The Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are heading for a financial meltdown as sponsors drop out, executives resign and costs spiral, an exclusive DailyMail.com investigation has revealed.
Now international anger at President Donald Trump‘s tariffs combined with delays in transportation projects designed to get spectators to the sports threaten to turn the international spectacle into chaos.
If Trump decides to put up roadblocks preventing Olympians from ‘enemy’ countries like China and Iran from entering the US all bets could be off.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom is catching heat for his involvement in the 2028 games from both left and right-wing groups.
Newsom’s attempt at smoothing over rising concerns around the games have led to a rebrand attempt, dubbing it the ‘Recovery Games’, with the goal of creating an ‘LA 2.0’ – which appears to have rubbed his constituents the wrong way
‘It’s an unacceptable gamble of public money,’ said Eric Sheehan, spokesman for NOlympics LA, a group protesting the event.
LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman (bottom right) and LA mayor Karen Bass waving the Olympic flag in August 2024. The city is heading for a financial meltdown as the rising costs, dropping sponsors and damages from the wildfires, a DailyMail.com investigation revealed
Both President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom have caught heat for the rollout of the LA Olympics – Trump for his tariffs and Newsom for his games rebranding attempt post skyrocketing costs after wildfire repairs
Leaders in Santa Monica announced beach volleyball wouldn’t be held at the iconic Santa Monica Beach due to their failure to reach an agreement over a projected $1.45million loss for hosting the sport
‘Everything that we were told about these Olympics from the start has turned out not to be true,’ he added. ‘We’re expecting a lot of negative consequences for Angelenos.’
Already, leaders in neighboring Santa Monica stunned organizers by declaring last week that its iconic beach will not be the setting for one of the most popular sports in the four-yearly games, beach volleyball. The city failed to reach an agreement over a projected $1.45 million loss for hosting the sport.
City staff said they were ‘extremely disappointed that we could not reach an agreement on key issues’ with LA28, according to an email obtained by the Santa Monica Daily Press this week.
Santa Monica’s mayor, Lana Negrete also expressed her regret, saying: ‘There is no better place to host the Olympic beach volleyball competition than Santa Monica, where the sport was born.
‘We would have loved to be a venue city in 2028.’
The Games – scheduled for the last two weeks of July – were touted as a slimmed-down extravaganza that would be largely funded by corporate sponsorships.
The city’s already existing sports stadiums meant no big construction projects were anticipated, but the committee’s loss of sponsorships in 2024 was the beginning of the city’s economic burden
Organizing committee chairman Casey Wasserman has already had two major sponsors drop out that he lined up. Toyota and Panasonic also dropped their funding last year
NOlympics LA spokesman, Eric Sheehan, said the games were an ‘unacceptable gamble of public money’. The rising inflation could lead to boycotts, which also affected the 1984 LA Olympics
However, because of the already existing sports stadiums in the nation’s second-largest city, no big construction projects were anticipated.
But those plans were upended by a series of devastating blows that began last year when Salesforce, one of the three major sponsors lined up by organizing committee chairman Casey Wasserman, abruptly quit, saying the two sides had ‘amicably parted ways’.
Toyota and Panasonic also dropped their funding last year for the International Olympic Committee.
That left just Delta Airlines and Comcast as major sponsors carrying the can.
Key figures organizing the Games walked out as the economic picture got worse.
Then LA was hit by deadly wildfires in January that virtually wiped out the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, putting a huge strain on the city budget.
The LA wildfires in January put a major dent in the city’s budget as Pacific Palisades (pictured in March) and Altadena have been virtually wiped out
An overhead view of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022. A recent budget update projected costs for the games have risen by $267million
To get ahead with the sweeping costs from the LA fires, Governor Newsom rebranded the 2028 event as the ‘Recovery Games and announced, ‘LA Rises,’ a team including Wasserman which he said was ‘looking at reimagining LA 2.0’.
But the LA-based left wing group, the People’s City Council, were critical about this plan, claiming it ‘will be used as an excuse to funnel money to the Olympics, policing, and surveillance,’ fears shared by the NOlympics activists.
Documentary maker James Li also claimed Newsom’s plan would turn into a ‘land grab’ for developers, writing on X: ‘Meanwhile, fire victims are selling their scorched homes at a loss.’
Conservative commentator Trish Regan echoed others on the right, slamming the governor and calling for the Olympics to be moved to a southern city after January’s fires.
‘Gavin Newsom claims the coming Olympics is why Los Angeles must be rebuilt. Is he high?’ Regan posted on X in January. ‘We must move the Olympics OUT of CA as fast as possible. Austin, Dallas, Miami, Ft Lauderdale — any of those locations would be GREAT.’
Newsom has also found himself in the midst of the thorny debate around transgender athletes competing in 2028 after he broke with Democrats to express concerns about trans women competing in women’s sports.
Wasserman, 50, wields a $7.15billion budget but according to economists and Olympics experts, it may not be enough
Performers on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s infield as balloons are released above them during the opening ceremony for the 1984 LA Olympics
Last month, Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville wrote a letter asking Newsom to implement ‘clear, transparent and scientifically supported rules’ around trans Olympic athletes competing in women’s sports in 2028. The governor does not appear to have responded yet.
And now, there are fears that Trump may throw further spanners in the works for the games, which will be held just as he enters his last six months in the White House.
Anger at his tariffs could even bring about a boycott – something that affected the last LA Olympics in 1984.
‘The cost of repairing fire damage, likely global inflation as the result of Trump’s tariffs, the president’s anti-California sentiment, are all adding both to general uncertainty around LA 2028 and to the costs of preparing for the event,’ Simon Chadwick, Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School in France, told DailyMail.com.
‘Many mega events result in cost overruns and someone ultimately will have to pay,’ Chadwick said.
‘At this stage, it seems unlikely that this will be the [federal] government, although Trump may use such a scenario to press California into doing things they might otherwise normally resist.’
Wasserman said he has already secured 65 percent of the funding he needs – but that includes projected ticket sales and merchandising (1984 LA Olympics)
An Oxford Business School Fellow Alex Budzier said in a 2024 study that the projected ticket sales are expected to sell 50 percent more than Paris’ 2024 Olympics did
University of Utah professor Matthew Burbank said it would not surprise him if the Trump administration also threw diplomatic problems at the Olympics to score domestic political points – such as a ban on allowing visas for transgender athletes.
‘That could become a big issue,’ said Burbank, an Olympics expert. ‘And it’s striking, their willingness to pick those fights, based on what we’ve seen so far.’
Wasserman, 50, wields a $7.15billion budget but according to economists and Olympics experts, it may not be enough.
The Hollywood talent agent mogul says he has already secured 65 percent of the funding he needs – but that includes projected ticket sales and merchandising.
In a budget update delivered to the city council on March 31, LA28 said its projected costs have risen by $267million.
The organization still predicted a balanced budget, but only with the help of a $569 million increase in ‘tickets and hospitality’ revenues.
City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said the damage from the wildfires means mass layoffs are coming and broke the news that some repairs are unlikely to be completed before the games
The LA Memorial Coliseum will host both the opening ceremony and the track and field events
Oxford Business School Fellow Alex Budzier, who published a May 2024 study on Olympics costs, said the projected ticket sales may be optimistic.
‘The big change in their revenue projection is a 30 percent increase in revenue from tickets and hospitality,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘The LA organizers expect to sell $2.5billion worth of tickets, that is 50 percent more than Paris made.
‘Paris 2024 sold 12.4million tickets for $1.6billion. That’s an average price per ticket of approximately $130.’
And amid growing budget worries, LA28 now has a new major headwind to contend with: tariffs.
Chadwick said any imported materials for temporary construction around the Olympics are likely to get more expensive.
The city’s budget woes also appear to be creating drag for crucial transport projects intended for completion in time for the influx of millions to the city for LA28
The LA28 organization is allegedly considering hiring bus services to transport spectators as the proposed subway projects have been severely delayed
And Budzier added that Trump’s new sweeping tariff policies, coupled with high demand on local construction firms after the damage from January’s fires, could lead to inflation that may bust LA28’s budget.
‘Economists predict that the tariffs will increase inflation in the US. And the wildfire recovery efforts that will happen in parallel to LA28 will also have an inflationary effect,’ Budzier said.
‘The organizers claim that there was no impact on the venues they plan to use.
‘However, the city of LA has now authorized a budget of $4.4billion for the recovery effort from the wildfires. I would expect that this big spend will create a bubble of inflation in LA for construction and salaries, which will impact the LA28 plans.’
City officials say they have no ability to foot the bill for LA28 cost overruns, despite being contractually on the hook for the first $270million of any extra spending.
‘We absolutely cannot afford that under any circumstance,’ Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said in a meeting last month. ‘We can’t even afford half of that.’
The LA Convention Center will serve as the main press headquarters and will also hold fencing, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wrestling
Because of the cost burdens on the city, LA is outsourcing less popular sports to other states such as canoe slalom which will be held at the White Water Center in Oklahoma City
Their liability is potentially unlimited. California state coffers will cover the next $270 million of potential overruns, and after that, the rest is all on LA City.
Meanwhile, city officials say their own budget is in dire straits, with a projected billion-dollar black hole caused by fires that ravaged the Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.
City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo told the council last month that layoffs are ‘nearly inevitable’ and could number in the ‘thousands’.
He added that some of the wildfire repairs are unlikely to be completed before the 2028 games.
Just one of the fires, which almost wiped the Pacific Palisades off the map, created an estimated $350million of damage to city infrastructure.
The city’s budget woes also appear to be creating drag for crucial transport projects intended for completion in time for the influx of millions to the city for LA28.
The Olympics’ equestrian event will be held in Temecula, California. Even though the city is outsourcing some events, LA city councilor Tim McOsker said LA28’s contracts will still leave the city on the hook for any cost overruns, even if they take place outside of LA
According to a 2024 study by Oxford Business School, the average games go over budget by an eye-popping 156 percent
One source close to the LA28 organization said they are having to consider hiring buses to transport spectators and teams around traffic-clogged Los Angeles after severe subway project delays mean new train lines will not open until after the games.
LA Metro originally planned 28 projects to make the notoriously car-centric city more traversable by train. Now they estimate ten of those will not be completed by the summer of 2028.
‘There has been a reset and readjustment of projects, and we are working with regional partners and the federal government for additional support,’ Marcel Porras, deputy chief innovation officer for Metro, told NBC LA last year.
A self-driving train that would finally connect LAX airport to the city’s Metro system was meant to be completed in 2023. First, it was delayed to 2024 and is now projected to finish in November.
Burbank told DailyMail.com that there are still ‘really big questions’ over LA having adequate public transport for the Olympics.
‘The presumption always is that people will be able to get around your city in reasonable ways. That’s always a huge challenge for LA,’ he said.
Paris 2024 spent $1.2billion on security for the games, but on LA28’s budget, security has been omitted
Chief legal officer Tanja Olano earned $1,020,218 for her 20-hour-a-week role according to the organization’s latest IRS filing for the 2023 tax year
‘If you’re an Olympic visitor, getting to Santa Monica from Downtown, and you’re told ‘take these four buses,’ clearly that’s not going to work. LA organizers have to have a plan for getting people to venues.’
Professor Burbank added that with recent budget hits, LA City will now be ‘very hard pressed’ to find the cash to speed up Metro projects.
While Wasserman is confident his event will be fully funded by private cash, the Summer Olympics has an infamous history of dramatic cost overruns.
According to a 2024 study by Oxford Business school, the average games go over budget by an eye-popping 156 percent.
‘All Games, without exception, have cost overrun,’ authors Bent Flyvbjerg and Alexander Budzier wrote.
Parisians were left with a $3.26billion bill from their 2024 games last summer after their original bid cost doubled to an estimated $9.7billion.
Olano quit in September after working for nearly a decade on the games. Two weeks later, the head of HR for the organization also resigned
Amid budget fears, LA28 has begun jettisoning less popular sports from the main city venues, announcing they moved the canoe slalom competition to Oklahoma City, equestrian events to LA’s neighboring city of Temecula and shooting to an undetermined site outside of LA.
Despite the outsourcing of events, LA city councilor Tim McOsker pointed out last month that LA28 contracts still leave the city on the hook for any cost overruns of events even if they take place outside of LA.
And experts say there’s no getting around other costs like security, which currently doesn’t seem to appear in the 2028 budget.
‘Looking at LA28’s budget the big missing item is security,’ Budzier said.
‘Paris 2024 spent $1.2billion on security alone. Those costs are nowhere to be found in the budget of LA28.
‘The second big item is technology. Like all the Olympic organizers, LA28 is building their own IT to sell tickets and hotel places. Those costs have now gone up to $830million. That’s worrying.’
LA28 did not respond to a request for comment.
LA28’s budget does have a $613.5million ‘contingency’ fund, but three years out it has already started to shrink, with last month’s update squeezing the emergency fund by $2.4million.
Salaries for LA28 executives have also taken a large bite out of their budget.
According to the organization’s latest IRS filing, pay for 18 top officers totaled $14.7million in 2023.
Chief legal officer Tanja Olano earned $1,020,218 for her 20-hour-a-week role according to the organization’s latest IRS filing for the 2023 tax year.
Olano quit in September after working for nearly a decade on the games.
In a message to her operations team at the time, she wrote: ‘It was an all-consuming journey and I’m ready to take a break.’
Two weeks after Olano’s resignation the organization’s head of HR, Kristina Guillen, also resigned.
She had been in her role less than four months and described the job as a ‘once-in-a-career moment’ when she joined.
Guillen did not give a reason for leaving. An LA28 spokesperson said at the time that the end of the Paris 2024 Olympics was a ‘natural time of transition, and staffing changes are to be expected’.
