Significant headwinds

Tim McOsker's face nearly matched the burgundy curtains behind him. He had taken the floor at Van Nuys City Hall last Friday, just before his fellow Los Angeles councilmembers voted to approve the venue plan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But according to McOsker, LA28 had made one grievous error. Sailing, which was slated for the city of Long Beach, should have been slated for the LA city neighborhood of San Pedro, in his district. Now, he said, LA28 officials had to fix what he called "a mistake." And he was furious.

"Show your work! We've seen nothing! Absolutely nothing!" McOsker yelled. "Instead of some backroom and a couple of bros making this decision somewhere, let's do something for the sport."

McOsker's rant — I've cued up the video here, and it's definitely worth watching — was notable for more than just its volume. It represented a major shift in LA's megaevent stance. On Friday we saw the first serious challenge of LA28's venue plan, which had gone largely uncontested by LA city leaders. And we saw an LA city councilmember openly accuse LA28 of making backroom deals to create that venue plan. (The bros assessment, I think everyone would agree, is more or less correct.)

As Torched readers know, even though LA28 made venue announcement after venue announcement last year — Oklahoma City??? — nothing was final until LA's elected officials voted to release a dozen events from city limits. That vote finally happened on Friday. Council approved all the venues but one, per McOsker's adopted amendment; the plan must now be "amended to change the location of sailing." In LA28's big venue plan update that went out later that day, references to sailing were scrubbed, even though sailing was listed on previous ones.

For the past year, LA's councilmembers have questioned, repeatedly — although not with McOsker's passion — why so many events are moving out of the city. For the past year, LA28 representatives have claimed, repeatedly, that events needed to be hosted at permanent venues outside of the city of LA due to "greater cost certainty and reduced financial risk." That reasoning makes a lot of sense in some aspects: the most popular sports should be moved to the venue that will most guarantee a profit, no matter where they are, in order for LA28 to sell more tickets. And LA absolutely needs the games to be profitable, as noted at last week's ad hoc Olympics and Paralympics committee (which had, for some reason, not met for NINE MONTHS). Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who now chairs the committee, opened with a reminder that, should the games go over budget for any reason, the city is on the hook for the first $270 million, then the state covers the next $270 million, then any additional overage goes back once again to the city. "We absolutely can't afford that under any circumstance," he said. "We can't even afford half of that."

But it's a dilemma for an LA city council with a busted budget that's desperate to raise revenue as we recover from a major disaster — every event that leaves LA looks like a missed opportunity for a city facing, as Harris-Dawson noted, significant headwinds, economic and otherwise.

LA28's final argument to the city didn't seem to grasp the gravity of the moment. Fresh from his IOC conclave appearance, CEO Reynold Hoover joined COO John Harper at the ad hoc committee and tried to say that because 2028 will be so much bigger than 1984 — double, by some estimates — they can't possibly put all the sports inside the city of LA. McOsker was particularly skeptical of this argument. "They will say, oh, this is an Olympics where we have so many more events in Los Angeles than we had in '84," he said. "I don't care. That's your arguing point. That's not my arguing point." But he's right. Comparing 2028 to 1984 makes no sense. What matters are the promises made to us, the host city, in this bid. And LA28 has said the entire time that LA city would get the majority of events. Now, per the report LA28 made to council, only 44 percent of sports will be in the city of LA.

Sailing was moved out of the city early on. In the original bid, sailing was slotted for San Pedro, described as a "popular tourism destination consisting of a public promenade and walking paths, acres of open space and scenic views." But after LA won the games, Olympics organizers relocated sailing to Long Beach's Belmont Pier. The reason given: the winds had literally shifted. In 2017, McOsker's predecessor, Joe Buscaino, promised an "aggressive and persistent lobbying effort" to bring sailing back to San Pedro. (Buscaino is now a managing partner of a lobbying firm that represents LA28 — who's making the backroom deals now?) But even LA28 seemed to be having second thoughts lately, according to McOsker, who said the organizing committee approached the Port of LA as recently as last November to conduct another wind analysis. San Pedro checks a lot of other boxes that would make it better choice, McOsker said, like capacity for more spectators and the ability to use existing port amenities. But two sailing experts I spoke with said Long Beach was clearly the better venue — it's home to the U.S. Sailing Center, an Olympics training facility, which the IOC tends to favor — and they can't imagine this move being approved. As one told me: "If you're coming to LA for a regatta you're doing it in Long Beach. That's the world-class facility with the organization, culture, and infrastructure."

As we wait to see which way the wind blows for this particular decision, the other venue moves finalized Friday were not as contentious. The Valley's Sepulveda Basin sportsplex adds pentathlon and 3x3 basketball, but archery is now moving to Carson. And BMO Stadium, which hadn't had any sports assigned to it yet, will now get flag football and lacrosse. Pasadena also officially signed its games agreement for soccer finals at the Rose Bowl, but soccer qualifying matches are leaving the state for yet-to-be-announced venues. (This wasn't a surprise, and also how it worked in 1984.) And there are many sport venues that are still not finalized, including squash, cricket, and baseball. Boxing was only officially added to the lineup earlier this month. Because these sports were added to the roster more recently, they will not require a council vote to approve a location outside the city of LA.

Honestly, I thought the biggest fuss about the venue plan would come from Councilmember Traci Park, who held the ad hoc committee chair position until she stepped down to focus on fire recovery in January. But on Friday she did hint she might still be putting up a fight: "We are giving away sports to other places and other communities that were born right here in the city of Los Angeles that have deep cultural ties to our neighborhoods and our communities: surfing, skateboarding, volleyball." Skateboarding is going to be in the Sepulveda Basin, so not sure what she meant there. Surfing has been narrowed to two possibilities: Lower Trestles or the Huntington Beach Pier. But maybe she's hoping to take beach volleyball from still-undecided Santa Monica. I would have loved to hear more about any of these topics at the ad hoc committee meetings that Park didn't convene for the entire second half of 2024.

As an extra layer of insurance, the council also ordered LA28 to conduct an independent economic impact report — which should have been done years ago? — including the proposed venue changes "as well as larger financial considerations such as the impact of costs for security and transportation should the federal government not fund these elements." Kind of an important detail! If this report had already been commissioned, as city analysts recommended in November, it would have been finished by now and councilmembers could have seen all the math McOsker was demanding out in the open before voting on the venue plan. But at this point, any insights gleaned from such analysis won't fundamentally change LA's fate. This report is due on June 30. The finalized venue plan will be presented to the IOC by April 9. 🔥