From Venues to Data: The Technology Infrastructure Behind LA28

The 2028 Games will be spread across about 80 venues with no new permanent stadiums. That makes the real infrastructure invisible: data, networks and movement.

By Alexzander Awni, Sports Technology and Next Generation Correspondent

Family First News Desk  |  Where Sports and Education Go Hand in Hand

LA28’s existing-venue strategy makes connectivity, transportation and secure data part of the Games’ essential infrastructure.

Split image showing a Los Angeles Olympic venue and regional transportation or digital infrastructure.

The most unusual thing about the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles may be what organizers are not building. No new permanent venues will be constructed for LA28. Instead, the Games will use existing facilities, spread across around 80 venues in Southern California and beyond.

That decision saves money. LA28 says its revised venue plan achieves more than $150 million in savings and new revenue. It also changes the engineering problem.

When the venues are already built, the infrastructure that matters most is the part you cannot see.

Consider what is planned. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium, about five miles apart, will share a single Opening Ceremony on July 14, 2028, something no Games has done before. Track and field will be held in the first week at the Coliseum, with swimming in the second week at SoFi Stadium, where up to 38,000 spectators will make it the largest swimming venue in Olympic history.

Every one of those decisions creates a data and systems challenge.

Connectivity. Stadiums built for football or concerts have to carry the load of thousands of devices, broadcast feeds and timing systems at once.

Movement. Venues spread across a region depend on transit. Los Angeles’s Metro rail lines connect to venues such as SoFi Stadium and Exposition Park, which means schedules, crowd flow and security all depend on shared information.

Trust. Results, ticketing and credentials all have to be reliable, secure and consistent across dozens of locations.

None of this will be visible on television. If it works, spectators will notice only that the Games ran smoothly.

That is the quiet promise of reuse: Los Angeles can spend less on concrete and more on systems. The test will be whether those systems are as good as the stadiums they connect.

Disclosure: Family First Foundation publishes Family First News Desk and runs youth sports and education programs in Los Angeles. Alexzander Awni is an aerospace engineering student at Penn State and a STEM Ambassador for the Foundation.