Budget overruns are legion in the Olympic world. Some have even already passed into posterity. But Los Angeles 2028 has just set a new record. It's not about the amount, but the timing.
Never, in fact, has an organizing committee announced a new budget more than nine years before the event. And for good reason, since the Californians were the first to win the Games more than a decade before lighting the flame.
The performance is therefore historic. The LA 2028 team announced this week that the Summer Games in the Californian metropolis are expected to cost $6,9 billion (€6,1 billion). However, their budget was set at $5,3 billion during the application phase.
The increase remains reduced. It is explained by the presumed inflation in the American economy over the next decade. The Americans had not taken this into account in their application file. Voluntarily? Likely. But it doesn't matter, ultimately, since the Americans of LA 2028, like the French of Paris 2024, did not beat anyone to obtain the organization of the Games.
« Adjusted for inflation, the real dollar budget for LA 2028 is directly in line with the proposed budget for the 2024 Games bid., specifies a press release from the organizing committee.
More expensive, therefore, the Los Angeles 2028 Games. But still on target. The new revenue/expenditure table (see below), produced by KPMG, displays a perfect balance, to the nearest dollar. Very strong. It provides for a reserve fund of $160 million. In case.
Above all, the Californian team takes the opportunity to remind people that the 2028 Games will be entirely financed by the private sector. They won't cost American taxpayers a dollar. Only security spending will be largely covered by the American authorities. A habit.
In terms of revenue, a contribution of 898 million dollars from the IOC, accompanied by an envelope of 637 million provided by the partners of the TOP program.
The Americans aim to raise more than $2,5 billion in national marketing revenue. Obviously, they are giving themselves the means. They recently announced that their sponsorship entity, formed with the National Olympic Committee (USOC), would make common cause with the group NBCUniversal, exclusive holder of the audiovisual rights to the Games in the United States.
