Would you even believe me if I told you the largest municipal pool in the U.S. was right here in Los Angeles? And not just generally the LA area — *gestures from Long Beach to Lancaster* — the largest municipal pool in the U.S. is an LA city public pool. It is your public pool.
Encountering the largest municipal pool in the U.S. for the very first time feels like an optical illusion — the majestic serrations of the Angeles Crest rising in the distance, the 1.5 acre of rippling blue that feels so impossibly expansive that you're almost convinced it must just be a mirage in the parking lot. This isn't even your typical aquatic center: there are sandy banks, cabanas for rent, and a graduated resort-style pool bottom that's great for moms with crawling babies. At the far end, the splashdowns of the 7-and-older set echo from two water slides my kids have deemed "very fast." All of this is happening in one of the hottest and most underserved corners of the city. As our pools struggle to hold water, this is a model for what LA can achieve.
Behold: the Hansen Dam pool. Your public pool.
It's technically a "swim lake"
Your public pool is also having a bit of a moment. This year, the Hansen Dam Aquatic Center was profiled by the Los Angeles Times, the LA Daily News, and even the California Post couldn't find anything to complain about. You can gauge the popularity of the Hansen Dam pool every year when Councilmember Monica Rodriguez hosts her annual 4th of July pool party and drone show. This year, over 6,000 people attended. (The pool itself has a capacity of 3,500.)
The pool is also known for hosting free movie nights
But in the summer of 2026, Rodriguez had to hold her 4th of July party a week early, on June 28. She couldn't host it on July 4 because the entire facility had been privatized for a World Cup fan zone.
On a holiday weekend.
FOR FOUR DAYS.
Wait, it gets worse!
Imagine being told that due to a deal made with FIFA, you cannot use this pool. Your public pool. That sucks, right?
For the full effect, please also imagine the anguished moans of my two children — who were not free; kids 6 to 12 were $17 each — staring longingly at the pool in the 86-degree heat. Anguished moans which only subsided, I should note, after I had administered the appropriate compensation for their time in the form of soft serve.
What happens when a severely underfunded parks department meets a multibillion-dollar megaevent? I wondered this out loud as LA hosted the NBA All-Star Game in February, when I wrote about New Balance taking over a very small portion of Lafayette Park. In a statement, the Department of Recreation and Parks acknowledged the inconvenience of the pool closure, including publicizing alternative pools, but touted the Hansen Dam takeover as a "massive milestone for the Valley and a great way to bring the community together to celebrate the tournament." The statement also assures the city was "fully reimbursed" for the use of the facility, including "all costs associated with the setup, including staffing, security, and the revenue lost from closing the pool." Based on the rates we charge to use city facilities — there's a whole section in the needs assessment about the revenue LA is leaving on the table — I'm pretty sure we undercharged FIFA. But this is now the second time a community has lost its pool to megaevent organizers. This isn't like rebranding a soccer field for the weekend. This is eliminating public cooling infrastructure in an era of extreme heat. When it gets hot, Angelenos rely on pools to survive.
But I should have guessed something was up when I heard Rodriguez state at the council's ad hoc Olympic and Paralympic committee meeting in May that the fan zone was being organized by what she described as a "not-so-community-oriented actor."
Like all 10 of LA's fan zones, the Hansen Dam fan zone deal was conducted through an RFP process that resulted in a contract being made directly between organizers, in this case the visitor guide My Valley Pass, and FIFA. A person with knowledge of the Hansen Dam deal tells Torched that local officials were not notified of the details of this proposal until after the fan zones were set, an announcement that was made in January.
When I reached out to organizers about the pool closure, both in email and on Instagram, they blamed it on the free-flowing Michelob Ultra. "Since there is beer available for sale we aren't allowed to have anyone swimming for safety," a fan zone representative replied. But the person with knowledge of the Hansen Dam deal says officials proposed an alternate site plan which would have still allowed a beer garden and left the pool open to the public.
Without access to the water, the sandy beach, which is ostensibly a fun watch location, might as well have been molten lava at 3 p.m. And if you didn't like the view of a tiny Lionel Messi across an empty pool, the other screens were set up in a hot, barren parking lot. For $80, the organizers were selling VIP access to a completely separate area with grass and trees. So not only closing the pool, but premium-pricing the shade. In a public park.
None of this should have surprised me, honestly. I wrote just last week about how the official FIFA-regulated fan zones have been pretty disappointing overall. But then I visited two fan zones back-to-back that were organized in close partnership with LA County officials: Supervisor Holly Mitchell's fan zone at Magic Johnson Park in Willowbrook, which ran July 4 and 5, and Supervisor Hilda Solis' fan zone at Whittier Narrows Park in El Monte, open through Sunday. You could feel the difference as soon as you walked in. County institutions like LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits were stationed at these events, along with a vast array of community groups. A call for vendors for both events was issued through the Department of Economic Opportunity. Both fan zones even had adjacent open streets events. But the biggest difference from Hansen Dam is that these events were free. Yes, there was the FIFA-mandated fencing, airport-style security, and email registration. But anyone could walk up and attend. No one was turned away.
Both of these fan zones were organized by Community Arts Resources, headed by the co-founder of CicLAvia, Aaron Paley. He says despite the stringent requirements, his team worked hard to create a sense of place where the community felt invited and welcomed. That meant free.
The free Whittier Narrows fan zone, open through Sunday
"Our whole ethos is all about giving things away for free and creating public spaces," Paley told me. "People coming together in public make us better Angelenos, better Californians, better Americans. The more barriers you put in front of people, the less likely they will be to come together."
And we have a very good model for how successful "no ticket, no cost, no barriers" can be: the city's own Kick It in the Park events that are still happening in local parks. Which makes last weekend's situation all the more frustrating. As a city park, Hansen Dam really should have been a marquee destination for the ultimate watch party/pool party — gah, imagine those inflatable soccer beach balls bobbing across the horizon! — especially as temperatures climb into the 90s next week.
Unfortunately, we'll have yet another opportunity to see what a FIFA takeover of our parks looks like. I'm heading out to Venice right now where the fan zone is charging $25 to enter the very same area that was recently hosting Kick It in the Park events. Yes, there is a free adjacent block party as part of this fan zone. But signs in the FIFA typeface went out banning vendors from the boardwalk. And Councilmember Traci Park is already out here posting Instagram content celebrating how much of the beach has been fenced off from the public. 🔥
💦 Hansen Dam is a gem but absolutely needs an upgrade. For inspiration, might I suggest a field trip to Splash! La Mirada, the city of La Mirada's municipal aquatic center that operates an entire water park. See, when we have public facilities that are financially profitable, we won't be tempted to make megaevent deals
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
