It's official – L.A. will host the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralymics.
The last time the city hosted the games was in 1984, and it ended up snagging $233 million in surplus money.
That cash was put into an endowment that the LA84 Foundation continues to manage, and the organization has used it to help fund youth sports for decades.
"A number of Olympians have come out of the programs that we've funded, including the Williams sisters in Tennis," says LA84's Wayne Wilson. "But I would hasten to add that our primary purpose in funding youth sports is not to produce youth athletes, it's to give kids the benefit of youth sports programs."
That money helped to fund after-school sports programs at all of LAUSD's middle schools, he says.
It also allowed the rehabilitation of spaces like Ferraro Fields at Griffith Park and the Rose Bowl aquatic center.
Los Angeles could dramatically transform as it prepares for 2028, too.
Elon Musk's tunnel underneath L.A. could accelerate personal transportation to and from games, for example, and flying vehicles might be on the horizon, too.
"Airbus is supposed to be testing some small flying vehicles here, soon," says futurist Glen Heimstra. "You could have dignitaries and average people going venue to venue above the traffic."
It could be a big opportunity for sites like Airbnb to expand, too, to accommodate the increased number of visitors, he says.
He also foresees a construction boom of new, green homes that might heavily employ solar power or naturally recycle water.
"You can guarantee there will be a lot of talk about how to make them sustainable," he says, "and make buildings that produce buildings that produce more energy than they use."
Sports, themselves, could see a huge revolution ahead of the 2028 Olympics, too, adds Heimstra.
"Many athletes could have tiny, tiny cameras on them," he says. That could mean spectators would have a literal athlete's eye view of the action in virtual reality, partly designed by the many technology firms based in Los Angeles.
