When L.A. hosts the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the city will need to mobilize police, fire, transit and traffic control to put on more than a month of competitions and celebrations.
The question is — who will pay for all that extra work?
Los Angeles is in high-stakes talks over what city services the private Olympics organizing committee will pay for during the Olympic Games, and negotiations have dragged nearly three months past a deadline to make a deal.
City funds could hang in the balance. The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games.
But the nuts and bolts of that arrangement have not been finalized, despite an Oct. 1 deadline.
City Administrative Officer Matthew Szabo, who is leading negotiations on the city's behalf along with the chief legislative analyst, acknowledged that the deal was past due at a City Council committee meeting on the Olympics earlier this month.
"It is of great significance to the city, and getting it right takes precedence," Szabo said. "We are working as quickly as we can, but this needs to be the right agreement for the city."
If the agreement leaves L.A. exposed to unexpected or additional expenses, taxpayers could end up paying many millions. Organizers have said that putting on the Olympic and Paralympic Games is the equivalent of hosting seven Super Bowls every day for a month.
Why the delay?
Neither the city nor LA28 have shared publicly what's holding up the deal. But the Dec. 8 City Council meeting hinted at potential sticking points.
One could be the boundaries of where LA28's responsibility for a service like traffic control ends and the city's responsibility begins.
Down the line, the city will need to negotiate individual agreements with LA28 about what public services it will provide at each Olympic venue in the city. The scope of those agreements will be based on venue perimeters. Some in the city appear to be concerned about how those perimeters will be determined and what happens if public services are needed outside of those boundaries.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky raised this as a potential problem to the city administrative officer at the council meeting.
" If we're only getting reimbursed for services within the venue services agreements, does that mean that anything outside of venue perimeter isn't subject to reimbursement?" she said. "Even if costs arise due to a material impact from the Games or the venue perimeters themselves?"
Szabo responded by saying the city agreed that the broader scope of what resources might be required should be included. But he acknowledged that there was an argument for a narrower interpretation.
" Now, another way to look at it, and I do need to be clear about this, is that the general condition of hosting the games may require additional services in other areas," he said.
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said he thought additional costs to the city seemed inevitable. He offered an example: If a protest took place outside an Olympic training facility — a location that could be considered outside the list of official Olympic venues.
" We're going to have controversies at some of these places, and I view that as inextricably linked to the events," he said. "That also means protests, which also means sanitation. … Some of these ancillary sites that are not direct venue sites are going to end up with enhanced costs to us as a city."
A spokesperson for LA28 didn't answer a series of questions from LAist, including where expected costs on city services are included in its $7 billion budget. The organizing committee did provide a statement saying it was "committed to delivering these historic Games in a safe, secure and fiscally responsible way."
The other source of funding that the city expects to receive for its resources will come from the federal government, which has allocated $1 billion for security costs. Szabo told the council committee that city spending on security at the Olympic venues, like for local police, should be covered by those funds.
But exactly how much federal money the city of Los Angeles will actually get is yet to be determined.
Why the agreements matter
Hosting the Games is an enormous financial risk for Los Angeles. The city is the financial backstop for the Olympic Games, meaning if the organizing committee runs into the red, L.A. will pick up the bill, along with the state of California.
The extra staff and resources the city will dedicate to the Games represents another area where L.A. may end up with surprise costs.
The specter of these potential expenses has dogged the city for months. In July, prominent civil rights attorney Connie Rice wrote a letter to Mayor Karen Bass saying knowledgeable city officials had told her the city was negotiating a bad deal with LA28.
Rice pointed specifically to the boundaries of Olympic venues, claiming LA28 was advocating for narrower venue perimeters "narrowly confined to the physical buildings and immediate sidewalks of the venue." She said the city's broader understanding of venue perimeters that will need city services could leave a substantial gap in funding that would leave the city exposed.
Reached by phone, Rice said her concerns remain the same. She called the city's dealings "incompetent."
" I know 10th graders who plan their prom better than this," she said of city officials. "Their mission is to look good. Their mission isn't to protect the taxpayers."
