Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium were selected as the venues of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, organizers announced on Thursday.
“The venues selected for the 2028 Opening and Closing Ceremonies will highlight Los Angeles’s rich sporting history and cutting-edge future, showcasing the very best that LA has to offer on the world stage,” LA28 chairperson and president Casey Wasserman said in a statement.
“These two extraordinary venues will create an unforgettable experience, welcoming fans from across the globe to an Olympic and Paralympic Games like never before and concluding what will go down as one of the most incredible Games in history.”
The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 14 and will shared between the Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, in a unique instance when two venues will host the celebration at the same time. However, the Coliseum will take on the sole duty of closing out the Olympics.
The use of Coliseum will also become the first time that any site has hosted activities for three Olympics, after previously staging events for the 1932 and 1984 Games.
Meanwhile, the Paralympic opening ceremony will take place on August 15 at SoFi Stadium and close its games on August 27 at the Coliseum.
“For over a century, the Coliseum has been a landmark host to some of the most iconic moments in all of sports history,” Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “That story continues in 2028 as our city and our region welcomes the world for what will be the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Still, the announcement was a little more than formality as the LA28 organizing committee suggested the venues would be in place in its 2017 Olympic bid plan despite the the-under construction SoFi Stadium not slated to open until 2020.
The Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony last year saw national teams parade in boats down the River Seine in a spectacle that attracted rave reviews despite wet weather.
The United States showed dominance at both prior Olympics in Los Angeles, winning 100 medals in 1932 — including 44 gold, which was a high total than the medal count from any other country. In 1984, Team USA set an all-time record with 83 gold medals en route to a commanding 174 medal tally.
