The cost of hosting the Olympics is enormous — in the past, the Games have sometimes left host cities in the red.
Los Angeles, however, has a good track record; the city turned a profit on the 1984 Olympics. The 2028 organizing committee, LA28, has big plans for keeping hosting costs low once again. These include using existing facilities to reduce construction costs and bringing in big corporate sponsorship deals. Unlike past Olympics, LA28 is also allowed to make money by selling temporary naming rights for the sporting venues. In December 2025, LA28 announced it had raised over $2 billion in domestic sponsorships and reportedly predicted coming in under budget.
But LA28’s revenue expectations are overly sunny, says a new report from Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), an economic justice nonprofit and member of a coalition that opposes bringing the Olympics to the city…