Who are you? What are you doing?
NOlympics LA is a grassroots, all-volunteer coalition formed in 2017 in opposition to the LA28 Olympic bid. Our group includes individual members and a growing list of more than 45 coalition members (partner organizations in and around Los Angeles).
Beyond LA, we are connected to and have helped establish a global movement against the Olympics called NOlympics Anywhere.
Aren’t the Olympics happening in LA in 2028 no matter what?
We’re fighting to cancel the Los Angeles Olympics—and there’s still time! There are several actions LA City Council could take to cancel the bid or seriously curtail the Games. Given the current instability of our institutions, we believe that nothing is set in stone. As pressure from our coalition continues to grow, there are multiple paths to stopping the Games. Whether our elected officials act through legal mechanisms or communities mobilize directly, the point remains: when a flood threatens your neighborhood, you don’t welcome it—you work with your neighbors to protect yourselves from the rising water.
Why are you so against the Olympics?
Hosting the 2028 Games in Los Angeles will have a destructive effect on local communities, due in part to the National Special Security Event (NSSE) designation—which the mayor and bid committee are using to attempt to offload the security costs (and responsibilities) from the city to the federal government. The reality of the designation is that it puts the security of the greater Los Angeles area in the hands of the federal government. Yes, you read that correctly—right now, our local law enforcement is under the control of federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. ICE incursions, policing, surveillance, gentrification, and displacement will all be accelerated by the Olympics, putting already vulnerable populations further at risk.
Why can’t we just fight for a better Olympics?
The Olympics are impervious to reform. People from around the world, including here in LA, have tried and failed to reform the Olympics for decades because they’re designed to elide community input, control, and accountability.
- SafeSport to protect athletes? A total failure.
- Sustainability? – Declining with each Games.
- “Car free” games? – They’ve already rebranded to “transit-first.”
- “No build” games? – Still constructing, still displacing people, still overspending.
- Promise to clean up Rio’s Guanabara Bay? – Poolmypics.
Olympic Reform is impossible because capitalism is unreformable. Capitalism and its many offshoots can only be abolished.
Won’t the Olympics create more jobs? Aren’t they good for workers?
While the Bid Committee’s economic study paints a rosy picture of job growth caused by the games, even they admit these will be temporary gains. With a sharp decline in union construction and a potential influx of migratory, temporary labor, local workers will be thrust into a difficult negotiating position. Due to the introduction of these temporary workers, labor protections will be weakened and the likelihood of exploitation for all workers will increase.
In the hurried construction of SoFi Stadium, at least three workers died due to unsafe working conditions. What good is golden time pay when you’re risking your life?
Why don’t you support the Fair Games campaign?
The short answer is that the Fair Games campaign spearheaded by Unite Here is a reformist effort. That is, we support what they’re asking for (living wages, stopping short-term rentals), but we do not support using the Olympics as a cover to get them. Angelenos deserve strong wages, housing, and transit for all—whether we agree to host a party for the rich or not. This “fair” Olympics will still cause many Angelenos to suffer. The Fair Games website itself states that “in recent decades, in country after country, global sporting events have failed to produce lasting benefits for host communities.” How will the Fair Games campaign produce a different result?
Won’t we save money on construction by using pre-existing facilities? Aren’t these the “No Build” Olympics?
Not by a long shot.
While Los Angeles won’t have to erect any new stadiums from scratch, there will still be massive amounts of construction and renovation on existing structures and thus a considerable amount of risk for these projects to go over budget. If there are any weather or ecological issues in the lead up to the games, we can almost certainly count on massive overages. No global mega-event is risk free. The Olympic Games are no exception, with average cost overruns of 156%.
If this were really a no build Olympics, would Council pass a motion to exempt all Olympics-related development from city planning approval processes and environmental regulations?
Isn’t upgrading the Convention Center and other old infrastructure a good thing?
Sure, if it was planned out ahead of time and not rushed through with only a five-week cushion in a 130-week construction schedule, at a cost of $2.7 billion (yes, billion!). LA won the bid for the 2028 Olympics in 2017, an unprecedented 11 years in advance. There is ZERO reason that construction on the Convention Center in the name of the Olympics should be starting in November 2025. And like the rest of the spending on Olympics builds, costs will be shouldered by us, the taxpayers, totaling $5 billion over 30 years of debt service.
Won’t the Olympics improve public transit?
No. Mayor Bass has already moved the goalposts from a “car-free” Olympics to a “transit-first” Olympics—highlighting that the goals around transit were vague and hollow. Thus far Los Angeles County has asked for $3.2 billion for public transit, of which $2 billion will be allocated to rent a temporary bus system that will vanish once the Games conclude. Transit projects in recent Games have also led to accelerated gentrification and displacement of existing residents, particularly low-income and immigrant residents.
Can’t we spend some of the Olympic profits on housing for homelessness?
No, we legally cannot. The Host City Contract, as written by the International Olympic Committee, stipulates where any profits would go. 20% goes to Olympic organizing bodies, and the part that LA gets to keep can ONLY be used for youth sports initiatives. As written in the contract, there is no mechanism for the mayor, City Council, Organizing Committee, or most importantly, the people of Los Angeles, to decide where any profits should go.
Plus, attempting to address the homelessness crisis through a process of bidding/planning/hosting over a period of 8-12 years is a roundabout and time-consuming way to raise money for such an urgent issue. And since the primary cause of homelessness in Los Angeles is the lack of affordable housing, the Olympics will almost certainly create a huge spike in displacement and homelessness by accelerating gentrification and real estate speculation.
Won’t this help LA recover after the historic 2025 wildfires?
No, the opposite is true. Mega events will impede and delay the rehousing of residents by diverting precious resources away from immediate recovery and from future catastrophe mitigation tactics.
Our polling in spring 2025 found that most Angelenos consider wildfire recovery and rebuilding to be a more important priority for public resources than the Olympics. Similar “recovery” narratives were attempted in the “2020” Tokyo Olympics as organizers claimed recovery while irradiated soil sat in athletic venues.
Won’t the Olympics bring our country together in a time of national divide?
Unfortunately, the Olympic Games have historically provided a platform for intense and destructive forms of nationalism, jingoism, and xenophobia–particularly for politicians and parties looking to consolidate or validate power. For example, Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Olympics in Berlin to promote his agenda of racial supremacy and domination and to highlight the supposed genetic superiority of the Aryans.
Continuing in the same spirit, U.S. Olympic officials have banned transgender women from women’s events, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not far behind. Donald Trump issued three travel bans in 2025, essentially barring fans from those countries from attending any mega-events in the US. For example, Iran is planning to boycott the World Cup because the United States denied the president of their football federation a visa.
But don’t most Angelenos support the idea of the Olympics?
No. The Olympics are really unpopular! Early polls showing support were conducted by Fernando Guerra, a registered lobbyist with a developer (Sandstone Properties) who had multiple LA 2028-related contracts in play in 2017 (the bidding cycle).
We conducted our own polling in 2018, and we found that only 9% of respondents strongly supported bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles. You can read the full results, methodology, and analysis here.
We conducted our own polling again in 2025, and despite initial claims of nearly universal support, enthusiasm for the games is eroding over time and in response to very real pressures on public resources. Angelenos are more likely to support public spending on wildfire recovery than the Olympics. You can read the full results, methodology and analysis here.
Wasn’t there a public vote on hosting or something?
No. The decision to host the Olympics in Los Angeles was anti-democratic and corrupt. There was no public mandate, no public vote, just a city council that voted unanimously over 99% of the time (weird!).
Why do you hate sports?
We don’t! We think exercise and general health are great things. Sports encourage teamwork and camaraderie, which are near and dear to our hearts! But when money and sports get too intertwined, rampant exploitation triumphs over “the love of the game.” The Worker’s Olympiad of 1931, a socialist Games organized as a counterweight to the aristocratic Olympics, had more attendees and participants than the 1932 Olympics in LA.
The Olympics exploit athletes’ talents for its own profit. Athlete and youth abuse is prevalent in the Olympic system. This abuse thrives because these institutions are not accountable to the communities they operate within and allegedly uplift.
Speaking of abuse…
What’s the deal with Casey Wasserman?
LA28 Chairperson and chief benefactor Casey Wasserman is an extremely problematic person and perhaps one of the most problematic people in America. From sexual abuse of LA28 staffers—prompting many to quit—to potentially using LA28 funds on his mistress’s personal security detail, to flying on the Epstein plane at least 10 times, to failing to acknowledge Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, and the other Larry Nassar survivors after they specifically called Wasserman and LA28 to act, it’s clear he’s incredibly untrustworthy and someone who certainly doesn’t deserve the privilege and power he was born into.
Wasserman grew up insanely wealthy (grandson of mobbed up talent agent Lew Wasserman), and his father-in-law was one of the lead organizers of the LA84 Olympics. He later bought a PR company (Laundry Service, who represented Papa John, among others). Since securing the LA28 bid, he has bought half of the music and sports talent industries (Wasserman Music and Wasserman Sports). He’s given to Democrats and Republicans alike, while recently appointing many Republicans to the LA28 board. Ultimately, he’s allowed to operate above all accountability, and local media and elected officials have never challenged him.
Didn’t LA make money from the last Olympics?
No. No “profits” from the 1984 Olympics went into public funds. The surplus was given to a private, unaccountable body called the ’84 Foundation, which is not “LA” or “the city.” Who actually saw the profit from the ‘84 Games? Has any of that money used to better the community? No, that money is actively gentrifying South LA today. (Read more about the LA ‘84 Foundation’s interest in real estate behemoths like Blackstone here and other conflicts of interest here and here.)
The LA 2028 operating “budget” is now over $7B, and Angelenos and California tax payers will pay for ALL overages, unlike LA ‘84. In fact, Mayor Bass already asked city managers to cut 5% from their budgets because we “need to prepare for major global events such as the World Cup and Olympics.”
Didn’t the 2028 bid committee negotiate a good deal?
No. Zev Yaroslavsky said in 2021 that he showed the host city contract to three lawyers and they would never allow their clients to sign it. It’s an AWFUL DEAL. The 2028 deal is similar to the contract signed for Tokyo 2020. The Bid Committee and mayor have oversold numerous aspects of the “deal” they got for 2028, including the $1.5 billion in contributions to the Organizing Committee (which is a typical figure) and the $160 million for youth sports (which is an advance, not extra funds, and which LA would have to pay back if they couldn’t host the Games according to the Host City Contract).
Keep in mind that these contracts are written by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a notoriously undemocratic and unaccountable group, with the primary purpose of protecting and indemnifying the IOC. No IOC contract has ever favored the host city’s government or residents, and we don’t believe that the LA 2028 contract is any exception. LA will pay for all overages (except for $270 million, which is on the state of California).
How did LA City Council approve the 2028 bid without a budget?
We have no idea. But then again, the entire 2028 bidding process has been an exercise in rich and powerful figures making up the rules as they go along. In 2019, the 2028 operating budget was finally released to the tune of $6.9 billion. And it has since raised to $7.1 billion due to “inflation.” Obviously there are many other costs that are not represented in this (local law enforcement, NSSE, and other resources from city, county, and state agencies).
There is also possible legal action being taken between the city and LA28 over the reimbursement rates LA28 will pay to the city for sanitation, fire, traffic, and cops. According to city officials, this means we won’t fully understand the budget situation until 2027. We do know for sure that Los Angeles will be the one left holding the bag, as we are on the hook for unlimited debt spent by this private committee of Trump goons.
Well, can’t LA get it together by 2028?
The organizers have had almost a decade to prepare, but we’re still missing so many basic deliverables promised in the original timeline. This timeline also didn’t account for very real risks, like a major earthquake, wildfires, rising fascism, or severe economic downturns (such as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic or the moment we’re currently living in) and the ongoing mismanagement of city funds.
With the Host City Contract signed, there is no accountability mechanism to force officials to further consult constituents as these risks become our reality. And the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not change the terms of the contract, regardless of how clearly a host city demonstrates need. For example, when the 2016 Olympics host city Rio de Janeiro requested help from the IOC in 2017 to address the city’s $40M debt from the Games (which, for context, has exacerbated a recession that has crippled the country and left many without jobs or homes), the IOC refused to release them from their Host City Contract or renegotiate the terms.
Who is accountable when things go wrong?
No one, despite rampant Olympic Corruption. City Hall figures will claim they didn’t sign onto this. Eric Garcetti is long gone. Casey Wasserman is a private citizen. The LA Board of Supervisors will claim it’s not their fault. City Councilmembers in 2028—we will have experienced a complete turnover by then—will all hide behind the fact they didn’t rubberstamp this to begin with. No one will be held accountable. But regular, everyday Angelenos will be the ones to pay the price.
How can I join NOlympics?
Email us! [email protected]