USC to house media and host sporting events for LA 2028

Aneel Yelamanchili | Daily Trojan

The University’s facilities will be used to host athletics and house media during the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.

This will be the third time the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosts an Olympic event since the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. To save the city of Los Angeles billions in construction costs, the LA 2024 bid — which was consequently revised to the year 2028 — will house journalists and members of the media at the USC Village, the location of the official Media Village.

Meanwhile, Pauley Pavilion and the Hill at UCLA will serve as the Olympic Village — the housing destination for athletes.

In addition to the Media Village, journalists will also be able to utilize the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s state-of-the-art media center on campus while they cover the event.

Athletics, including track and field, are proposed to take place at the Coliseum while aquatics will be on campus and badminton will take place at the Galen Center.

Students who are enrolled in summer courses will be housed in other areas of the University to accommodate the influx of media during that time, according to Daniel Stimmler, USC Vice President of Auxiliary Services and Chief Operating Officer of L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

“We think it’s going to create an amazing opportunity for students leading up to [the Olympics] to be involved with the Games in a way they never have before,” Stimmler said, “[This includes] not just volunteering — I would anticipate classes focused on the economic impact of Olympics to a city [like Los Angeles].”

The International Olympics Committee reportedly made $180 million in advanced payments to the Los Angeles Organizing Committee in preparation for the event.

In its plans to utilize the STAPLES Center, Pauley Pavilion at UCLA and the Coliseum, the city will avoid spending money on new arenas. The deal closed with economic expectations of hundreds of millions in cost reduction and revenue. If the city is able to stay under the $487 million budget, city officials struck a deal for L.A. to keep most of the remaining money.

The deal broke after weeks of negotiations between Los Angeles and Paris, with Paris decidedly hosting 2024 and Los Angeles hosting 2028. Plans to accommodate the logistics of hosting the massive event have begun among USC administrators and city officials.  

“These villages are clearly the best choice for athletes and the media. These are also the best choice for the people of Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, an avid campaigner for the L.A. Olympic event, in a press conference in July.

Renovations for the Coliseum, which include a new track instillation, begin Jan. 2018, despite the announcement of L.A.’s decision to host the Olympic games.

The IOC’s formal vote in favor of Los Angeles hosting the event is set to take place Sept. 2017.