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≡ L.A. & LONG BEACH IN PREPARATION ≡
With January’s brutal wildfires now past, two new reports offer a progress report on aspects of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, involving the city governments of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In Los Angeles, the proposed expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center is not possible by 2028; in Long Beach, a report projects the city’s needs for action over the next four years.
First, Los Angeles, which has been trying for years to expand its Convention Center with 190,000 sq. feet of exhibit hall space, 55,000 sq. feet of meeting rooms, and 95,000 sq. feet of multipurpose space.
On 31 January, a memo from City Administrative Officer Matthew Szabo and Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso outlined the status of the planned-for expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s not happening by 2028:
● “[AEG Plenary Conventions Los Angeles], [PCL-Webcor Joint Venture], City staff, and advisors have worked strenuously in a collaborative and exhaustive endeavor to provide the most robust, cost-effective, risk-mitigated, and timely Project arrangement possible. The parties have engaged in numerous meetings on a nearly daily basis for seven months to develop technical, financial, and design terms that would deliver a world-class convention center facility for the City under an extremely tight timeframe to achieve completion before the 2028 Games.”
● “As the [Project Agreement] and [technical requirements] have not been completed, development of the firm fixed price could not be finalized, although analysis indicates that the Project cost would likely exceed the $1.4 billion total as reported in the June 2024 Report. As the PA and firm fixed price could not be completed by January 2025, the Project Schedule was no longer viable.”
● “The work remaining, considering on-going recovery efforts related to the wildfire emergency, cannot be completed in the time available to ensure completion of the LACC Expansion Project before the 2028 Games. Consequently, a pause in the project is warranted to reevaluate options and opportunities for expanding the LACC.”
On 4 February, Szabo told the City’s Economic Development and Jobs Committee, any thought of completing the expansion in time for the 2028 Olympic is “off the table. It would not be possible at this point to begin and complete construction before the Olympics.”
So what to do about the expansion, which was never counted on in any LA28 organizing committee plans, will be considered in a report to be delivered in March. However, the question of caring for the existing Convention Center facilities has now become a priority. Doane Liu, the City’s Executive Director of the City Tourism Department, added:
“[W]hile we can’t finish an expanded convention center before the Olympics, I think we can modernize what we have. We must. We’re hosting the Paralympic Games and our building doesn’t comply with ADA regulations. At a minimum. We need to do that. But we’ve we have about $110 million of deferred maintenance that we’ve – for the last ten years – have just said we’ll let the expansion take care of those items; our roof leaks and our toilets don’t flush. At a minimum, we need to do that kind of work.”
LA28 plans to stage five sports at the Convention Center – in its current configuration – including badminton, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling.
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In late 2023, the City of Long Beach commissioned consulting giant KPMG to create a “roadmap” of the tasks, requirement and opportunities in front of it heading into the 2028 Olympic period, with multiple events to be staged there, including artistic swimming, handball, sailing, water polo, flatwater canoeing, rowing, open-water swimming and triathlon. Paralympic sports staged in the city are expected to include canoeing, rowing, swimming and triathlon.
The 118-page report was delivered in mid-January, and sets out in very basic terms, what the Olympic and Paralympic Games are and what involvement Long Beach will have, primarily in eight areas:
● Municipal policing and security
● Public health and sanitation
● Zoning, permits and licenses
● Public transportation and crowd management
● Parking
● City “look” and wayfinding signage
● Protocol
● Communications and media
The report notes, with clarity, “Long Beach will be responsible for the safety and security of residents and events outside of the Games footprint.” This is too often forgotten; people’s lives do go on during the Games.
And the goals are set out clearly:
● “Equity ensures that all communities, particularly those historically underserved, share in the opportunities and benefits generated by the Games.
● “Public Safety guarantees a secure and welcoming environment for residents, visitors, and athletes through strong collaboration with local and regional partners.
● “Legacy focuses on developing lasting programs and investments in small business support, arts and culture, tourism, and youth programming.”
Achieving these will be harder, with a “Operational Planning” phase in 2025 and 2026, “Testing and Delivery” in 2027 and 2028 and close-down into 2029. Long Beach has already created a three-tier management structure, with an Executive Leadership Team (six people), Citywide Steering Committee (24) and specialized teams on Safety (11), Infrastructure and Mobility (12) and Community Engagement (7).
The report goes into excruciating detail on all kinds of activities which Long Beach may or may not want to be a part of, and which will have significant planning implications, such as the appearance of the Olympic and/or Paralympic Torch Relay, fan festival sites and the impacts of a potential flood of visitors (although the City is well aware of this from mass events like the Long Beach Grand Prix).
Moreover, there is excellent detail on future activities that the City should be ready for, and want to participate in, such as tabletop exercises, simulations, test events, and how to work with International Federations or National Olympic Committees which may want to set up their own operations in the area, close to their competition site.
Long Beach’s own interests are also covered, such as engaging teams with a home-stay program for athlete families, street shopping programs, information centers, even a “Long Beach House” to showcase business opportunities, as well as a Games countdown clock and so on. Legacy projects are also considered.
The Long Beach roadmap includes some interesting projected dates for a number of actions of high interest; these are not confirmed, but only estimates made by KPMG:
● 15 Sep. 2026: Volunteer needs estimate for Long Beach
● 01 Dec. 2026: Olympic ticket sales open
● 01 Jul. 2027: Olympic Chef de Mission meeting
● 10 Dec. 2027: Paralympic ticket sales open
● 15 Feb. 2028: Olympic Torch lighting in Olympia
Long Beach has also unveiled a dedicated Web site concerning the 2028 Games, designed to expand as the event draws closer.
Observed: The City of Long Beach engaged KPMG in December 2023 to come up with this report at a cost of $572,000. Its great value is in providing all levels of City government, as well as Long Beach residents, with a very precise, very detailed look at what to expect as the Games get closer.
For the most part, challenges that are well-recognized beforehand are dealt with adequately. It’s what hasn’t been considered that can be problematic. This report is a good start.
Time and again, the keys to an area’s success as the host of a major event are (1) a strong working relationship with the organizing committee, (2) meticulous planning, including imagining every scenario possible, (3) flexibility and a desire to realize the overarching goals, rather than implementing the pre-set plan.
In these regards, Long Beach is off to a good start.
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