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LA28 unveiled its most recent in a series of ever-changing venue plans that includes two of the region’s most iconic sports venues, Dodger Stadium and the Santa Anita race track, as part of an Olympic footprint that stretches from Trestles Beach in south Orange County to the Sepulveda Basin and San Fernando Valley.
Dodger Stadium will host the 2028 Olympic Games baseball competition while Santa Anita will be the home of the equestrian events which were originally slated for the Sepulveda Basin, then moved to Galway Downs in Temecula. LA28 told the LA City Council last year that the move to Galway Downs would generate a $26 million projected gain over what holding the event in the Sepulveda Basin would have generated. As recently as last week, Galway Downs had expected to host equestrian events.
LA28 on Tuesday also announced a series of other significant venue moves.
Beach volleyball, which until this month had been planned for Santa Monica, will now be held in Long Beach. Meanwhile, triathlon has been relocated to Venice Beach, which will also host the starts of the marathon running and cycling road race courses.
LA28 said in a statement Tuesday that “the courses and finishes for both the Marathon and Cycling Road will be confirmed and announced at a later date.”
“We’ve promised the world an incredible Olympic Games and today we’re proud to share the plan that will make it happen,” LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “Los Angeles is the epicenter of sports, culture and entertainment, and every venue selected for the 2028 Games will provide athletes and fans the best possible experience. The 2028 Olympic venue plan invites communities from across the region to celebrate the Games coming to their backyard with the most exciting sports staged at some of the world’s top-tier existing stadiums and arenas, famous beaches and purpose-built temporary structures.”
LA28 told Santa Monica officials April 4 that it had decided to hold the beach volleyball competition elsewhere.
A 12,000-seat beach volleyball stadium in the self-proclaimed birthplace of the beach game with the iconic Santa Monica Pier in the background was one of the cornerstones of an original venue plan that was instrumental in LA 28 convincing the International Olympic Committee to award Los Angeles the 2028 Olympics, the city’s third Games.
But negotiations between LA 28 and Santa Monica had stalled for several months because city concerns about the financial impact on the city during its peak tourist season. A financial impact study commissioned by Santa Monica city officials found that while hosting the Olympic beach volleyball competition would generate $14.09 million in revenue, the city would also incur $15.54 million in expenses, leaving the city with a $1.45 million deficit. That same study found that if Santa Monica didn’t host the beach competition it would still generate $11.3 million from tourism against $650,000 in expenses for a profit of $10.65 million.
“Taken together, these findings suggest that choosing to host the Olympic beach volleyball competition translates to a net loss of roughly $2.10 million to the City,” the study said.
