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As LA 2028 Nears, Sky-High Spending on Olympic Infrastructure Is Out of Fashion
Ben Wylie | November 2025The way host cities approach the Games — and their impact on the urban environment — is changing
In 2028, Los Angeles will host the summer Olympics
for a record third time.
The organizers are hoping that pedigree can help it avoid overspending
on the infrastructure needed to run the Games.
The LA Organizing Committee’s original budget for infrastructure was just$1.6bn at 2025 prices.
To help keep costs down, 97 percent of the venues will be either temporary
or already in existence,
according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
This figure includes a pair of futuristic arenas that have recently been constructed in the suburb of Inglewood.
The SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams,
and the Intuit Dome.
An ambitious plan to spend$1bn on a new Athletes’ Villageon a downtown site, which would have served as a new residential neighborhood after the Games, was dropped after local politicians raised concerns.
Instead, competitors will stay
in the city’s extensive university campus accommodation,
a back-up plan dubbed the “no-risk Olympic Village” by organizers.
While the sporting venues will be located across a number of the sprawling city’s neighborhoods,
authorities have no plans to sanction additional spending on
travel infrastructure over and above what was already underway.
However, the city will use the Olympics as a catalyst for its‘Twenty-Eight by ’28’initiative: a plan to accelerate 28 already budgeted investments in transport infrastructure by the time of the Games.
Venture further back in time and the capital spending related to the Games has been enormous. Host cities often splurged on infrastructure, sometimes using the cash as a catalyst to develop run-down neighborhoods.
In London, for instance, the awarding of the 2012 Games spurred major investment into historically poorer areas in the east of the UK capital.
In Beijing, the 2008 edition was preceded by an expansion of the city’s international airport and the addition of more than 55km (34 miles) of new subway lines.
Total investment in permanent venues and related infrastructuretopped $10bn(at 2025 prices) at each edition of the Olympics between Athens 2004 and Tokyo 2020, according to data collated by Polish academic Adam Popek.
Spending on the Summer Olympics Over the Last 24 Years:
$5BN
$15BN
$51BN
$19BN
$13BN
$14BN
$6BN
Source: Official report : ISRG Journal of Economics, Business & Management (ISRGJEBM) & Paris 2024 / Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024
This spending has not always been well directed.
The poor condition of the Olympic districts of Athens and Rio de Janeiro within years of the Games taking place has been well documented.
But leaving the question of how well each host has harnessed this opportunity to one side, the awarding of the event has evidently made it easier for cities across the world to obtain funds to invest in the development of their built environments.
At Paris 2024, there were the first signs of a more measured and targeted approach. Official estimates of infrastructure and related spending currently sit at around $6bn. This is still a considerable sum, with much of it concentrated in the Seine-Saint-Denis département beyond the boundaries of the city centre — but it’s well short of the amounts spent in previous years.
Leaving a ‘positive legacy’ remains an explicit goal of the IOC.
However, the path they recommend to achieve that goal has shifted.
With a focus on ‘optimizing existing infrastructure’ rather than engaging in extensive new development, it’s unclear whether the Games will ever again serve as an urban catalyst at such a scale.
In 2032, the Olympic torch will be passed to Brisbane.
The Australian city is planning to use the Games to accelerate some of its existing plans for urban regeneration
— but, crucially, won’t be initiating any new development projects as a consequence of hosting the event.
On the topic ofInfrastructure
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