LA28 Committee CEO Hoover Talks Preparation

S ince winning the Olympic and Paralympic bid in 2017, Los Angeles has been getting into its best shape for the biggest sports events in the world. New zoning regulations are approved, cameras are installed on interstate routes, and the Los Angeles International Airport is finishing up its Automated People Mover train. The new Metro D Line now connects downtown to Westwood's designated Olympics Village, and air taxis are soon due to take off from newly constructed vertiports all over the city. Among the buzz, downtown L.A. emerged as a key area for renovation and change. Maria Salinas, president and chief executive of Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, told the Business Journal that downtown is a core tourism magnet – a 'home for Los Angeles' that could benefit from a vibrant commercial landscape and increased public safety. To achieve that, Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028 have been working with local businesses such as Proper Hotel and Audio Graph Beer Co., along with chambers of commerce and local advocacy groups, to give the heart of the city a boost as the games approach. The Business Journal sat down with Reynold Hoover, chief executive of the committee, to discuss current moves to revitalize the region, key technological collaborations and his vision for the City of Angels ahead of the highly anticipated games. The Olympics are coming to L.A. in less than two years. What is the organizing committee up to right now? What are some of its current priorities? Every day is a priority, but in the near term, there's a couple of things that we're really focused on, and that is getting our venue designs down so that we can go to procurement more. We're already out in the market and have been in the market for a while, but as our venue designs begin to mature more, we will actually be going to the market for much bigger construction items and procurement. That's a really critical piece for us because that also then ties to our budget and ties to the rest of our planning. I think in the long term, we've got a number of things going on that you're going to see pretty soon. The slogan for the games will be unveiled. The first city for our torch relay will be unveiled in the first quarter of next year. Our ticket sales will go on for the Paralympics. You're going to see the mascot unveiled next year. There's a whole lot of great things coming up. With all this planning going on, how do you hope to loop in the businesses ahead of the Olympics? The economic impact of the games to the City of Los Angeles and the region as a whole is pretty significant. The (Southern California Association of Governments) released an economic impact report last year that said upwards of a $17 billion economic impact. What we've been focused on with a lot of our partners like Deloitte and others (is) getting especially small businesses ready to compete for our contracts. Maria Salinas at the L.A. Chamber (of Commerce) has been a great partner of ours, and the chamber has been involved in getting people ready and getting businesses ready to take advantage of the economic benefits that I think the games will bring. When we think about just the economic impact, it is not just the direct procurement of items from small and local businesses, but it's also uplifting the businesses that surround us and are supporting us just here in downtown L.A. Uplifting those businesses and getting them ready for games is really important for us, and part of that is our sustainability impact report, which we released in July of last year. Then in March of this year we released our procurement forecast, so that businesses will know what kinds of things we're buying. Those are really critical, and then the partnership that we have with the City of L.A., through (the Regional Alliance Marketplace for Procurement program), is another way in which we're outreaching to businesses. How do you define the relationship between LA28 and the local businesses, specifically here in downtown? I think we've got a great relationship, and I think as you go out and you talk to people up in the Valley … or any of the area chambers of commerce, they know that we are committed to making sure that as a lasting legacy, these businesses have an opportunity to participate in the games, help us deliver the games, and feel the economic uplift from that. I personally have been out in the community and around, and not just here within the city of L.A., but to our venue cities and out in the county to talk to people and talk to business leaders and get them ready to participate. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover. (Photo by Thomas Wasper) From your perspective, for the purpose of attracting tourism and visitors to the Olympics, what is the strategic importance of downtown L.A.? First of all, Los Angeles is the host city, and the opportunity to bring people to the downtown area of L.A. helps revitalize the city, helps get businesses back in business, brings people to a really vibrant center of the city and really helps us showcase what Los Angeles is really all about. Strategically, it was important for us to locate here. When I got here in June of 2024, we were over in Westwood. We had about 120 people. In June and July of last year, we moved downtown. Today we're (at) almost 950 people, and we will grow to close to 5,000 by the time the games come here. We thought it was really important to be downtown because there's no better place for an operation of this size and scale to be located. In terms of businesses, there are probably not many businesses that have moved downtown and anticipate growing to nearly 5,000 people in the short amount of time that we are doing, and I'll just say that it's not just moving our office space. There's a number of our staff who actually moved and live in downtown L.A., within blocks of the office. With all of that comes economic benefit, whether it's restaurants, bars, hotels, stores or grocery stores. It's all a direct result of us being located right here downtown, next to Crypto.com (Arena), the Peacock Theater and the L.A. Convention Center, which is one of our core hubs of the game. Downtown's revival has been going on for a while now, and there are different beautification projects and programs to help homelessness, for example. From your perspective, what trends have you seen that's going on in downtown? I've seen downtown growing and starting to prosper, especially in and around where we are in the area. I see my team at LA28 out in the community in downtown L.A. and going to events. I see people coming back to the city and being proud of the efforts that are being undertaken to really uplift L.A. What do you think is a critical piece that would help downtown L.A. revive itself? I think a critical piece is – and it is something that we're actually been working hard on – community volunteerism, and for people to give back to the community. Since we launched our volunteer program for the community back in November of last year, (we did about) 40 or 50 events in the community where we're giving back and helping … That to me, I think, is the most important thing as we drive L.A. and all of our venue cities to get ready for the Olympics. Look, we have an opportunity here to show the world that right here in Los Angeles we can host nearly 200 countries, not in conflict but in competition, in the spirit of sport. We saw it every day when the World Cup was going on, people came together. It didn't matter where they were from. People came together in sport. When you think about the Olympics and Paralympics here in L.A., in just under two years, it will be the biggest sporting event in the world. It is really an opportunity for all of us to show the goodness in mankind, and the goodness of sport competition. We're really looking forward to that. Archer Aviation Inc. and AEG's L.A. Live are building a vertiport to bring air taxis into the area, and air taxis have been closely connected to the Olympics. How do you hope to bring more major tech collaborations like that into the space? As a commercial pilot and flight instructor myself, I love Archer Aviation, and I am really super excited that they're a partner of ours and are part of that innovation piece. But there are other ways that we're using innovation that have not been used before. Whether it's through the application of AI, the application of more advanced instant replay that some some sports now are using as part of the game's delivery package … the fan engagement on your app of how they're going to experience the game and the data that's available to them in the games, or how we engage in providing transportation. There are so many ways that we're going to apply innovation to the games, not only for the fans and spectators to experience the games, but also for the athletes and the Olympic officials. We're excited, and Archer is just one of the leading-edge technology providers that we have. We believe that this will be really a technology forward Olympics and Paralympics, and it sets the groundwork for what Brisbane will do in the '32 Summer Games, because the technology between now and then will again leap years ahead of where we are and where we finish out the games in 2028. With that in mind, what are some of your hopes and visions for downtown and the city of L.A. ahead of the Olympics? My vision is that by the time the games get here, the city of L.A., as well as all of the surrounding communities, are shining at their brightest when the people come here to experience the games. And we're going to do that through partnership, through cooperation, through coordination of effort and uplifting these small and local businesses by giving them the economic opportunities that will make them great and help us all shine when the games are here and when the cauldron is finally put out at the end of the Paralympics on the 27th of August of 2028. That's really my vision.