LOS ANGELES 2028: Santa Monica City Council calls LA28 venue contract “troubling,” sends City staff back to the negotiating table

The Santa Monica City Council, meeting on 8 October (Photo: City of Santa Monica video screenshot).

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The Santa Monica City Council convened on Tuesday night for a nearly two-hour “study session” on the use of city property to host beach volleyball for the 2028 Olympic Games, with the City’s staff told to negotiate a better agreement with the LA28 organizers.

After public comment, a lengthy presentation and dozens of questions, Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock expressed the general view of the members:

“Yes, this contract has been troubling for the last year and a half when we’ve been talking about the fact that you sign something and you have no idea what you’re signing, how much you’ll be reimbursed, how much this will cost.

“It is something that, if someone asked you to do this on the street, you would walk away and laugh at them. So, I want the Olympics here … I went to almost every event [at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles]. It was a spectacular time in Los Angeles.”

Brock, now 70, explained further:

“So, I come with a large bias toward the Olympics. But, you know, I’ve been trying to keep a very open mind. The first negative reaction I had was in 2015, when they came to the Recreation and Parks [Commission]. …. And I asked the same thing I’ve asked to the Olympic Committee several times: where’s our community benefit?

“What kind of spectacular volleyball court on the beach will be left for us? What else will they be doing to leave a legacy for the next 50 or 100 years of the Olympics that were held partly in Santa Monica?

“And, unfortunately, I have been hearing, ‘no.’ We’re not doing anything. Well, if we have money left over, we might do something. All those are huge ifs. Yes, we know Peter Ueberroth did an amazing job in 1984. We had money left over. This summer, the ‘84 Olympic committee, or their legacy non-profit body distributed more funds in Los Angeles, to help youth in our city and the region.

“I want that legacy from the 2028 Olympics. However, I’m concerned.”

Brock noted that, unlike some other municipalities which will host events in 2028, Santa Monica has a different status:

● “The Olympics should be proud to have us, because, yeah, they had the Eiffel Tower this last summer in Paris. They’d have the Santa Monica Pier, the Pacific Ocean, the waves, and yeah, the Ferris Wheel.”

● “Now, if we don’t host, the Ferris Wheel will still be on the Olympics [on TV] 20 times a day. It just will. Because as someone said earlier, Santa Monica is one of the symbols – along with the Hollywood sign – along with very few other things that symbolize the Los Angeles area.”

● “Our hotels will be full regardless. Our restaurants will be full regardless. I said to the City Manager a couple of weeks ago, but I want to host [the Olympics] for our communal heart. For the legacy of our city, for the legacy of children and grandchildren who can say that we hosted an Olympic event in our city.”

Brock shared, as did all of the Council members, deep concerns about the open financial questions that were identified in the proposed LA28 Games Agreement, the first of four contracts to be signed between now and October 2027:

“We’re a city that, I could characterize us right now as the once-rich City of Santa Monica, who will be the rich city again some time, but right now we’re not. So the question is, how do we – first of all – front money for the Olympic Games when we don’t have it right now.

“When that money won’t just be spent in 2028, it will have to be spent in 2026 and 2027 to get ready. So, as much as, yes, I absolutely want to be here during the legacy of the 2028 Olympic Games, and I like the LA28 people, but you know what, I’m really disappointed that they are asking us to not negotiate a contract, not give us terms that even guarantee any type of normal reimbursement, not give us any certainty at all, and just say, we have to accept whatever they want because we’re going to have the privilege of hosting the Olympics. …

“I’m concerned. I want us to host the Olympics. I desperately want us to host the Olympics, but at some point there has to be fiscal reality, as well as emotional reality. And I’m not sure our City can front a million, 10 million, 15 million dollars a year or two in advance, and then wait, maybe another six months or a year after the Olympics to experience those reimbursements that we desperately will need.”

The Council was briefed by Community Partnerships Manager Melissa Spagnuolo, who shared slides outlining the state of negotiations, and underlining several primary issues:

● Santa Monica will be asked to provide additional services beyond its normal programming to support the Games, but the extent of such services (and the associated costs) is unknown.

● Reimbursement of such added services is not guaranteed and can only be paid if LA28 has funds available at the end of the Games.

● Potential business impacts on the Santa Monica Pier are unknown as even keeping the Pier open during the Games may be subject to security concerns.

● No community benefits are specified, such as commitments for local hiring or use of local vendors, infrastructure or arts programming and support.

● The City’s economic impact study, by an outside firm, projected a $1.45 million net cost to the City if it hosts beach volleyball, but a $10.65 million “surplus” if it did nothing and simply maintained its normal summer operations.

The answer to many of the Council member questions was, simply, unknown and not specified.

LA28 had three staff members present during the session and Senior Vice President for Government and International Relations Priscilla Cheng made brief remarks during the public comment period, looking forward to continue working together. They did not answer any questions during the hearing.

Ten speakers chimed in during the public comments, six against the Games – but half of those asking for LA28 funding of cultural projects – with one neutral and three, including Cheng, in favor. Santa Monica Recreation & Parks Commissioner John C. Smith supported hosting, saying, “Don’t overthink this, guys. The Olympics are exciting … they’re going to being a lot of people here. It’s our chance to put us back on the world map in a wonderful way. We’re going to make money, too, you watch. … Let’s not blow this, guys.”

Near the end, Vice Mayor Lana Negrete summarized the City’s position and the marching orders for the City’s staff in their future engagement with the LA28 organizers:

“When we first heard of this, of course, I shared the same sentiment and excitement that anybody would, being born and raised in the city and knowing that this event would come here, but being in this position is not easy, as a Council member, you have to be fiscally responsible.

“It would be completely irresponsible knowing all the things we’re going through to put ourselves in a financial binding contract with so many unknowns that could potentially put us at so much risk. Not only would we not see any community benefits, but it could really be destructive to basic city services in the future by not being able to capture any revenue.

“So, I guess the direction would be to come back with their best offer, and I hope LA28 is listening that we need community benefit that makes sense and is clear. We need transparency to our community, which means engaging with the small business community and our constituents. We need to allow for input. I think the agreement must just reflect really certain basic aspects, that it’s concerning and disappointing that this elaborate discussion is happening over a very bizarre offer that has so many holes and unknowns.

“There needs to be partnership vs. leverage, and we need to be fiscally prudent right now, given all of the legal issues that we have, and financial what-ifs that we have separate from this.

“So I know that, you know, LA28 will come back with their best offer and we can fill in some of those gaps and give direction tonight. I think we kind of know what they are, it’s all the what-ifs we’ve been asking, but a big part of it is the community benefit, and of course there’s that piece of being able to negotiate and figure out for sure what is going to happen with the Pier business. …

“It seems like there’s a lot of constraint and there’s very few opportunities, and I think we need to fill in a lot of those gaps. .. I would love to be able to say we’re having LA28 here, I just don’t think it will be responsible to sign a contract based on a bunch of unknowns and what-ifs for the heart of it, when in the end, all people will remember that we will irresponsible about the agreement and we ended up impacting basic City services.”

The Council moved on to a discussion of homelessness and public safety, with no timetable for another discussion of the 2028 Games. 

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