The Los Angeles Olympics are jumping into the deep end.
Games organizers are moving 2028 Olympic swimming to SoFi Stadium in a bold move that will shake up the traditional schedule of the Olympics.
LA28, the organizing committee for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, announced Friday the swimming events in 2028 will take place at SoFi Stadium, the NFL stadium that hosts the city’s NFL teams.
SoFi can hold 38,000 fans, making it the largest swimming venue in Olympic history. The decision to host swimming there has a domino effect on other events and is in part a decision rooted in how the 2028 Games are being funded. Those Olympics are relying on private funding and planning on making significant money from ticket revenue.
The original swimming venue was supposed to be a temporary venue built on the University of Southern California’s baseball stadium, according to The New York Times, and would seat around 17,500 fans. By moving to SoFi, the seating capacity more than doubles.
“I have no doubt that it will be the biggest attended swim meet in this country’s history, and maybe the most spectacular swim meet ever,” Casey Wasserman, chairman of the organizing committee, said in the release.
The decision to bring swimming to SoFi started a domino effect on other events shuffling around Los Angeles and, in one case, to the Midwest. They are:
-Track and field will take swimming’s traditional slot in the first week while the pool gets constructed and covered at SoFi after the opening ceremonies.
-Basketball will move from Crypto.com Arena, home to the Lakers, to the Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ new arena, which is set to open in August.
-Gymnastics will move from the Kia Forum to Crypto.com Arena.
-Diving, synchronized swimming, and Paralympic swimming will move to other venues in L.A. and Long Beach.
-Softball will be played in Oklahoma City, 1,300 miles east of Los Angeles.
The organizers of the 2028 Olympics have long said their goal is to heavily rely on existing stadiums, and Oklahoma City has a far larger softball venue than any in the Los Angeles area.
