Report Says, Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, on LA Hosting Olympic Games

Can L.A. Afford to Cancel the Olympics? New SAJE Report Weighs the Costs

LOS ANGELES — As the Winter Olympic Games kick off in Milan, and with less than three years to go before our own Games begin, Angelenos continue to be largely in the dark about whether or not we’ll be able to afford them.

According to a new report by Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, “Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t: The Risks to L.A. of Hosting or Withdrawing from the 2028 Olympics,” there are many reasons to be concerned whether the 2028 Summer Games will be the boon the Olympic boosters have promised or an enormous financial burden on taxpayers.

Read the report: https://tinyurl.com/Risks-0f-LA28 

Unlike in 1984, Los Angeles did not receive a guarantee that it will not be on the hook for covering losses related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games—and that includes cost overages stemming from satellite Games in Oklahoma City—if the L.A. Olympic Committee (LA28) does not bring in enough revenue to balance its books.

“Los Angeles is already in dire financial straits: we had a $1 billion city budget shortfall last year, we are still recovering from the 2025 fires, and now we are facing business closures and job losses because of ICE. Right now, city leaders should be hyper focused on whether the Olympics will compound these problems, and, if so, how they can start mitigating that,” said Cynthia Strathmann, SAJE executive director.

The finances of the 2028 Games are largely a black box: How much the Olympics will end up costing, and how much they will earn in revenues, is as yet unknown. The budget for the L.A. Olympic Committee’s spending has risen since 2017 from $5.3 billion to $7.149 billion, but no one knows how accurate those projections are. Among the report’s findings:

• Cost overruns for past Olympics are the rule, not the exception. The average Olympics ends up costing more than double its initial estimates—“the highest average cost overrun of any type of megaproject,” according to one recent study.
• LA28 has withheld detailed data on spending and revenue projections, making it impossible to verify the ever-increasing cost numbers that one Olympic scholar has dubbed “Etch-a-Sketch economics.”
• LA28 has still not provided the city with detailed spending or revenue projections, making it impossible to know if the Games can cover its costs, or if Los Angeles taxpayers will be left to cover losses.
• If the 2028 Games end up with the same level of cost overruns as other recent Olympics, L.A. taxpayers could end up having to cover $6.6 billion or more in expenses.

“Given all the other problems the Games mean for Los Angeles—especially increased and sustained coordination between the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies—it’s time for a public conversation about whether it is preferable to cancel,” said Chris Tyler, who leads SAJE’s Olympics campaign work as part of the NOlympics LA coalition.

“City leaders need to weigh cancellation seriously, and that means ensuring we have detailed spending and revenue projections for the Games from LA28, including itemized breakdowns of line items in their budget as well as the sources and methodologies they used for their projections,” said Tyler. “Angelenos deserve to understand what the Olympics are really going to cost us.”