LA28 Off to a bad start. Update: Rojo thinks it's great.

Lets have some track prelims and maybe the 10,000s in Eugene while we're at it.

Meh it’s just softball and soccer

IndoorVB BeachVB Swim T&F are LA dominated and the biggest cash makers at the Summers.

You must be thrilled about 2028

It's pretty normal to host the soccer matches across many cities.

Epstein's friends

latimes.com

L.A. politicians call on Casey Wasserman to resign from Olympics committee

https://www.latimes.com/people/dakota-smith

L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said controversy around LA28 head Casey Wasserman is a distraction.

Open link

In the case of softball and the canoeing...

OKC was the only place that had a facility large enough to host the anticipated crowds.

And OKC has a whitewater competition course that was designed especially to hold certain canoe events.

In both situations... it saved LA from having to build new facilities... or in the case of softball... using an inadequate one.

This has already been happening, some sports aren't in the host city. For Paris surfing was in Tahiti, Handball and basketball were in Lille, Sailing was in Marseille, Soccer was in several different cities.

In Japan the marathon was in Sapporo, again soccer games were held in multiple cities, some baseball and softball games were in Yokohama, etc.

So this is nothing new.

I think the real sh!tshow will be poor countries and visas.

I was going to say the same thing. 1996 Atlanta Olympics actually had none of the soccer matches played in the host city.

I also remember this because my brother was on the field at RFK Stadium in DC For some pregame thing for youth soccer players. Funny enough, later in the game, he actually wound up with the ball after a missed PK soared into the crowd behind the goal

Athens, Georgia was the closest matches were played to Atlanta.

Fun fact: Up until last year there was a "Olympics Soccer" sign still up on one of the overpasses on 295 around Benning Road in DC. I remember thinking how cool of a souvenir it would be to have that.

Bay Area/Nor Cal

I was at that game at RFK Stadium!

When my daughter refereed soccer at the London Olympics, her first game was in Scotland.

I think it was the 2012 Olympic Trials that had the hammer competition on the Nike campus near Beaverton, even though the Trials were, of course, in Eugene. And race walking for the 2016 Trials was in Salem, not Eugene.

Saw a YouTuber riding a bike through a section of Los Angeles. Wow, what a dump. Looked third world-ish. Losers all over the place being bums. Tents! Drugs! What a disgrace. Shame.

So if you had to go in this area would you still go without a mask?

I think this is GREAT.

This is 2026. Not 1926. We have airplanes, tv etc.

The average fan isn't going to softball, track, etc.

There is no need to have it in the same spot if it's going to cost tens of millions of dollars to do so.

OP Why is it a "terrible decision?" Please explain why having it in a different location is so bad? I think a terrible decision would be to build a $50 million softball stadium that will be used once. The canoe facility also basically cost $50 million. SO if you build it in LA they probalby would cost $150 million each. Why in the world would we want to spend $300 million for one week of sports competition? Seems crazy.

Because it creates barriers to access. If I’m a softball fan, and naturally, also a baseball fan, it’s an impossibility.

Also, for the athletes, a more sentimental approach, is that the athletes can’t sleep in the athletes village?

Hypothetically, would you still think it’s great if track was in Iowa?

Makes little difference.

This is a US Olympics.

Besides the marquee events, the crowds are going to be terrible. People kinda forget that most of the Olympics are prelims, and a lot of these prelims are going to be in sports that the USA is not very good in.

Geographical issues and general apathy will mean just about all of these will be held in front of minimal supporters, which is sad.