LA28 confident of staying within budget

 The organisers of the Los Angeles Olympic Games are confident they will cover the $7.1 billion (£6.2bn) cost of the event through private funding and strong sponsorship, thereby avoiding any burden on taxpay­ers, according to Los Angeles Times journalists Thuc Nhi Nguyen and Dakota Smith.

During last week’s visit by the International Olympic Commit­tee’s Coordination Commission to LA to assess the progress of the Games, the American newspaper spoke with Casey Wasserman, chair of the LA28 Organising Committee, and John Slusher, president and chief commercial operations officer, to gauge the state of financing.

Confidence is the starting point both leaders maintain, three years ahead of an Olym­pic event touted as one of the most innovative and financially responsible in recent history, in a city which, despite its econom­ic and infrastructure challenges, seeks to replicate the success of the 1984 edition.

The planning for LA28 is notably meticulous and patient. Unlike the traditional seven-year window that typically frames Olympic preparations, this time the city has had more than a decade to plan every detail, extra time which, according to the organisers, has been fundamen­tal in ensuring a sustainable and profitable event. Wasserman told the Los Angeles Times that “More time is always better than less time… My view is judge us when we get to the startline on how we did on sponsorship revenue.”

In financial terms, the or­ganising committee has made significant progress. Slusher stated in the same publication that fundraising for the Games has been ‘going gangbusters’. LA28 has secured six new sponsorship agreements this year, equalling the total number of contracts signed in all of 2024. With these moves, over 60 per cent of the $2.5bn (£2.2bn) sponsorship target is already se­cured, and the forecast is clear: to close between seven and nine more agreements before the end of the year to reach $2bn (£1.75bn).-insidethegames