Los Angeles will become the mega events capital of the world over the next several years.  During 2026 through 2028, our city will host—among other events—the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Such mega events and the massive investments required to make them happen should have a positive impact for the city’s residents, including the workers that make the games possible. But in recent decades, in country after country, global sporting events have failed to produce lasting benefits for host communities. 

While corporate sponsors have enriched themselves, the games have left local communities indebted for years, with five of the past six Olympics posting cost overruns of more than 100%, and have permanently displaced millions of poor residents. 

Unfortunately, LA28 executives, elected political leaders, and corporate leaders have failed to present a coherent vision for how the 2028 Olympics will be different.  The city has subcontracted the design and execution of the games to billionaires who have pursued deals without meaningful transparency or participation by affected communities. 

We must change course. Los Angeles needs a New Deal for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and other mega events.  

The Fair Games Coalition comprises more than 80 organizations including unions, community organizations and religious institutions. Together, we’re demanding that the New Deal for the Games include union and living wage jobs to support families, affordable housing, including funding for 50,000 new units of housing for working families and a moratorium on Airbnb-style tourist rentals that take housing off the market, fair and dignified treatment of immigrant communities and transparency and accountability. 

Taking these steps will ensure that the upcoming mega-events benefit the communities that will host them and the workers that will make them possible, not just corporate sponsors and the billionaire class. 

And if corporate CEOs, the IOC, LA 28, and city leaders fail to meet workers’ needs, workers and their supporters will be prepared to take to the streets.