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 the Stade de France on August 11, 2024 in Paris, France.
Carl Recine | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
After the successful 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the bar is set high for the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, something key stakeholders in that event say the city will be ready for.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin at the CNBC x Boardroom sports and business event Game Plan on Tuesday that she's worried about “all the things we have to do in our city to prepare” for the 2028 Games. But she said that, like the last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1984, she believes the city will not only be better off hosting the Games, but will benefit once they're over.
That includes work on public transportation. Bass said he hopes there will be “no cars at the venues” and that spectators will use public transportation to get to the Games, a promise that will require investment in both bus and subway infrastructure, as well as working with other cities to borrow buses.
Bass said the city is also doing “everything we can to eliminate homelessness on the streets,” including building more than 18,000 new units for the homeless population.
Bass said there will also be discussions with businesses in Los Angeles about work schedules to shift employees to remote work during high traffic periods, as well as finding ways to move truck deliveries to the evening, like what happened during the 1984 Games.
“I think there is a way to organize the region so that traffic is less and manageable,” Bass said.
LA 2028 President Casey Wasserman attended the Paris Games, an event he told Ross Sorkin that “reminded people why they fall in love with the Olympics” and which he said organizers will look to build on in Los Angeles.
While no new permanent venues will be built for the Los Angeles Games — a first in Olympic history — there are some challenges in utilizing all of the city’s landmarks in the same way that Paris was able to feature famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower by hosting a beach volleyball match nearby. Wasserman said Los Angeles got a glimpse of that with the Olympic torch relay ceremony, when Tom Cruise scaled the Hollywood sign and the Olympic rings replaced the “OO”s on the sign, which Wasserman noted was done with CGI.
“Obviously, it's a longer, more complicated conversation,” Wasserman said of modifying the Hollywood sign for the Games. “But I think it's a pretty spectacular opportunity if there was a way to do it.”
Actress Jessica Alba, who sits on the board of directors for Los Angeles 2028, said the Games would showcase all different aspects of the city's culture, from Hollywood to fashion to food, as “a global platform to showcase what they've got.”
“Los Angeles is a main character,” Alba said. “We want it to be a main character during the Olympics.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics holds the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
