Coliseum officially set to make history co-hosting 2028 Olympic opening ceremony

During the near decade since L.A. was awarded the 2028 Olympics, new venues have arrived, proposed venues have fallen through and sports have shuffled, but the centerpiece of the ever-evolving plan has always been clear.

The Coliseum.

The iconic stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, LA28 announced Thursday, officially locking in the organizing committee’s proposal. While the Coliseum will become the first venue to host the Olympics three times, the 2028 Games will also showcase one of the region’s newest cornerstones by using SoFi Stadium as a second venue for the Olympic opening ceremony and to host the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games.

The dual-venue opening ceremony is a first for the Olympic Games, following another unprecedented format in Paris where athletes paraded down the Seine in boats.

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“We’re going to be celebrating the past and we’re also going to be celebrating the future,” LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said Thursday at a news conference held at the Coliseum. “It is what’s next. The iconicness of the Coliseum and all the things that it represents and the ’32 Games and the ’84 Games, and then the technology and the next stage of Games and experience that the Inglewood stadium represents is going to be an amazing juxtaposition.”

The exact plan for the dual-venue opening ceremony has yet to be determined, Hoover said. He knows time is ticking: There are 1,162 days until the Olympics open on July 14, 2028, the retired Army general recited.

“The venues selected for the 2028 opening and closing ceremonies will highlight Los Angeles’s rich sporting history and cutting-edge future, showcasing the very best that L.A. has to offer on the world stage,” LA28 president Casey Wasserman said in a statement. “These two extraordinary venues will create an unforgettable experience, welcoming fans from across the globe to an Olympic and Paralympic Games like never before.”

The Games close on July 30, while the Paralympics — the first to be hosted in L.A. — run from Aug. 15-27.

SoFi Stadium was one year into construction when L.A. was awarded the Games in 2017. The Inglewood home of the Rams and Chargers will also host the Olympic swimming competition that was shifted to the second week of the Games while track and field at the Coliseum will take place during the first week.

Inglewood also will host Olympic basketball at Intuit Dome following the city’s role in the 1984 Olympics when the event was hosted at the Forum.

Mayor Karen Bass called the shared ceremony plan “a symbol of unity” between the two cities.

“[The Coliseum] will be the heartbeat of a Games that will take place in every neighborhood and in every corner of this city,” Bass said Thursday.

When LA28 bid for the Games in 2017, the private organizing committee pitched simultaneous opening ceremonies in L.A. and Inglewood. But the plan to carry the Olympic torch through the Coliseum’s peristyle plaza while the traditional Olympic protocol took place in Inglewood ruffled feathers with leaders, who wanted to ensure the historic Coliseum was at the center of the Games and L.A. was appropriately honored as the primary host city of the Games.

After previously calling for the opening ceremony to follow Olympic tradition at the Coliseum, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn applauded Thursday’s announcement.

“Olympic history at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum goes back nearly 100 years — with its Olympic torch and rings, the legacy of the Olympics is literally built into the venue,” Hahn said in a statement. “The Coliseum hosted the opening and closing ceremonies in 1932 and 1984, and it is only right that this iconic venue will once again welcome the world to Los Angeles in 2028.”

The 2028 Olympics will be the largest in history with 11,198 athletes participating in 351 medal events. To accommodate the growing program, events will be held in venues across L.A. and Orange counties while extending even outside the state to Oklahoma City, where softball and canoe slalom competitions will be held. The venue plan for the Paralympics, which will be held in L.A. for the first time, will be announced in the coming weeks after approval from the International Paralympic Committee.