LIVE: International Olympic Committee Officials Provide Update on Olympic Planning

Great to be back on the ground in Los Angeles for the first time in person since 2022. That was really good for us. It is always good to be back and to sense the passion and the enthusiasm of the Angelenos about the Olympics and about anything that has to do with sports. And of course, a few days ago, we saw the World Series crowning the Los Angeles Dodgers as world champions. And we were very happy about that. But there are, of course, several other teams, sports teams like the Lakers, the Clippers, Angel City, the Sparks, that also brought the great glory in sports to the city. As a global hub for sports and entertainment, Los Angeles offers infinite possibilities, settling the perfect stage for the Olympic and the Paralympic Games and inspiring us all to work towards delivery of unparalleled games in 2028. This week, we began with an insightful debrief session. And I think Casey and Ranald, you were very happy with that as well. With the key learnings from the Paris 2024 Games that have just happened a few months ago. And this included its president, Tony Estanger, the president of the organizing committee, who has recently joined the COCOM for LA 2028. And I think that is to ensure that the learnings of those fabulous games are beneficial to Los Angeles as well. And it's a great example to see how one organizing committee can help the next organizing committee. So that was very good. His experience was very valuable. And they were very open in sharing that knowledge. So we were very happy about that. Later in the week, the commission toured a number of venues. Of course, we started at the Rose Bowl, a historic venue used for the 1932 Olympic Games, used for the 1984 Olympic Games, and now again for the 2028. So that's going to be great. We also focused on the key areas of progress that the organizing committee is really very, very well geared towards accomplishing. We heard about the key advancements in relation to the venue master plan. The continued commercial success of the OCOG. The ongoing expansion of the LA 2018. We're going to hear about that as well. And the growing engagement with the local communities. And that was very important as well. Team growth has been spearheaded by Reynolds Hoover, who joined the organization as the new CEO since June, just right before the Olympic Games of Paris. And although we have been working together for a number of months already, I think we had a very first phone call right after you were appointed, Reynolds. It was very good for the commission members to get to know Reynolds personally as well. So that was a great addition for us. Community engagement was showcased during a visit that we made yesterday afternoon to the Play LA. You are very well aware with that program. We are very excited about that. And yesterday we visited a sports program initiative where we saw firsthand the positive impact that the Games is having on local communities, on youth, and even well before the Games begin. I think that Paris 2024 really took the global appetite for the Olympic and the Paralympic Games to new heights. Something really historic, I should say, of how the enthusiasm was of the world community towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games. And it demonstrated the importance of engaging everyone and bringing them along on the journey. LA28 also has the capacity to energize the Games with LA's culture of innovation and through its vision of harnessing the power of sports and community to collectively create what's next for new generations. LA28's commitment is to work together with the local stakeholders and with the Olympic movement is equally appreciated. Building on this positive momentum and coupled with Los Angeles' rich history for the Games, the excitement for 2028 is palpable, especially within the organizing committee. We're very excited. With athletes at the heart of their team, fans central to their engagement strategy, support from stakeholders and local community initiatives already delivering a lasting legacy, our visit this week reaffirms that LA28 is poised to inspire the next generation and make a positive impact. Now, as we enter a new phase, moving from strategy to action, LA28's preparation will now change in pace. We talked about that very much. And together we will work hard to create an unforgettable experience that can resonate far beyond 2028. LA is the land of imagination. And when the world looks at the city, it expects to be wowed. And with its spectacular venues and landscape, the passion for sport, vibrant communities and its breadth of culture and innovation, LA has all the ingredients to exceed those expectations. So on behalf of the IOC, we are very happy to have been here for our third in-person meeting on the ground in LA. We hope to be back very soon and very often with the smaller teams, with the Coordination Commission, so that we can co-create in the next couple of years and bring these games to fruition. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Casey, the floor is yours. Thank you, Nicole. And thank you, everyone, for being here today. It's been a terrific three days hosting the Coordination Commission really in person for the second time. As always, we really appreciate the support of the IOC, everyone in this room, everyone online. The last three days has really been an incredible participant in this process. I want to recognize a few of my colleagues who are here with me today and are vital pieces of our success, starting with our CEO, Ronald Hoover. Our Chief Athlete Officer, Janet Evans, is hiding over there. And our Chief Operating Officer, John Harper, is also hiding over there. This summer, Paris set the bar high, and the success of Paris allows LA the opportunity to continue an incredible amount of momentum established this summer. Paris engaged new audiences. They uplifted athletes. They excited their residents and the world. And most importantly, people either for the first time or for a remembrance of why they did, they fell in love with the Olympics again. Now it's our turn. We are four short years away, and in case you're counting because we are, it's 1,338 days to be exact to July 14th, 2028. Obviously, everything we need is here. Venues, talent, incredible games history, cultural relevance, and a rich network of civic partners to support the delivery of a global event like this. LA 20 is entering a new chapter in its life cycle. We are moving from strategy, as Nicole said, to planning and delivery and operations. This phase requires an organization built with the expertise to execute it, and that starts with Ronald Hoover, who I was fortunate enough to meet through this process. We were lucky enough to convince to come out of retirement and has hit the ground running and is really just leading an incredible organization as we move towards these next four years. We've got over 150 employees today, and our employee base will rapidly grow over the next six to nine months as we get into that delivery phase, which requires a much deeper set of skills than we have today. Obviously, this week we showed we're very proud of our venues in Los Angeles. Everybody knows we showed the coordination commission some of our legendary venues. The Rose Bowl, which with the LA Coliseum are the only two venues in the world to host events for three Olympic Games. The Long Beach Convention Center and Waterfront, Marine Stadium, as well as Intuit Dome. As Nicole mentioned, we visit a Play LA site featuring youth and high school level girls flag football, which as you all know is now an Olympic medal sport, which we're very proud of. Play LA is a part of our both human legacy and our pre-games legacy. The program offers low cost and no cost programming in 173 locations, including more than 40 sports, and for the first time in the history of Los Angeles, adaptive sport programs in rec and park facilities. We've enrolled more than 500,000 applicants, sorry, youth, and our goal is to hit over a million and we're well on our way. And also, we had a Play LA adaptive participant, Arielle Middleton. She won a silver medal in the shot put in 2024 in Paris, and we hope there are lots more Arielle's out there as we continue to invest in new sports. As everyone on this panel knows, this is a complex endeavor, and that requires us to head into 2025 with taking the next step in our delivery. That is the finalization of our games plan. Along with that finalization of the games plan comes the completion of our competition schedule, which obviously drives all of our operational teams then to execute on the planning on a venue by venue basis on a session by session basis. The IOC will finalize the medal event program and athlete quota, which obviously feeds right into the competition program. And all of those things continue to drive more specifics around our transportation, security, and all the other responsibilities we have as an organizing committee. As we look beyond 2025, 2026 and beyond, we get into some of the fun stuff. We start to make tickets and hospitality available to the world. We get to talk about a torch relay, which we hope to touch the country in a meaningful way. We get to come up with our mascot. We love Sam the Eagle, and we're going to hope to find him a friend for 2028. Then we will certainly get into our cultural Olympiad. And lastly, obviously, our volunteer program, which as we all know is a key piece of the delivery of every Olympic Games. But as I go around the city, I can't tell you how many people will tell me their first job, their first volunteer was as a volunteer in Los Angeles in 1984. And what a memorable experience it was and how dramatic an effect it had on their life. We are very clear we can't do this alone. We work in close coordination with the city of L.A., our other venue cities, and our venue partners to put together the plan and deliver on the promise we have made. We have an incredibly talented group of people, totally dedicated and totally focused to living up to our mission, and we cannot wait to host the world in 2028. Thank you. Thank you, Casey. Before we start the Q&A, I just want to give you a few housekeeping rules. For those in the room, to ask your questions, we invite you to raise your hand. We get a microphone to you. And then once Allison points to you, we just ask you to say your name and the name of the media outlet that you work with. For those online, we ask you include your name and the name of your media outlet as your display name on the Zoom webinar. And if you want to ask a question, please use the raise your hand function in the webinar window. If you're in the next in line to ask a question, you will receive a request to become a panelist. Please make sure you accept this request and turn your camera and microphone on. Once your name is called out, you'll be able to ask your question directly with your camera and mic on. So please ensure you speak directly into the mic to ask your question for clarity. Some of us here in the IOC side, we need to get to the airport to take flights back home, so we need to have a hard stop at around 3.15. We do our best to get through as many questions as we can in the time, to use the time more efficiently. Then we ask that the questions stick to the subject of preparations for LA28, which was the subject of the meetings this week. The IOC press office, LA28 press office, we're happy to answer all the questions. I'm going to stay around, so happy to talk to you if you have questions on other topics. And finally, for our international colleagues joining online, we will not have simultaneous translation in any languages, so we will have the full press conference in English. And that was it for me, so I'd like to invite Alison to open the floor for questions. Thank you. Thank you. Lolita? Do I not project? Am I projecting? Welcome back again. We're back here in 2022 for your last on-the-ground visit. I wanted to talk to Nicole and members of the IOC of some of the progress that you said you had seen this time around. But also, it's really not just a Los Angeles Olympics, it's a regional Olympics with all of these different venues. What do you see as some of the positives and the challenges for that? Wow. A lot of positives, I would say. I think the venues are absolutely spectacular. We have seen several on our previous visits, and they're unique in the world. I mean, the fact that I'm going to highlight this every single time that I come to the city, that you have no construction to do, that you have world-class venues, that's a big pre for L.A. And L.A. has also a culture of having – they know very well how to organize big events and big sporting events. They have games operators, stadium operators that are very well-known in this field. So that is something that is going to be beneficial. And look where we are. We are at UCLA. I mean, this is one of the most fantastic campuses of a university that is going to be the village, the Olympic village for the athletes. And that, I think, is something that we have to celebrate and we have to be very proud of. To be able to offer this experience to the athletes of the world, to be part of this culture that exists in the United States on campuses of universities, that, for me, is one of the biggest things. Then you have a country that is absolutely crazy about the Olympics and about sports. You have a very mature, very well-organized and a very well-experienced culture of sports and big sporting events. And that is going to be beneficial to everybody who comes to these games. That doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. You have made it very difficult, Mr. Wasserman, by adding another few sports and making the sports program a little bit complicated. So it is up to us all together, and Casey said it very well, we have to do this together. We are co-creating the games. It requires the cooperation of different stakeholders, and I'm sure that Christophe will elaborate on this, that we need to make sure that all these things come together as a puzzle and make the games the experience that we want it to be. Just to add to that, and Casey touched on it about the torch relay, and you mentioned about the nation in sports. Yes, we are hosting it here in L.A., and yes, we want to showcase L.A., and we want to showcase the region, but our torch relay is going to be the thread that binds the nation as we move the torch across the U.S. to bring all of the U.S. to L.A. as part of that. Could I just elaborate, Lolita, on the regional games? This is Fit for Purpose. And by the way, we have regional games in Milano Cortina as well. We have Giovanni with us. He's here in the room. I've spotted him. This is great. When you can use what you have, work with different communities, it is spreading the assets where it is most needed. And if you have to design the plan, you wouldn't do it differently. So we're very happy with the regional games. Progress, commercial agenda, amazing what they do. Moving from strategy to delivery means this OCOG has done tremendous progress in planning because we're ready to go to the next stage. Impact, because these are tens of thousands of kids that have gone through Play L.A., delivered a formidable transition from Paris to L.A., so they were on world stage. And finally, I would also mention the collaboration with the wider ecosystem. You cannot do that alone. It's with all the communities around, including the authorities, and there they have made progress as well. David? David Wharton with the L.A. Times. This is for Reynolds or Casey, whoever is best suited. You mentioned that L.A. 28 can't do this alone. Any U.S. Olympics involves substantial federal participation. You've got a new administration coming in, sort of new. You've had one run with them before. But do the negotiations begin anew? Where does that stand in terms of what you need transportation security-wise? Yeah. Well, I guess one of the effects of having done this for 10 years now is we've had this will be our third president but fourth administration. And as you said, President Trump previously was president and actually when we got the games in 2017 and signed federally binding documents that committed them to deliver security and transportation. And, you know, as we like to say, the Olympics aren't about politics, and they're not about red and blue. They're about red, white, and blue. And these are America's games taking place in Los Angeles, and it sits above politics in just about every way we experience. And so our conversations with the federal government always involve talking to folks from every party. That's the nature of the world we live in in this country. One side doesn't get to dictate everything. It requires cooperation and coordination. We've had great success with both Republican and Democratic administrations, and we have no doubt that will continue. And that started during the election process or sort of the election cycle. We had outreach from both transition teams so that they could get up to speed and get running once the election was over. And obviously now that there's an administration in place and that staff starts to fill up, we will continue to engage with them just as we did previously, and we will continue to do through the end of the process. Scott. What's the other guy look like, Dave, by the way? Scott Reed, Orange County Register. For Christophe and Casey, what did you learn from Paris that's applicable to L.A.? And for Nicole, you talked about these key advancements and progress. What are some of the areas that you maybe still have some concerns about? Well, look, I can't say it enough, Scott, that Paris did an incredible job. You start with they had a really clear plan from their bid that was essentially exactly what they delivered, and they delivered it in a truly authentic, both French and Parisian way. They had the fans incredibly engaged and excited, and those atmospheres were electric. They put sports in venues that were unique and special. I think it's a really important takeaway for us to think about. We always get caught up in efficiency and responsibility, and yet there's a lot to be said for having fencing in a place like the Grand Palais. It may not have been the most cost-effective place, but it was the most spectacular place. It ended up producing a really incredible result. We also learned that this was the first Olympic Games as an OCOG that we got to operate at full scale, and all the complexity that comes with that. Some of those complexities are unique to each city. Obviously, Paris and Los Angeles are dramatically different cities. Some of those complexities are really similar, and so how we think about movement of people, venue preparation, movement in the city, engaging with fans outside of competition venues, all those things to see at scale, to see the back house. I joked that I was in Paris for a month and maybe saw three hours of competition because we spent most of our time touring the back of the house while the competition was going on. Honestly, that's where we should have been spending our time because that's where we will learn a lot and see a lot. As Nicole said, not that we take it for granted, but producing an event on the field of play, I think we have a pretty good handle on. What makes the Olympics unique is everything else, and so we really spent our time getting as much into the weeds as we could and learning as many lessons. To me, it's the power of the ecosystem. The games have become so sophisticated that you need the best of what America can display on this very project. I love the fact that you say it's America's games here in L.A. because it really takes the best of your public authorities, the best of business, the best of the volunteers. Really, Paris built a formidable team, and the team spirit, it was delivered as one. To achieve that is a formidable feat. On the other end of the spectrum, it's some of the small things that do really work. When you put the square of fans, they call it, how great that was to have the ultimate sports fan in every sport, beating the drum in every venue, irrespective of who was winning. This gives you goosebumps, this kind of simple thing. It's the sophistication on one side, but what we all long for are these kinds of emotions and they did formidably well. Here, we can do even better. No reason. Asking the question, what do we have to do moving forward? I think it's clear. We're closing a quadrennium that culminated with the Paris Olympic Games. Now, we're moving forward. Now, L.A. is next in line. All the eyes of the world are going to be on L.A. That's natural. We're finalizing a process of strategic planning and everything. Now, we're going into delivery mode, into really making the Games happen. It's only natural that that changes the whole organization. There's nothing wrong with that. I think something that you mentioned, Christophe, about having this enthusiasm in the stadiums in Paris, showed us something very important, that they were cheering. Yes, they were cheering for Léon Marchand, the French swimmer, but they were cheering for everybody. The whole world, every athlete, no matter where they came from. I think that is something that L.A. will do very well because you have a multicultural city here. You have people coming from all over the world. They will have to make the world feel welcome in the United States of America and in the city of Los Angeles. That is going to be something that we are looking forward to, that you have full stadia, that you have people with their cultural backgrounds coming to this particular city that is so unique and making them feel at home. Thank you. A reminder for those who are online with us, you can click the icon to raise your hand to ask a question. You can also leave your question in the chat. What I would like to do is go to Rachel from Sports Business Journal, who I believe has a question from Zoom. Go ahead, Rachel. You are on mute. You are on mute, Rachel. Nope. I can't hear you. Okay. It is sound in the room. We will come back to you, Rachel. Rich. Thank you. Rich Perlman, the sports examiner. I think this is for Casey or Reynolds, depending on who wants to answer. My question is about money. You have been on the record multiple times that 64% of the revenues are committed thus far. You have a billion and a half coming from the IOC from the host city contract. That leaves about $3 billion of $4.5 billion. Can you talk about the sources of that $4.5 billion? As you said, I wish it was $1.5 billion. It is a little less than $1.5 billion, Rich, but if you can get us some more money, we will take it from the IOC. No. We are not going to get in the weeds on that. Our revenue streams that are contracted today are hospitality, ticketing, sponsorship, and licensing. No, these are with our partners. Correct. Beth, did you have a question? Beth? Oh, Beth. Sorry, Beth Harris, AP. Casey, what are the chances that cricket ends up being taken to the East Coast? Well, cricket is obviously a new sport. We don't have a cricket venue in Los Angeles. It's a big footprint, and so we want to find the right place for cricket that has the greatest chance for success, and it's incumbent upon us to look for the best place. Obviously, if we could have every event within 20 miles of where we're sitting, we would, but that's not our reality. And so if we can find a place for cricket in Los Angeles, in the region, we will. If not, it's incumbent upon us to find the best place to produce the best cricket tournament. Rory. Thanks. Rory Carroll, Reuters. For Casey or Reynolds, again, about the new administration coming on, any concerns about things like travel restrictions disrupting the ability to host the games? No. When he was president and in his comments leading up to the election, President-elect Trump has been incredibly clear about the responsibility we have hosting world events, starting with the World Cup in 26 and subsequently with the Olympics and the requirements that places on the federal government, travel, security, transportation, logistics. There's a lot that they provide, and it's well-known and well-accepted across the federal government. So we're looking forward to continuing the very good partnership we've had at all levels of the federal government. Yeah. And I would just add that we've had conversations with the State Department, with the Department of Homeland Security, with the Department of Commerce. And so I think we have a good working relationship with all our federal partners on that. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi. Alina Burbin with KTLA. Los Angeles is a very large city and very spread out. Our public transportation infrastructure isn't quite ready yet. What are your thoughts on it being complete in time and also the homeless issue in Los Angeles and how that might impact things? Well, thanks for the question. The first point is when we bid for the games, what we bid for was, in terms of transportation, all that existed at the time we bid in 2016. So our plan, our ability to deliver the games, is completely reliant on an existing plan we had from 2016 for the infrastructure and the public transportation that was built, not even in progress to be built, in 2016. Obviously, there's been a ton of investments in infrastructure in Los Angeles, public transportation, airports, and the like. And so our responsibility is to take the best advantage of that as we can as we finalize our games plan. And so we're very focused on it. But, you know, just remember, the Olympic Games is not like a normal two-week period and then all of a sudden we show up with the Olympics. No different than Carmageddon, for those of you from Los Angeles or other times in L.A. We're going to make people aware of when there's events, where there are events, traffic patterns, traffic changes. Obviously, having dedicated lanes. And so we get to adjust traffic patterns and adjust fan flow and athlete and participant and constituent flow to fit our city. Not just show up on a Friday night with opening ceremonies and say, oh, by the way, tomorrow night's opening ceremonies, it's a normal Friday night at rush hour in the summer. That's not how it works. And so we feel very confident about, frankly, living up to the legacy of 1984, which was, you know, an incredible experience when people drove around and there was no traffic. So we think that that's sort of our future. And, look, I will speak to homelessness only as a person who was born and raised in Los Angeles. It's a really sad and difficult situation. It's not unique to Los Angeles. As Angelenos, we better care about it because it's about the future of our city. It's not about 17 days in the summer of 2028 or 30 days in the summer of 2028. This is about what are we doing to support the people who live and work and make Los Angeles their home and how do we make it the best possible place for them. And we should be worrying about that today and tomorrow and every day forward, including the 30 days in the summer of 2028, but not exclusively for those 20 or 30 days. And so, you know, it's a situation that L.A. needs to come together to help work on because that's what it requires. And just on the transportation piece, our team works very closely with Stephanie Wiggins and L.A. Metro and all the city and the state transportation providers. So we are working every day on the transportation plan and how we're going to be able to move both athletes, Paralympic athletes, fans, spectators, the Olympic family. So it's an ongoing process that we've started and we're in deep conversation. Thank you. I have Rachel Axon's question from Sports Business Journal, and this is for Casey and Reynolds. What what updates are there on filling roles of key executives that have left, including Brian Lafamina, Tonja Alano and Chris Pepe? What are other plans or targets for staffing in 2025? Great. So Tonja took a much, much deserved break. And Elizabeth Feinberg is our who is her number two is our chief legal officer and general counsel. Chris Pepe, we have replaced with we'll announce in a few weeks, but in partnership with legends on the day to day sales side. And obviously, as you know, Rachel, we hired John Slusher to lead and be the CEO of USOPP. And Brian Lafamina's job was a job not designed for the entire duration of the game. And so not a job in specific that we're going to replace. We will continue to have lots of hires. We have had many. The ones you're focused on are much more tuned as it should be to the business of sports. And frankly, I'm not sure there'll be a whole lot more changes in that department. Most of our changes will fall in Reynolds purview in terms of delivery and planning and operations. Yeah, the only thing I would say there is, you know, I think we are building the right team now. And I feel really confident about where we are. Okay, great. I do know there is one more question online, which we'll try to get. And if not, Rob Willard, if it doesn't work, would ask you to type your question into the chat. But let's try to go to Rob for his question. In the meantime, are there any other questions in the room? We can take one or two more. Rich? Rich Perlman, the sports examiner. This is for Casey or Reynolds. You're still Rich Perlman from the sports examiner? I'll check. I have to see how I'm accredited. You've talked a little bit in various forms about cricket potentially on the East Coast. You're already going to Oklahoma City. You've got this plethora of sports, 35 or 36. Is it possible we could see five, six, seven sports spread out across the country? Is that a possibility? It could be awfully interesting for a country this big. Look, our plan is in development. We have a pretty good line of sight on where we hope that to end or to land. I don't think you'd see as many as five or six sports. There are natural things that require multiple venues because of the field of play issues, like football and soccer. You cannot play every game in the Rose Bowl. That's just not practical. But no, these games are incredibly focused on L.A. and Southern California and being responsible and making hosting the games fit our city and our community as opposed to fitting our city to host the games, which is the mistake that has been made in the past and the promise we have made to the city and the community not to make going forward. Thank you. If there are no... Is it working? It declined to ask. If he asks, I'll follow up with one of you individually. Thank you all for coming. Before we break, we will take a group photo with all the panelists. So photographers, if you'd like to come to the center, and maybe writers, if you don't mind moving to the side, that would be great. And we'll take a brief group photo. Thank you.