By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood will serve as the venues for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, LA28 announced on Thursday.
The July 14 2028 opening ceremony will be shared between the historic Coliseum, which will become the first venue to host events for three Olympic Games, and the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium, in an unprecedented dual-venue celebration.
“The venues selected for the 2028 opening and closing ceremonies will highlight Los Angeles’s rich sporting history and cutting-edge future, showcasing the very best that L.A. has to offer on the world stage,” LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman said in a statement.
“These two extraordinary venues will create an unforgettable experience, welcoming fans from across the globe to an Olympic and Paralympic Games like never before and concluding what will go down as one of the most incredible Games in history.”
The closing ceremony on July 30 will take place at the Coliseum in what organizers said would be an unforgettable celebration.
The Paralympic opening ceremony on August 15 2028 will be held at SoFi, home to the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, while the August 27 closing ceremony will take place at the Coliseum, which is the home of the University of Southern California’s Trojans football team.
Los Angeles previously hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984 but 2028 will mark the city’s first time hosting the Paralympics.
“The Paralympic closing ceremony marks the final moments of the LA28 Games, creating an unforgettable legacy that will forever connect the Olympic and Paralympic movement to Los Angeles,” LA28 said in a release.
Thursday’s announcement comes as little surprise as LA28 had floated the venues in their 2017 Olympic bid plan.
The Paris Olympics opening ceremony last year saw national teams parade in boats down the River Seine in a spectacle that attracted rave reviews despite wet weather.
The closing ceremony featured movie star Tom Cruise rappelling from the roof of the Stade de France to take the Olympic flag back to Los Angeles, where it ended up at a beach party in Long Beach.
LA28 last month unveiled additional venue plans for the Games, with beach volleyball enjoying surf-side digs at Alamitos Beach in Long Beach and squash getting a little Hollywood razzle-dazzle for its Olympic debut on the Universal Studios Lot.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; editing by Clare Fallon)
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