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With 2 years to go, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum prepares to make Olympic history More than a century after it opened, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is preparing to make history once again.
Preparations include extensive transportation plans to manage Los Angeles' heavy traffic.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum When the Olympic and Paralympic Games return to southern California in 2028, the Coliseum will become the first venue in the world to host events during three Olympic Games.
Even though those cheers are long gone, when the stadium is empty, you can almost still hear the crowds."And you can hear the ghosts of Carl Lewis going by or Sandy Koufax pitching," said Joe Furin, general manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
With two years to go, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum prepares to make Olympic history at the 2028 Games In its 100-plus years of history, the Coliseum has hosted some of the biggest names and events in sports, entertainment, politics and religion.The Coliseum has welcomed U.S.
presidents, a pope, Super Bowls, a World Series and generations of college football fans.
It was also the site of an appearance by one of the country's best-known daredevils.
Even with all that history, the Olympics may hold the most important place in the stadium's history."1932, 1984 and 2028.
So, yes, very iconic, We're very humbled to, to have them coming," Furin said."In America, there's very few buildings that are over 103 years old that are still active, still hosting events and still functional.
"While the Coliseum reflects Los Angeles' Olympic past, preparations are continuing across the region for what organizers said will be an event of unprecedented scale.
More than 4 million tickets have already been sold, and hundreds of thousands of people have signed up to volunteer.
Organizers said extensive plans are being developed to help spectators travel between venues."For the last five years, we put together what we've called our games mobility executive team, which is made up of ourselves and our transportation team, as well as all the major public partners that will help deliver transportation in this integrated way," saidChief Operating Officer John Harper.
"We will make sure that the major stakeholders get to their events on time through a games route network.Working with LADOT, Caltrans and LA Metro, to really try and change the behavior of how people move around the city and making it a transit-first games utilizing the existing rail that continues to be evolved by LA Metro and a supplemental bus system that you've seen here at the World Cup that is actually moving people really well around the city."Although Harper said the organizing committee remains on schedule, significant work remains.
"We have a lot to do.
It's two years away, so we have a lot to do in the last two years," he said."We recently had a visit from the IOC Coordination Commission.
That really gave us a great bill of health that we are on track, and we are right where we should be." Harper described the scale of the Games as the equivalent of holding several of the world's largest sporting events every day.
"We say it's akin to seven Super Bowls a day, or seven World Cup games a day, for every single day of the Olympics for the entire duration," he said.
Organizers are not yet revealing all the details of the Opening Ceremony or other major events.However, Harper said spectators can expect Los Angeles' culture, diversity and entertainment industry to be part of the experience."You absolutely will see the culture of LA come through," he said.
"The diversity of the city, the spirit of the city, what you see in entertainment and sports, come through, and we'll blend it in a way that is very uniquely LA.
" Although most competitions will take place in southern California, organizers want the Games to feel like a nationwide event."For the first time ever, we'll have a torch relay that will hit all 50 states, that will start 100 days out that will really unify the country and make this America's Games," Harper said.
When organizers first started to think about submitting a bid to bring the Games back to Los Angeles and where to host the Opening Ceremony, it was natural to think of doing it in a place known for its history.So, once again, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was there, ready as it has always been."Los Angeles is ever changing, and other stadiums come, and there are things that get torn down and rebuilt and stuff, but not this place.
It has stood the test of time," Furin said.
In two years, the athletes, spectators, Olympic flame and worldwide attention will return."We're excited.
This will be history.
To think that worldwide, no other venue has hosted three Olympics, it is obviously rarified company," Furin said."It sets us apart.
We are extremely honored."The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team.
The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Alex Cabrero is an Emmy award-winning journalist and reporter for KSL since 2004.
He covers various topics and events but particularly enjoys sharing stories that show what's good in the world.Victoire's Marie-Philip Poulin played through a torn ACL and is set for surgery in July.