LA28 to study Los Angeles World Cup matches as Olympic test case, CEO says

LOS ANGELES, June 4 : Los Angeles Olympic organizers will use the city's 2026 World Cup matches as a key learning opportunity for transport, security and crowd movement as they prepare to stage the 2028 Games, LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover told Reuters.

The World Cup will bring eight matches to Los Angeles, with games at SoFi Stadium, offering Olympic planners a live test of how the region handles a major global sporting event before the much larger Olympics and Paralympics arrive two years later.

"It gives us an opportunity to look at transportation, it gives us an opportunity to look at security, it gives us an opportunity to look at how are they moving fans around," Hoover said in an interview on Thursday.

"For us, we can take that and then scale it," he added, noting that LA28 will involve 50 competition venues and about 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Hoover said the organizing committee has developed a strong relationship with FIFA and expects lessons from the soccer tournament to feed directly into Olympic planning.

EXCITEMENT BUILDING TOWARD LA OLYMPICS

The comments came following three days of meetings between LA28 and the International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission in Los Angeles to review preparations.

Hoover said the IOC examined operations, venues, delivery models, community engagement, the torch relay, economic impact and sustainability.

"The level of excitement is electric," Hoover said. "To have the IOC here with us ... and hear the results of where they assess that we are makes me even more confident that we're going to deliver a Games like none other."

NO PLAYBOOK FOR MASSIVE LA GAMES

He said the greatest challenge remains the sheer size and complexity of the event.

The LA Games will be