The organizing committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics announced Friday that swimming competition at the Games will move to SoFi Stadium, while softball will take place 1,200 miles away in Oklahoma City.
Two temporary pools will be built at SoFi, in Inglewood, California, similar to those built this month at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.
The pools will be constructed well before the 2028 Games, Casey Wasserman, president of the LA28 organizing committee, told reporters. They will be present at the opening ceremony, which will also take place partly at SoFi Stadium; then uncovered and prepared for the start of the swimming competition.
To accommodate the change, swimming and athletics will switch places on the Olympic calendar. The swimming, which usually starts on the first weekend, one or two days after the opening ceremony, will be moved to the second weekend and the final week of the Games. Athletics starts the first weekend. (Wasserman said the international governing bodies of both sports had approved the move.)
Swimming was initially planned for a temporary pool on the University of Southern California campus. But plans to renovate USC’s facilities led organizers to look elsewhere. After “a few years” of discussions, Wasserman said, they settled on SoFi, which will seat 38,000 fans for the sport by 2028.
The US Trials currently being held in Indianapolis, home of the NFL’s Colts, have averaged around 18,000 fans per evening – a modern record for any swimming meet, but lower than USA Swimming’s ambitions, and less than half of SoFi’s expectations. capacity for 2028.
However, Wasserman said he was confident the Olympics could fill 38,000 seats at SoFi — which, like Lucas Oil Stadium, will be split in two, with the competition pool on one side and a warm-up pool on the other. . He pointed out that these are “the Olympics, not trials”; “the world in LA”; and the stadium as “a spectacular combination” and reasons for confidence.
“I have no doubt that if we had more seats to sell that could see the league pool, we could sell them,” Wasserman said. “We are confident that this will be a swim meet for the ages in every respect.”
Softball in Oklahoma
Due to a lack of seating at potential softball venues in Southern California, it was announced that softball will move to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The canoe slalom will also head east, as there is nowhere in the Los Angeles area to host the event.
The organizers decided this was a better way than building temporary locations.
“Both the canoe slalom and softball venues in Oklahoma City are built to international competition standards, ensuring a high-quality experience for athletes and fans while allowing LA28 to realize cost savings and revenue gains to support its balanced budget,” LA28 said in a statement. “LA28 also recognizes that the Oklahoma City community has consistently supported top events for both sports and is confident they will do the same for these Olympic competitions.”
Softball has a history in Oklahoma City, with the Women’s College World Series taking place there every year but one since 1990. The event is not part of this summer’s Olympic program in Paris.
The location changes for swimming, softball and canoe slalom, including LA28 announced Friday, still require approval from the new host cities and the International Olympic Committee.
