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≡ THE LOS ANGELES FIRES & 2028 ≡
I was born and spent my first 59 years in Los Angeles. The horrific images of fire and devastation from the Palisades Fire are of places I know well and of where friends live, whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.
This unimaginable destruction has come to an area – Southern California – which has paid much more attention to earthquakes than fire. The 1971 San Fernando quake (6.6) killed 65 and the 1994 Northridge quake (6.7) killed 57 and caused as much as $40 billion in damage.
But there is also damage being inflicted by mis-information and dis-information on multiple sides, including about the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Having been a Vice President of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the transformational 1984 Games and been deeply involved in 20 multi-day, multi-site events in my career, there is no doubt in my mind of this:
The devastating 2025 Southern California fires pose no threat to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The most ridiculous commentary I have seen so far is from an Egyptian “investigative journalist” who posted a 10 January story headlined, “LA is burning—should it still host the 2028 Olympics?”
The story goes on to show a list of the 20 largest fires in California history and claim that seven of the top 20 were in July, when the 2028 Games will take place. The list actually shows two, both in Northern California counties from 500-600 miles north of Los Angeles. Maybe he was absent from some math classes, and California geography probably wasn’t a priority subject in Egyptian schools.
This kind of trash has shown up multiple times in multiple places over the last few days, but there are some truths that can be reported about the fires and the 2028 Games. Let’s try this again:
The devastating 2025 Southern California fires pose no threat to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
At least so far. The historically high Santa Ana winds that propelled the Palisades and Eaton fires into storms – 70 to 100 miles per hour in places on 7 January, when the fires exploded – have calmed as this is written on Sunday evening (12th). There is concern about winds increasing to as much as half that speed late Monday (13th) and on Tuesday (14th). By mid-day Wednesday (15th), conditions should resume a more normal shape and the biggest dangers for fire spread will have subsided.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a updated alert, rolling back an evacuation order to an evacuation warning on the eastern edge of the Palisades Fire that was moving toward the Brentwood section of west Los Angeles and nearing the UCLA campus, site of the Olympic Village in 2028. It’s not moving that way at present, and if this week’s winds can be managed, the danger will likely be over.
There are other reasons why any hysteria over the 2028 Games and the Palisades and Eaton Fires is misplaced:
● Not one of the planned venues for the 2028 Games has been directly impacted by the fires. The only one close to the fire area is Riviera Country Club, slated to host golf, which is in the Palisades area. But it has not been hit as yet.
● The reason Los Angeles can host the 2028 Games is its wealth of facilities. If Riviera were to be impacted, there are more than a dozen other championship courses in the area. For the 1984 Games, only three new venues were built, for cycling, swimming and shooting; two are still in use and the third was turned into a multi-venue complex for a half-dozen sports.
For 2028, nothing is being built and for almost every venue, there are others not being used that could be if desired. Even the irreplaceable UCLA Village was one of two villages in 1984: the other was at the University of Southern California and it’s still there.
● By the way, the no. 1-ranked UCLA women’s basketball team was scheduled to play Penn State at Pauley Pavilion on campus on Wednesday. On Sunday, it was announced that the game has been moved to the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State, just in case and in part due to continuing poor area air quality due to the fires. No problem.
● The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a long way off, relative to the impact of the fires. At Riviera Country Club, the focus is not on 2028, but on the annual PGA Tour’s Genesis Open, scheduled for 13-16 February. The PGA Tour said Thursday, “At this point, it is premature to discuss the potential impact on the Genesis Invitational.”
And well prior to 2028, the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Riviera. But no one is talking about that, right?
● The Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, now slated for temporary installations for archery, BMX cycling and skateboarding is in Encino and could be threatened. But the totally temporary nature of the 2028 sports means there is virtually no infrastructure needed, at all.
However, there will be impacts on the 2028 Games from the fires, no doubt. Some of these will include:
● The LA28 organizers will see the costs for insurance for the Games rise significantly (by millions), partly from increased risks, but also because major insurers will be spending billions to pay policy holders from the fires.
● Costs will be added for the organizing committee for fire prevention and readiness for the Games, and local fire chiefs will offer no breaks or leniency on permitting and emergency readiness for the temporary installations needed for the Games.
● Los Angeles will rebuild, and the politicians have already started pointing to 2028 as a time to show off the recovery. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) told NBC’s Meet The Press today:
“Not to be naively optimistic, [having the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Games] only reinforces the imperative moving quickly.”
And Newsom, who actively campaigned against President-elect Donald Trump, praised him:
“President of the United States, Donald Trump, to his credit, was helpful in getting the Olympics to the United States of America, to get it down here to L.A. We thank him for that. This is an opportunity for him to shine, for this country to shine, for California and this community to shine.”
He added that a recovery plan is in the early stages of development: “We’re already organizing a ‘Marshall Plan,’ we already have a team looking to reimagine L.A. 2.0 and we’re making sure everyone is included, not just the folks on the coast, the people here who were ravaged by this disaster.”
What the prophets of disaster forget – they weren’t here, but I was – is that the area recovered quickly after the 1994 Northridge quake. A section of the Santa Monica Freeway – a key artery – collapsed, but was restored within three months, earlier than expected. The Northridge area required much longer to recover, but it has; anyone who has seen the lines at Brent’s Delicatessen in recent weeks can bear witness. The scale of the fire destruction in the Palisades will require years, but it will come, albeit with much frustration and pain.
The politics of the fires will burn considerably longer than the fires themselves. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was out of the country last Tuesday and has received considerable anger about the fires; a petition against her has gathered more than 100,000 signatures. Perhaps more damaging was a post on X by Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who was himself evacuated from his home:
“Maybe the lesson we learned out of this catastrophe in California is to now vote not based on left or right or D versus R but perhaps based on competent or no experience in operating a job !! We have to elect based on competence…yes competence matters.”
Bass, 71, is up for re-election in 2026 and how the rebuilding from the fires is handled will be a key campaign point. She has, up to this point, been quite popular for a dedicated fight against the top issue in the area: homelessness.
The 2028 Games may be challenged by any number of issues, not the least of which are wars, trade tensions, politics of all kinds and interference from all sides. And please do not forget about earthquakes.
But, unless the winds come back in a big way on Monday and Tuesday, the 2025 fires in Southern California will not be one of them.
Rich Perelman
Editor
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