Visiting the venues

In the first full day of the World Press Briefing ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, the press spent a lot of time riding in buses, which will likely be the case when the actual Olympics start in two years, as the LA traffic promises to be one of the biggest hurdles organizers have to get over as they prepare for the Games.

Today was the day that we visited a number of the venues that will be hosting events during the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. Honestly, this was the part of the event that I was most looking forward to, as there were a few cool places on the list.

We started pretty strong, as we visited SoFi Stadium, the home of the Rams and Chargers and quite possibly one of the largest places I have ever seen, right up there with the Bird's Nest in Beijing. It was absolutely massive. For LA28, the stadium, which will be known as 2028 Stadium, will host the Opening Ceremony and will also be the home of swimming, making it the largest venue to host swimming ever. Interestingly enough, they will be dividing the floor in half, building two pools, one for practice and the other for the competition and there will be stands built in the middle of the stadium.

From there, we made the short trip to the Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, which will host basketball in the Olympics. The arena was specifically built for basketball and it's quite obvious, with no bad seats in the house and a cool video board that circles the arena. From there we made our way to BMO Stadium, home of the LA football clubs. For LA28, it will be known as Exposition Park Stadium and will be hosting lacrosse and flag football. Like SoFi, the field will be divided in two, with practice on one side and games on the other. It is the first open air stadium built in LA since Dodger Stadium was opened.

After that we walked across the street to see a little bit of history at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The venue hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984 and will be the first venue to host three Olympics when the Opening Ceremony takes place there (along with SoFi) in 2028. There is definitely a lot of history there and it was cool to see such a historic place. We learned that in order to host track in 2028, they will actually build up the floor and cover the first 15-20 rows of seats and build the track on top of that (the current football configuration does not have enough space for the needed track). While there, we also had lunch on the top floor with great views out to the downtown area and on to Hollywood.

With lunch done, we headed back downtown and stopped at the Peacock Theater, which hosts the Grammys and will also host the Oscars in 2029. For LA 2028, it will host boxing and weightlifting on an expanded stage. As someone who has spent a lot of time around a theater stage, I was blown away by the sheer size of the space. It was amazing to walk around the stage and just look at all the technology and theater stuff. I also saw that Taylor Swift performed on the stage at one point, so I can now say I've been on the same stage as Taylor, which is a win for me.

The final stop of the tour was right across the street from the Peacock Theater at the Crypto.com Arena, which will be known as Downtown LA Arena during the Olympics. This arena is the home to the Lakers, the Sparks and the Kings and the Sparks had just finished playing a game when we arrived. They allowed us to walk on the court at the end of our visit, which was kind of cool.

With the tour over, the organizers offered us a chance to visit the LA 2028 Store, which is not open to the public. I may have spent a bit too much money and have no way of squeezing things into my luggage to get it back to New Hampshire.

It was a long day of riding, but it was awesome to see so many cool places, both new and old. Tomorrow's work is in the hotel all day long, so no riding the bus.

We ate lunch on the top floor of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, looking out over downtown Los Angeles. It was quite a view in the middle of our venue tours.