Los Angeles Olympic organizers will use the city’s 2026 World Cup matches as a key learning opportunity for transportation, safety and crowd movements as they prepare for the 2028 Games, LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover told Reuters.
The World Cup brings eight matches to Los Angeles, with matches at SoFi Stadium, giving Olympic planners a live test of how the region handles a major global sporting event before the much bigger Olympic and Paralympic Games arrive two years later.
“It gives us a chance to look at transportation, it gives us a chance to look at safety, it gives us a chance to look at how they move fans,” Hoover said in an interview Thursday.
“For us, we can take that and then scale it up,” he added, noting that LA28 will include 50 competition venues and approximately 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Hoover said the organizing committee has developed a strong relationship with FIFA and expects lessons learned from the soccer tournament to contribute directly to Olympic planning.
EXCITEMENT BUILDING TOWARDS LA OLYMPICS
The comments came after three days of meetings between LA28 and the International Olympic Committee Coordinating Committee in Los Angeles to discuss preparations.
Hoover said the IOC examined operations, locations, delivery models, community involvement, the torch relay, economic impact and sustainability.
“The level of excitement is electric,” Hoover said. “To have the IOC here with us … and hear the results of where they assess us to be, gives me even more confidence that we will host a Games like no other.”
NOT A PLAYBOOK FOR HUGE LA GAMES
He said the biggest challenge remains the sheer size and complexity of the event.
The LA Games will be the largest ever in terms of programming, with 36 sports across more than 800 events.
“No one has done an Olympics of this size, this scale and this scope,” Hoover said. «There’s no book we can turn to.»
Organizers are drawing on experiences from recent and future host countries, including Paris 2024, Milano Cortina 2026, Brisbane 2032 and Utah 2034, he said.
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND TICKET DROPS
Several planning milestones are approaching. National Olympic Committees are due in Los Angeles next month to inspect the venues, the Olympic Village, lodging plans and arrival operations at LAX.
Broadcasters and media representatives are also expected to visit as organizers refine their plans for global coverage.
Hoover said the next Olympic ticket issue is scheduled for August, after what he described as record-breaking initial demand. Paralympic tickets, the mascot, the torch design and the details of the torch relay are expected in 2027.
The torch relay will visit all 50 US states over 100 days, starting in April 2028 and ending in Los Angeles on July 14, 2028, the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Published on June 5, 2026
