Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass waves the Olympic flag as International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach applauds during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Paris, France on August 11, 2024.
Carl Lesine | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
After the success of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the bar has been set high for the next Summer Olympics to be held in Los Angeles in 2028, but key officials with the event say the city is ready.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Tuesday at the CNBC x Boardroom sports business event “The Game Plan” that her concerns are due to “what we have to prepare in the city” for the Olympics in 2028. But she said she believes the city will not only be better off hosting the games, but will also benefit after the games are over, just like it was in 1984, the last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics.
That includes improving public transport: Bass said he wants “no cars on the grounds” and that spectators will use public transport to get to the Olympics. The pledge will require investment in bus and subway infrastructure, as well as working with other cities to rent buses.
Bass said the city is “doing everything we can to eliminate homelessness on the streets,” including building more than 18,000 new housing units for the homeless population.
Bass also said he would talk to Los Angeles companies about work schedules to move employees to work remotely during high-traffic times and explore ways to shift truck deliveries to nighttime, as was done during the 1984 Olympics.
“I think there are ways to organize the area to reduce traffic and make it more manageable,” Bass said.
LA 2028 chairman Casey Wasserman attended the Paris Games and told Ross Sorkin that the event “reminded us of why people fall in love with the Olympics,” and that organizers hope to build on that with the Los Angeles Games.
For the first time in Olympic history, the Los Angeles Games will not build any new permanent venues, but there will be challenges in utilizing all of the city’s landmarks, just as Paris promoted famous sites like the Eiffel Tower as the beach volleyball venue. Wasserman said Los Angeles got a glimpse of this during the Olympic torch handover ceremony, when Tom Cruise scaled the Hollywood sign, replacing the sign’s “OO” with the five Olympic rings. Wasserman noted that this was done with CGI.
“Obviously, that would be a longer, more complicated conversation,” Wasserman said of changing the Hollywood sign for the Olympics, “but I think it’s a really cool opportunity if it could be done.”
Actress Jessica Alba, who sits on the LA 2028 board, said the games would showcase all aspects of Los Angeles culture, from Hollywood to fashion to food, giving the city “a global platform to show off what they have got.”
“Los Angeles is the centerpiece,” Alba said. “I want Los Angeles to remain the centerpiece during the Olympics.”
Disclosure: CNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics, which holds the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Olympic Games through 2032.
