One of the goals of the committee was to leverage existing stadiums to reduce costs.
While the 2024 Summer Olympics will take place entirely in either Paris or surrounding cities, the 2028 Summer Olympics will be a bit more spread out in terms of venue location. The 2028 Games will be held in Los Angeles, for the most part, although the International Olympic Committee announced that some events will not only be held outside of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, but also held entirely outside of the state of California.
The committee announced on June 21 that softball and canoe slalom will take place in Oklahoma City, which is roughly 1,300 miles east of Los Angeles. The types of venues that these sports are played in either don’t exist in Los Angeles, in the case of canoe slalom, or, for softball, aren’t up to seating capacity standards.
There are no canoe slalom venues in Southern California or anywhere in the western United States, necessitating the move to Oklahoma City. Riversport OKC, which hosted the 2024 Olympic trials for canoe slalom in April, will host the event at the 2028 Games. That venue has also hosted trials for rowing and kayaking for both this year’s Olympic Games and the 2024 Paralympic Games.
While the Los Angeles area has plenty of softball stadiums, none of them can seat more than 2,000 people, and the softball events in 2028 are expected to far exceed that capacity. Thus, softball will be contested at the home of the Women’s College World Series at Devon Park—a softball-specific stadium that seats 13,000.
Casey Wasserman, chairman and president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, said one of the goals of the committee was to leverage existing stadiums to reduce costs.
“LA28’s updated venue plan will provide the ideal Hollywood stage for the world’s top athletes, and choosing from spectacular, existing venues, wherever they are, rather than building new permanent or temporary stadiums, achieves more than USD 150 million in savings and new revenue to help maintain a balanced budget,” Mr. Wasserman said. “We look forward to partnering with these venues, and their experienced operators and workforce, to deliver an unparalleled experience for athletes and fans in 2028.”
