LA officials issue letters of demands amid major 2028 Olympics fears
Los Angeles have reportedly expressed major fears over the staging of the 2028 Olympics in the American city.
LA will host the Olympics for the first time in 44 years, and are set to become only the third city to have hosted it three times, after London and Paris.
Five sports will be part of the LA28 schedule that were not on the Paris 2024 calendar, with flag football and squash making their debuts.
Lacrosse and baseball/softball will make their returns, while cricket has been made an Olympic sport for the first time since 1900 as organisers hope to further expand the sport's reach in the United States.
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The proposed budget for the Games is around $7billion, which will be offset by ticket sales, commercial revenue and also via partial funding from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It was reported in December that LA28 organisers had already raised a staggering $2billion in commercial revenue for the Games.
But according to the Los Angeles Times, city officials are now seeking reassurances that the full cost of the Olympics can be raised in order to avoid a scenario where taxpayers would need to foot part of the bill.
City attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and Council member Monica Rodriguez have both 'issued letters demanding a contract pledging that LA28 cover any of the city's future costs that arise', the report claims.
It is stated that the contract is needed 'to foreclose any scenario in which funds might go back to the wealthy backers and investors of the LA 28 organisation without reimbursing taxpayer-funded extraordinary costs'.
At the centre of the issue is the fact that officials want the Olympics organisation to 'pay any excess costs for policing, transportation, trash pickup and more' so as to not affect the ability to fund 'core city services'.
LA28 officials are said to have responded with a previously-issued statement that reiterated their commitment to 'delivering the safest, most secure and fiscally responsible Games that will benefit Angelenos for decades to come'.
US President Donald Trump could play a key role in resolving the fears, however.
His administration's latest announcement of federal fund allocations, made on Wednesday, omitted $2billion of funding that the Los Angeles metro was seeking to transport fans to and from venues during the Olympics.
A number of Democratic house representatives in California had previously urged Trump to approve the funding, describing it as a 'final opportunity' in a letter ahead of the federal announcement.
Trump has a rocky relationship with California governor Gavin Newsom, who is seen as one of the main contenders to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for the 2028 presidential election.
A spokesperson for Newsom accused the Trump administration of refusing an urgent meeting to discuss further federal funding for victims of the Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025.
"The Trump Administration refused a routine wildfire recovery meeting - a rejection we've never seen before - even as LA families near a year without long-term federal financial help," his spokesperson stated in January.
"The message to survivors is unmistakable: Donald Trump doesn't care about them."
Topics: Olympics, Donald Trump, US Sports
Ryan Smart