City Moving Closer to Signing 2028 Olympic Games Agreement

The Pasadena City Council voted on Monday to authorize the City Manager to enter into a Games Agreement with the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The primary cost drivers to the City if it hosts Olympic soccer will be those caused by enhancing the level of services that will be required to support the Games and related events.

“These may include costs for enhancements to public safety, sanitation, streets and roadways maintenance, code enforcement, traffic control,” according to a statement released by the City on Tuesday.

Other services will be defined in supplemental agreements that will be negotiated in the coming years.

City leaders and the Rose Bowl communicated to the International Olympic Committee their interest in Pasadena serving as a venue city for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the Rose Bowl serving as a venue site as part of the City of Los Angeles’ bid to serve as the host city.

However, the International Olympic Committee subsequently awarded the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles. LA28 has since approached the City and the Rose Bowl to host men’s and women’s soccer and potentially other Olympic or Paralympic events.

“LA28 is eager to welcome the City of Pasadena as an official venue city for the games,” said Vic Nol, LA28 director of venue cities relations. “And we look forward to working with the City to welcome the world to Pasadena in 2028. Thank you.”

The City already has in place the historic Rose Bowl, which will serve as the venue. The surrounding infrastructure to support the Games already exists, and the City has a long history of successfully hosting major events at the Rose Bowl, including international and Olympic soccer events, Super Bowls, and the College Football Playoff.

Because the City already has the infrastructure and venue in place, which stands in contrast with some other venues in the region, there is no anticipation for the need to fund and construct capital improvements to support the Games.

The legal and administrative framework necessary to bring the Games to Pasadena will take shape over the course of four agreements that will be negotiated between now and October of 2027.

The current agreement being negotiated is the first Games Agreement. After the two sides come to terms on that agreement, the next agreement to be negotiated will be the Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement, which must be completed by Oct. 1, 2026. That agreement would be followed by a Venue Use Agreement to be negotiated by Dec. 31, 2026. Finally, there would be a Venue Services Agreement to be negotiated by Oct. 1, 2027.

“The games agreement establishes the foundational framework, principles and obligations of the City and LA28. With respect to the games, it’s in the games agreement that the City formally agrees to serve as a venue city and agrees to engage with LA28 over the next several years to ensure the success of the Games in Pasadena,” said Deputy City Manager Alex Souto.

According to Souto, the Games Agreement is binding. Once it is executed, there will be only narrow, limited circumstances under which the City could unilaterally exit the agreement.

The agreement also sets forth the scope and objectives of the three supplemental agreements that follow, as well as the timing of the negotiations of these agreements.

The Games Agreement addresses an array of other matters such as admissions and parking taxes, the mobility planning process, and how the City and LA28 would work together to ensure public safety during the Games.

It also addresses LA28’s use of City logo and how the City and LA28 would resolve disputes.

“The City of Pasadena has the distinct honor of having been an Olympic Games venue host city on two prior occasions,” said Derderian in a statement on Tuesday. “The first, in 1932, when track cycling was held at the Rose Bowl, and again in 1984, when the Rose Bowl hosted Olympic soccer, including the gold medal match between France and Brazil, played in front of 101,799 spectators. With the selection of the City of Los Angeles as host city of the 2028 Olympic Games, Pasadena once again has a unique opportunity to host Olympic soccer at the Rose Bowl as well as potentially other Olympic events.”