BUILDING TOWARD LA OLYMPICS
The comments came following three days of meetings between LA28 and the International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission in Los Angeles to review preparations.
Hoover said the IOC examined operations, venues, delivery models, community engagement, the torch relay, economic impact and sustainability.
“The level of excitement is electric,” Hoover said. “To have the IOC here with us … and hear the results of where they assess that we are makes me even more confident that we’re going to deliver a Games like none other.”
NO PLAYBOOK FOR MASSIVE LA GAMES
He said the greatest challenge remains the sheer size and complexity of the event.
The LA Games will be the largest ever in terms of programming, featuring 36 sports spanning over 800 events.
“No one has done an Olympics to this size, to this scale and this scope,” Hoover said. “There’s no book that we can go to.”
Organizers are drawing on experience from recent and future hosts, including Paris 2024, Milano Cortina 2026, Brisbane 2032 and Utah 2034, he said.
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND TICKET DROPS
Several planning milestones are approaching. National Olympic Committees are due in Los Angeles next month to inspect venues, the Olympic Village, accommodation plans and arrival operations at LAX.
Broadcasters and media representatives are also expected to visit as organizers refine plans for global coverage.
Hoover said the next Olympic ticket release is scheduled for August, after what he described as record-breaking initial demand. Paralympic tickets, the mascot, torch design and torch relay details are expected in 2027.
The torch relay will visit all 50 U.S. states over 100 days, beginning in April 2028 and ending in Los Angeles on July 14, 2028, the day of the Olympic opening ceremony.
Source: Reuters
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