Feuds, truces and dollar signs: how five sports made cut for 2028 Games

It remains one of the more striking moments in Olympic history: a star-spangled rocket man hovering over the Los Angeles Coliseum at the opening ceremony in 1984, heralding a new era of commercialism and pizzazz. And although history is unlikely to precisely repeat when the Games return in five years’ time, it will rhyme: LA 2028 plans to go big and brash again.

That was made even more evident on Monday when the LA bid team confirmed the Guardian’s exclusive that five new sports – cricket, flag football, baseball/softball, lacrosse and squash – would be proposed for 2028. Most observers had expected just two to get in, given the pressures they would put on the International Olympic Committee’s quota of 10,500 athletes. Ultimately, though, both sides understood the benefits of a compromise – and saw the dollar signs stretch out from Hollywood Boulevard to Madison Avenue.

Negotiations, though, were not straightforward. The IOC wanted cricket. LA pushed hard for flag football and baseball/softball. Neither side had much interest in the other’s preferences. There were bitter arguments over money and numbers, too, and relations became so strained that a decision was pushed back nearly a month. Yet, in the end, an uneasy peace was brokered.

For the IOC, the benefits of cricket inside the Olympic tent are clear. As things stand, the TV rights for the Games in India go for a handful of millions. Now it can realistically expect more like $150m, according to Michael Payne, who was the IOC’s director of marketing and TV for 20 years.

“The TV revenue from India is currently peanuts,” he says. “And if you are Thomas Bach at the IOC, with a mission to promote the Olympic movement around the world, you look at your globe and you’re