The 2028 Olympics are coming to Los Angeles as a multi-billion dollar operation funded by massive private and federal government investments and backed by city and state pledges to cover cost overruns.
The current privately funded budget for the Games is more than $7 billion. The federal government has agreed to chip in $1 billion to pay for security and is being asked to contribute another $2 billion to pay for Games-specific transit plans.
But the city of L.A.'s financial exposure is essentially unlimited. The city is on the hook for the first $270 million in losses, if they occur. The California Legislature has agreed to make statewide taxpayers pick up the next $270 million. After that, any additional financial burden will fall on Los Angeles taxpayers.
couldwill end up footing the billIsn’t that always the case with the Olympics? Every city that host them ends up getting stuck with the bill for a bunch of new Olympic class facilities that get used once and then the local population is forced to maintain indefinitely?
Seems like the spirit of the Olympic competition has just been replaced by real estate speculation and hedge funds looking to make a buck. The money flows from the pocket of sponsors into real estate developers and local governments while ultimately the residents pay the long term bill.
Should’ve just reused the venues from 1984.
I was sad when I learned that the 2012 Olympic games were going to be held in London, it would have been cool to hold them here in Stockholm, we still have and use the old Olympic venue from 1912, and it would have been a cool theme for the games, “a century of progress” or something.
But eh, I only judge the quality of the games based on the opening ceremony as I don’t watch anything else, and London 2012 was a banger.
Not gonna lie, it was goddamn hilarious when some people tried to start up a bid for Boston to host the 2024 Olympics, but the entire city was like “that is incredibly fucking stupid” so it immediately flamed out
Of course they will. Since the beginning, the Olympic Games have been a loss-bringer. Some pieces of infrastructure may remain and actually get useful, but look at any Olympic location four years later and see loads of unused and abandoned sport locations falling into disrepair.
The only waste of money bigger than Olympic Games is probably opera houses, and only because they continue to waste money continually and not just for one event…