Fielding questions

On Tuesday I found myself at SoFi Stadium, which FIFA would prefer that you refer to as "Los Angeles Stadium" until July 20, thank you very much. Aside from some pretty major work needed to de-brand the stadium — how are they covering the SoFi logo on the roof that's visible to all inbound LAX flights? — the place seemed ready to go. The specialized food offerings, including that god-awful FIFA trophy rendered as a raspberry-centered sponge cake, were on display. The Lay's Kettle Cooked Crispy Pickles — Lay's is an official FIFA global partner, of course — were loaded. All that was left to install was the grass, actually more of a frankenturf: a carpet of natural Kentucky bluegrass reinforced with millions of woven synthetic fibers (!) grown in Moses Lake, Washington and shipped to LA in refrigerated trucks.

To build a FIFA-approved pitch over the artificial turf field requires a cover-up not dissimilar to the way SoFi logos will be temporarily banished from view. As demonstrated by last year's test, the Rams' field has been layered with black plastic crates, then draped with a cheesecloth-type fabric and a dusting of soil on which the grass will be laid, creating a "permavoid" that allows SoFi's facilities team to oxygenate and humidify the roots from below. What greeted us Tuesday was a smooth, sandy surface (not unlike that trophy sponge cake) that awaited its frankenturf, with soil amendments applied like a pepper shaker. It smelled like shit.

One month out, anxiety also hung in the air. SoFi workers, threatening to strike if ICE officers are allowed at matches — which LA's World Cup host committee chair Kathryn Schloessman confirmed to LAist, for the second time, that they would be — will be rallying at the stadium on Monday with gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer just before they head into contract negotiations. Even though officials at the press conference thanked human rights advocates for helping inform their FIFA-required human rights strategy, human rights advocates disagree, saying what organizers have put forth is "not a plan." And there's the specter of empty hotel rooms, with Hollywood and Beverly Hills properties currently "on average at 28 percent occupancy during the World Cup" — some pretty troubling indicators for a region promised an economic windfall.

Paying $100 for transit is one thing we don't have to worry about. Metro's shuttles are "just $1.75, one way," CEO Stephanie Wiggins reminded everyone

It's not like the last time LA hosted World Cup matches, says Alan Rothenberg, who ran the 1994 World Cup as the president of U.S. Soccer, a story he tells in vivid detail in The Big Bounce: The Surge That Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. "It's a world of difference," Rothenberg told me this week. "In 1994, FIFA basically kept the major international rights — marketing and TV and sponsorships — and then turned everything else over to us." Rothenberg, who is on the current LA World Cup host committee, is a self-described "cockeyed optimist" — I'll publish my full interview with him soon — but even he says LA is up against "a very tough one-sided agreement." What that agreement is, we simply don't know. A ProPublica story from earlier this month reviewed host city contracts with FIFA. But this investigation doesn't include analysis of LA's finalized deal. That's because if you're someone who files a public records request asking for our World Cup contract, you will be told the contract is not subject to public records requests.

As I stepped back into the parking crater of the Kroenke-Ballmer Sportsplex™, my belly full of Doritos Loaded Barbecue Brisket nachos, I swore I could still smell the soil amendments. Or perhaps it was the crappy urbanism outside the stadium, a half-dozen venues bobbing in a rippling sea of asphalt? With help from James Butts, Inglewood mayor until eternity, probably, Rams owner Stan Kroenke exploited a CEQA loophole which exempted SoFi from mitigating its transportation impacts. (Although now the former besties are fighting in court over the city's ubiquitous digital billboards.) While Inglewood's ill-fated people mover project was spiked in favor of a bus-rapid transit line currently forcing the eminent domain of a strip mall in preparation for 2028, it's unclear if there will be any kind of infrastructure in place to keep Metro's shuttles moving this summer. I asked the city of Inglewood, but haven't gotten a response yet.

However, local residents did tell me that re-paving Inglewood's comically wide streets, something that could be done in a weekend, was stretching on for months

At the press conference, LA's World Cup community ambassador Magic Johnson extolled the beauty of 300 buses — some old, some new, some borrowed, some Blue, some of which were shipped cross-country and will be used in 2028, too — bringing fans together across the region. I sure would hate for Metro's crowning achievement, and, truly, LA's global megaevent transportation bragging rights, to get stuck behind a row of idling SUVs spewing $6-per-gallon gas. In the meantime, sign up for traffic updates, I guess? I'm trying to channel Magic's positivity. But all this uncertainty swirling around us with just weeks to go — well, it really stinks! 🔥

It's like a hot dog, but it's Hot Links. Paid subscribers get the latest headlines, commentary, and analysis — updated daily! At the end of the week, all subscribers will see the final version in their inbox. Bluesky users: 🦋 will always take you to a thread I reported there.

Just plane dumb

Tourism workers in council chambers this week. Fair Games

I am once again writing about yet another effort to weaken the Olympic wage after LA's council took the first steps towards delaying a new minimum wage for tourism workers THAT THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY APPROVED. Workers swarmed City Hall Wednesday accusing councilmembers of colluding in a "shakedown" originating from the very same hotel and airline industry overlords — including, yes, LA28 sponsor Delta Air Lines — who tried to stop the wage from being implemented last year. This go-round includes threatening to push through a ballot measure to repeal the city's business tax, a phenomenally dumb idea for a broke city. If it sounds like blackmail, well... it is! 🦋

State legislators grilled LA28 officials at an infrastructure-focused hearing for the Senate Special Committee on International Sporting Events in Sacramento. Torched readers will be intimately familiar with the updates that were delivered by LA's megaevent czar Paul Krekorian, Metro, and LA28; LA Mayor Karen Bass was in town seeking state funding. But the committee seemed obsessed with getting answers about ticket prices. "The fact that we came to this committee and you don’t know how many tickets were issued, you don’t know how many of those were under $100 — you don’t have the information that we need," State Senator Laura Richardson told LA28's Joey Freeman. Watch the whole hearing. LA's Office of Major Events will also give an update at Monday's ad hoc committee meeting at City Hall.

What Torched subscribers are reading

"Soccer was once considered niche in the U.S. Then came the 1994 World Cup"
How the World Cup is becoming a testbed for journalism experiments
Amnesty International's new report: "Humanity Must Win: Defending rights, tackling repression at the 2026 FIFA World Cup"
"Los Angeles city streets will worsen and repairing them will become more expensive unless the city overhauls its approach to maintenance," writes LAist's Kavish Harjai, who I finally met in person at the D line opening
Chelsea Kirk asks: Is a wholesale retreat from the Palos Verdes Peninsula in order?
LA is experiencing a tourism dip while San Francisco is seeing a surge. Anna Marie Presutti, CEO of San Francisco Travel, attributed the boom to hosting the Super Bowl in February: "Once people got to San Francisco, they realized it was nothing like what they thought or had seen. They saw what made this place special." Hmmm, I wonder what visitors to LA will think when we host the Super Bowl in 2027?
"Sportswashing & the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics: Politics & Power in the City of Angels," a new paper by Torched Talks guests Jules Boykoff and Cerianne Robertson, with Kylie Mari Gose Pascual
And the new book Olympic Agenda 2020: Towards a New Era for the Games? featuring another Torched Talks guest, Gustavo Lopes dos Santos

And they're off!

Who will win the #DLineDash commuter race?!?!? la.streetsblog.org/2026/05/15/d...

[image or embed]
— Streetsblog L.A. (@streetsblogla.bsky.social) May 15, 2026 at 3:08 PM

On Tuesday, May 19 is the D Line Dash where cyclist Michele Moro, subway-rider Kalayaan Mendoza, and driver Rachel Reyes (also my beloved LA Podcast co-host) will race from the Wilshire/La Cienega station in Beverly Hills to downtown's Pershing Square. CicLAvia chief strategist Tafarai Bayne is the emcee and I am somehow the finish-line referee, so you can join me in Pershing Square that morning to see who wins, or watch the livestream — all details here. Then, later that night is Spring Roll, a bar crawl in downtown raising money for the Boo-Boo Bandage Brigade's efforts to fix LA's infrastructural "ouchies." If you want to be my plus-one, I have one ticket for a Torched subscriber at the 🔥🔥 level and higher. Be the first to reply to this email (or DM me on the platform of your choice) and they're yours!

📲 Call me, baby. Email: Simply reply to this one. Text: 323 207 5607‬ — save it in your phone as Torched Tips. Or Signal: awalkerinla.99