Can we kick it?

On Wednesday, the megaevent beat brought me back to the Coliseum for the long, long overdue announcement of Los Angeles's World Cup public engagement plan. The celeb quotient was high (Mario Lopez!), LA Mayor Karen Bass was stunning in a suit coordinated to the tangerine branding (she also wore a turf-green fit for last week's soccer announcement; we see and appreciate this suit game), and the focus was on LA's soccer communities. It's a fairly comprehensive plan: money going to 26 local nonprofits, clinics, beautification days, and something I'm very excited about: the Kick It With Us! road show where a bus will tour the region for 100 days starting in March, something that's really important for outreach. I hope LA28 does the same. But we were really here for one major announcement: finally, the locations of LA's World Cup fan zones.

Torched reachers might not know as much about our local soccer tournament infrastructure so here's a quick primer. The matches are all at SoFi, but these are the other FIFA-official events organized by the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee, an LLC that's operated by the private nonprofit LASEC (pronounced lay-sec), the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission — think of them like an LA28 but for all large local events. The CEO of LASEC is Kathryn Schloessman, who is also the CEO of the host committee. The host committee also has two co-chairs, LA Galaxy president Chris Klein and LAFC president Larry Freedman, as well as ambassadors like soccer star Mia Hamm, Magic Johnson, and Snoop Dogg, who is legally obligated to serve as ambassador of every LA megaevent.

The host committee selected the nine locations across the county to serve as fan zones through an RFP process, in addition to the official fan festival in Expo Park, which we already knew. (Hospitality houses, like Casa México announced last week, are a different type of activation.) But there's a twist — unlike other host cities which will have at least one fan festival open the entire 39-day duration of the tournament, LA's main fan festival will only be open five days, and some fan zones are only open for a single day:

• Expo Park: June 11-15
• The Original Famers Market: June 18-21
• City of Downey: June 20
• Union Station & LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes: June 25-28
• Hansen Dam Lake: July 2-5
• LA County’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park: July 4-5
• Los Angeles County Whittier Narrows: July 9-11
• Venice Beach: July 11
• Fairplex: July 14-15 & July 18-19
• West Harbor: July 14-15 & July 18-19

One location I had originally reported that's missing: Long Beach wasn't actually selected for an official fan zone, despite the fact that Mayor Rex Richardson said so in his State of the City address?

After the press conference I chatted with officials from Downey, who were thrilled to be selected, particularly as a smaller city in the lineup. They were working in collaboration with the Stonewood Center mall, with plans to partner with a local Coca-Cola bottler. (Coke is a longtime FIFA sponsor.) The Downey zone drops a nice megaevent anchor into Southeast LA, even if just for one day. It's a lovely way to spread the experience to a soccer-crazed corner of the county. But the reality of the situation is that no one knows quite what to expect. Journalists swarmed Bass as she attempted to exit, that FIFA scarf around her neck, asking her how she can assure fans that they'll be safe. "I do think that message has to come from the White House," she told Reuters. "They are the ones that need to send that message. I will send the message that people are welcome to the city of Los Angeles."

Later that evening I watched LA Taco's Daily Memo, where Memo Torres reported it had been "one of the heaviest days" for ICE raids in LA in months. "There was a time when 25 to 40 was the total number of incidents I’d report for a whole week," he said. "They just did that in one day." The list of 20 communities hit was so long that it had to be updated later in the evening. As he read them out, I was astonished at how similar the roll call of locations felt to the fan zone announcement. Locations almost strategically dispersed across the county — and even some of the very same places. 🔥

The mad rush begins

Expo Park is finally getting that makeover. As I wrote in 2024, Expo Park needs a lot of help if it wants to become the megaevent hub of LA. A new greenspace (actually an underground garage with an astroturf lid) isn't moving forward by 2028 (more on that later), but now the park is getting $100 million in the state budget to address deferred maintenance and basic infrastructure upgrades. "We are building upon our history and creating a safe, accessible, and modern park ready to host the world," said Andrea Ambriz, Expo Park's general manager. There's not a lot of time to make these much-needed improvements so this will be yet another nail-biter. And is anyone going to take care of my benches!? Meanwhile, the park will be shined up to host Bass's State of the Megaevents, part one of two State of the City addresses she's delivering on Monday afternoon. Watch it here. 🦋

How all these megaevents are getting policed has become a verrrry hot topic, especially with ICE headed to the Milan-Cortina games next week. LA's city council has politely requested that LA28 fills us in on how their law enforcement will work. But who is being protected? LAPD said it needs another $100 million from a broke city to purchase "500 vehicles and 'mobile units,' including 300 patrol vehicles, vans and an armored SUV" ahead of 2028. Because that worked out so well last time. Also reminder that we're still waiting on that human rights strategy — which LA28 now says will be coming in March — as well as that city services agreement. 🦋

But is anyone going to come? Boycotts — both of the World Cup and the Olympics — were another hot topic this week. LA Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson openly worried about 2028 boycotts, citing the long list of leaders calling for a World Cup boycott, which now includes former FIFA president Sepp Blatter. (It's pretty unbelievable when a guy who has experience working closely with authoritarian regimes is saying not to come!) Over at The Sports Examiner, Rich Perelman, who navigated LA through the 1984 boycott, says don't worry about a 2028 boycott: "Los Angeles, which has offered no public plan for its activities related to the Games, needs Olympic and Paralympic visitors. That is what should be concerning Harris-Dawson and his fellow Council members." Amen to that. 🦋

There's been a leadership shuffle at the Cultural Olympiad, which Torched readers know is the cultural festival that runs concurrent to the Olympics and Paralympics. Maria Arena Bell, the art world fixture who was named as chair in 2024 is no longer overseeing the Cultural Olympiad. Dwayne Jones, a longtime LA28 stakeholder events director, has assumed her duties. Nora Halpern remains LA28's Cultural Olympiad executive director, but under Jones, who has the new title of SVP, Cultural Olympiad. And although LA city's cultural plan for 2028 was recently adopted by council, we still haven't seen LA28’s Cultural Olympiad Strategic Plan — yet another deliverable that's long overdue. In comparison, Paris was hosting Cultural Olympiad programming four years ahead of the opening ceremonies. 🦋

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics — known internally as "Mi-Co" — begin on February 6. This will be the most geographically widespread Olympics in history —although I guess that's not taking the LA to Oklahoma City??? distance into account — to take advantage of existing venues and seek out optimal chances for snow. But it's a scenario that seems more likely in a future with warming winter games. Who's going? ICE. Protesters against ICE. JD Vance. Hockey players, although maybe not if their arena isn't finished on time. Who's not going? Washington Post reporters. Many broadcasters. Local schoolkids who can't afford an Olympics transit surcharge.

What Torched subscribers are reading

Did you know the Curbed archives vanished? Over 15 years of local reporting — including the entirety of my journalistic output from 2016 to 2020 — gone! It's particularly puzzling as Curbed itself is not dead, yet all the backlinks in its stories now are? You should really drop Vox Media a note and tell them what you think about that! Read these stories in memoriam.

• Why artist Sayre Gomez made a sculpture of downtown's Graffiti Ghost Towers as megaevents put the city on the world stage: "It’s really not a good look. But I think it’s the only look in a way, you know? You can read a million books about the end of capitalism, but then you see that, and it’s like, oh they’re right. A billion dollars just wasted, six years later just sitting there. It’s kind of hard-core"
• I highly recommend reading this UCLA report on the effectiveness of Metro's ambassador program. This needs to be dramatically expanded in the years ahead for our "transit-first" games
• "This summer’s World Cup in the United States could very well be the biggest proving ground for Donald Trump’s 'Golden Dome' and a showcase for a host of sophisticated new surveillance technologies, including facial recognition — a boon for defense contractors who are jockeying to get a piece of a federal pie that is billions of dollars in the making." A sobering read from Responsible Statecraft
• The Rent Brigade has a new report: Rent Gouging After the LA Wildfires: How Landlord Crime Went Unpunished, "finding that landlords engaged in widespread rent gouging in the year after the Palisades and Eaton fires — illegal, predatory behavior that went unpunished in nearly every instance." If this is the case for long-term rentals, I can't wait for the non-enforcement of those short-term rentals!
• Speaking of, short-term rental prices are skyrocketing for this summer's World Cup with people paying $10,000 for a two-night stay (reminder that Airbnb is both a FIFA and IOC sponsor)
• Capital & Main's sprawling series on how landlords lock out Section 8 renters names Koreatown-based Jamison as the worst offender. Jamison CEO Jamie Lee is on the LA28 organizing committee
• This is the best explainer of how travel and visa requirements work for upcoming megaevents
• "We are living in scary times right now. Every day I wake up and I’m not sure if my kids are going to be safe on the streets. For multiplte reasons. But 'because our streets are not designed well' should not be one of them." Powerful words from Los Angeles Walks executive director Alex Ramirez at last week's annual die-in
• KCRW has a lovely story about the Festival Trail concept that continues to gain momentum
• A general shout out to LAist's Libby Rainey for absolutely killing the megaevents beat
• And a general reminder that I've got a list of Torched-recommended books up at Bookshop (where I earn a small commission if you buy one). Just added: Eden by Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for Los Angeles Region by Greg Hise and William Deverell; Black Public Joy: No Permission or Permit Required by Jay Pitter (also read her Being Black in Public report from May); Kicking by friend of the newsletter Jules Boykoff; and Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile by Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon with Aaron Naparstek, who were so kind to invite me to join their live show in LA (below)

That's where you'll find me

I loved talking "car-free" games with the original car-free people at Dynasty Typewriter. I'll be talking more about our car-free aspirations as part of the Perloff Lecture Series on 100 Years of Transportation Research, at UCLA on February 11 at 10:30 a.m. You can also watch it live; thanks to the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies for the invitation. Also: LADOT is working on its Mobility Action Plan to prioritize your transportation investments — be sure to fill out the survey. If you want to hear the latest from LADOT on how the city is planning for our megaevent era and beyond, upgrade to a 🔥🔥 subscription so you can join the next ATSAC tour! And the next Torched party, of course. There's so much more to come this year — glad you're along for the ride.