Are hosting the Olympics worth the cost? A new report asks LA leaders to consider canceling

The coming Olympic Games in Los Angeles have been under a harsh spotlight, as LA28 head Casey Wasserman faces calls to resign over his recently released racy emails with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and chatter around ICE agents operating at the Winter Games.

Now, a community organization is reiterating calls on Los Angeles elected officials to seriously consider canceling the Olympics altogether.

Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, or SAJE, issued a report Thursday focused on L.A.'s financial exposure as host city. The city and state of California are the financial guarantors for the Olympics, meaning if they go into the red, L.A. taxpayers will foot the bill.

"L.A. city leaders must put the option of cancellation on the table now," Chris Tyler with SAJE wrote in the report. "They must urgently take up the work electeds failed to do in 2017, when they committed L.A. to hosting the Games without first having an informed, public conversation to weigh costs and benefits."

Calls to cancel the Olympics in Los Angeles go back as far as L.A.'s Olympic contract, which was inked in 2017. The group NOlympics LA launched that year, arguing that hosting the Olympics was a bad deal for the city. After the fires of 2025 and ongoing immigration raids, calls to halt L.A.'s Olympics plans have gained steam in public discourse.

But the cause has had little traction with public officials. If the city pulled out now, it could face billions of dollars in legal fees. None of the 15 City Council members have backed the idea, and plans for the Olympics continue full steam ahead.

As several City Council members and other prominent L.A. politicians call for Wasserman to step down, the report urges public officials to put cancellation on the table — even if only as a bargaining chip to win concessions for the city of L.A.

How likely is it that the L.A. Olympics wouldn’t go forward?

It’s extremely rare for host cities to pull out of the Olympics. Denver is the only city to withdraw from the International Olympic Committee after being chosen to host the 1976 Winter Games. Colorado voters rejected using public money for the mega-event, forcing the I.O.C. to relocate the Olympics to Innsbruck, Austria.

Even when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the Olympic Games moved forward in Japan, although they were delayed a year. The Games went on despite massive public discontent due to the ongoing public health crisis.

“Does the IOC have the power to decide that the games will go ahead?" one Japanese businessman tweeted ahead of the 2021 Games, according to a report from the Council on Foreign Relations. "There’s talk about huge penalties [if the games are canceled] but if one hundred thousand people from two hundred countries descend on vaccine-laggard Japan and the mutant variant spreads, I think we could lose a lot more.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Japanese taxpayers ended up spending $7.1 billion on the Games.

Canceling the Olympics would come with high costs to the city of L.A. Like in Tokyo, only the International Olympic Committee has the legal authority to pull out of a host location, according to its contract with L.A. The legal fees for L.A. canceling could be billions of dollars.

But the SAJE report questions if L.A. risks even greater exposure playing host than pulling out of its contract with the I.O.C.

"L.A. is looking at a potential fiscal disaster either way, and the decision on whether to try to cancel or renegotiate the terms of Olympic hosting depends on which you prefer to risk: billions of dollars in losses on hosting the Games, or billions in penalties for not hosting them," Neil deMause, the report's lead author, wrote.

What are some of the expenses tied to the Games?

LA28 currently has a $7.1 billion projected budget. 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.

The Olympics are intended to be mostly privately financed and "no cost" for Los Angeles. 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.

SAJE is calling on L.A. leaders to compile a list of all Olympics expenses that won't be covered by private organizing committee LA28, demand that LA28 provide detailed spending and revenue projections, and strategize over how to cancel the Games if necessary.

The report points to potential security expenses that could fall on the city of L.A. Details on how federal funds will be allocated for security aren't yet clear — leaving the city exposed to potential unexpected expenses. A contract between LA28 and the city also states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games, including policing. The details of that agreement are also still up in the air, though.

Negotiations between the city and the Olympic committee have dragged on more than four months past deadline. And some are concerned that if that deal isn't comprehensive, the city will be left with unexpected costs.

How can the city raise issues with LA28?

The city has little legal leverage to force new negotiations with LA28, but it does have the bully pulpit. The main public forum for the city to raise issues with the Olympics organizers is the ad-hoc City Council committee meetings on the Olympics.

That committee has seven members. At recent meetings, City Council members have demanded details on President Donald Trump's security task force for the Olympics and asked organizers to increase the contingency fund for the city as its budget grows. Three members of that committee have now called for Wasserman's resignation.

LA28 leadership are currently in Italy for the 2026 Winter Games. The next L.A. City Olympic Committee meeting has not been scheduled.