L.A. Made Big Promises for the Olympics. Can It Deliver by 2028?

U.S.|L.A. Made Big Promises for the Olympics. Can It Deliver by 2028?

Los Angeles officials brimmed with confidence a decade ago as they urged the International Olympic Committee to make the city the first in the U.S. to host the Summer Olympics since 1996.

“Follow the sun,” they said in the official bid for the Games in 2015. Los Angeles promised terrific weather, a $1 billion Olympic Village to house athletes, a state-of-the-art transit system that would allow for a car-free Olympics and a ready-to-go network of stadiums and arenas.

But three years before the opening of the 2028 Summer Olympics, those ambitious promises have been scaled back, supplanted by obstacles that are threatening to undercut preparations for an event that would test this city’s wits and resources even in the best of times.

Los Angeles is struggling to recover from the calamitous fires in January, and is girding for a shortage of workers and supplies just as preparations for the Games reach their height. The city government is confronting a projected deficit of nearly $1 billion, and the mayor is facing the threat of a tough re-election campaign.

The Trump administration has been antagonistic to this overwhelmingly Democratic city and state, raising concerns about whether the federal government will come through on all of the $4 billion in funding promised for Olympics security and transportation. Economists fear that a recession may be on the horizon that could, along with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dampen ticket sales from overseas visitors.

“I assume they are competent enough to pull it off — we have the infrastructure built,” said Joel Kotkin, a fellow in urban studies at Chapman University in Orange County. “But I can’t for the life of me see why you would want to put your effort there. Given what the city and the region now face, why would you want to put more stress on it?”