At a Council meeting last year, LA 28 wouldn’t answer any Councilmembers’ Concerns.
Earlier this morning, the City of Santa Monica announced that negotiations between the city and the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LA 28) for the city to host the beach volleyball tournament have ended. LA28 informed the city Friday that it plans to host beach volleyball elsewhere.
While details of the negotiations between the city and LA 28 are not public, the sticking point was probably money. LA 28 would not guarantee the city would be reimbursed for all costs related to the games unless the LA 28 committee turned a profit on the games themselves. Most recent Olympics have actually cost their host cities money, and of course the odds of federal help to cover costs is unlikely in the current climate.
In short, Santa Monica can’t afford to host an Olympic game without guarantees. Last October at the City Council, LA 28 made it clear with their silence that there were no guarantees to be made.
“It is tough to close this door with LA28. However, as a leader who has a fiduciary responsibility to the City and community, we needed the financial backstop guarantee to provide the security, safety, and cleaning services hosting such a massive event would’ve required, especially while we face a financially distressed budgeting cycle,” writes Councilmember Dan Hall.
A report by HR&A Advisors prepared for Santa Monica last year (available to download at this link) showed that the 2028 games should be a windfall for the city, provided that the city not host any of the games. In a “non-event scenario” the city would net over $10 million in revenue. But the costs of hosting the beach volleyball tournament would more than erase that increase and the games would have cost the city nearly $1.5 million.
“I’d rather spend that money avoiding a bond or tax, paying down our unfunded pension liabilities, rebuilding our reserves and housing trust fund, repairing infrastructure, expanding services at our branch libraries, hiring police and code officers, or directly investing in tenant protections and affordable housing,” Hall continued.
While Hall is one of the new Councilmembers elected last November, the issue of whether or not the city should host the Olympics was uniform by both candidate slates. At the October meeting, both Oscar de la Torre and Phil Brock, councilmembers who held office at the time but were defeated a month later, held the same position stated today by Hall: that Santa Monica would make a great host city for beach volleyball, but only if certain conditions were met.
Santa Monica is still working with LA28 and other government agencies such as Metro to coordinate for the Olympics and other major events such as the 2026 World Cup including collaboration and support around transportation, hospitality, media, events and more.
The city is also continuing to plan for what it has termed “CELEBRATE28,” its efforts to maximize tourism during the games even if it won’t formally be hosting any of the sports activities.
“When the world shows up to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Olympics, we look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of participants and sports enthusiasts to Santa Monica for an iconic California experience,” Santa Monica Travel and Tourism President/CEO Misti Kerns said.
