LA 2028 Ceremonies

[baron-pierreIV]

Re Paralympic Opening Ceremonies -- who was admonishing me for postulating that Paralympic openings attract smaller crowds, hence moved to a smaller venue?  Was just watching the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and the stadium is more than half-full/empty!  Luckily, (am only in the first hour), they've been able to disguise the empty stands with all those lights and those digital LED thingies.  But no, Paralympics do not sell out to general crowds -- hence, there is reason to move it to a smaller venue which, also, in LA's case, Memorial would already be outfitted for Paralympic use whereas with Swimming moving to SoFi, precludes SoFi even more for Paralympic use.  

Uh-oh.  There's a device they roll in at 1:05:00 that's very much like that BIG WHEEL the ITG report gave us a sneak preview about.  Gosh, is nothing original any more?? 

Edited July 6 by baron-pierreIV

[Bear]

1 hour ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Re Paralympic Opening Ceremonies -- who was admonishing me for postulating that Paralympic openings attract smaller crowds, hence moved to a smaller venue?  Was just watching the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Opening Ceremony and the stadium is more than half-full/empty!  Luckily, (am only in the first hour), they've been able to disguise the empty stands with all those lights and those digital LED thingies.  But no, Paralympics do not sell out to general crowds -- hence, there is reason to move it to a smaller venue which, also, in LA's case, Memorial would already be outfitted for Paralympic use whereas with Swimming moving to SoFi, precludes SoFi even more for Paralympic use.  

PyeongChang is also a (relatively) remote location with not many people living there. You cannot possibly compare PyeongChang to LA or any other edition of the Games that took place in a more accessible, and populated region. LA is more than capable of filling SoFi for the Paralympic Games.

Also:

https://press.paris2024.org/news/1-million-tickets-sold-for-the-paralympic-games-0674-7578a.html

Three Para-sports have sold out, and ticketing has crossed the 1 million mark. By crossing this mark on June 27, 62 days prior to the opening of the Paralympic Games, Paris is in a better position than Rio 2016, the edition with the most Paralympic tickets sold, was 62 prior to their Paralympic Games (only 12% of 3.3 million - around 396,000! had been sold well after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games had begun - that number would quickly become over 2 million in the following days). Also, let's not forget the detail I had mentioned before - the attendance record at Barra Olympic Park was broken not during the Olympic Games, but during the Paralympic Games.

Going even further to London 2012 - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-19500185 - [Paul Deighton, LOCOG CEO] said high demand had prompted the release of 100,000 Park-only tickets and 100,000 contingency tickets. On Thursday afternoon the only tickets available on London 2012's website were for Sunday's closing ceremony. The seats for the event, headlined by Coldplay, cost between £250 and £350. But organisers said a few thousand more contingency tickets - such as multi-sport day passes for events at the ExCel - would be released in the next two days. Any event tickets returned by stakeholders, such as sponsors and international media, would also be put on public sale, added a Locog spokesman. "We are heading towards a sell out, but we are still committed to making available as many tickets as possible to the public and this will continue right up until the close of the Games," he told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-19354361 - An extra 140,000 Paralympic Games tickets which went on sale on Wednesday sold out in a matter of hours.

If the Paralympics do not sell out to general crowds, why did these things happen?

Of course, just because these Paralympic Games were a success ticketing wise doesn't 100% mean LA28 will be either - but history has shown that there is, in fact, a demand for tickets, and a strong one at that. There's zero reason to switch venues around for capacity reasons.

You mention swimming being a reason why the ceremonies could be moved - well that isn't stopping the Olympic Opening Ceremony from taking place there, why should it stop the Paralympic Games ceremonies?

also like, SoFi Stadium is newer and more likely to be adaptive towards those with physical disabilities than LA Memorial, which is like a major thing to take into consideration when you're trying to stage thousands of athletes with disabilities, thousands of spectators, and several hundred cast members (which, if they do what Tokyo did for the Para ceremonies, will likely be made up by people with disabilities as well) in one place at the same time for over three hours straight.

[baron-pierreIV]

31 minutes ago, Bear said:

You mention swimming being a reason why the ceremonies could be moved - well that isn't stopping the Olympic Opening Ceremony from taking place there, why should it stop the Paralympic Games ceremonies?.

Because the Olympic Games are the main show. The IOC lets the IPC ride on its coat tails.  NBC doesn't sign a multi-billion dollar contract because of the Paralympics.  They are lucky to be coasting for the ride.  Also, you seem to forget the accommodations they have to make for a Paralympic event.  Since they are budgeting $100 million for Memorial to host regular Athletics AND other Paralympic events, so extensive accommodations for wheelchairs, etc., can easily be designed and built in from the start.  While SoFi I am sure fulfills ADA rules and the City of Inglewood's own disabled edicts (if different from what ADA requires), SoFi might not want LA28 doing more tinkering than what LA28 will already do for its OC and the switch to Swimming.  (Like NBC's contract with the IOC, I think IPC's arrangement with the IOC is up for negotiation starting either with Brisbane or with SLC.)  

[Bear]

Just now, baron-pierreIV said:

Because the Olympic Games are the main show. The IOC lets the IPC ride on its coat tails.  NBC doesn't sign a multi-billion dollar contract because of the Paralympics.  They are lucky to be coasting for the ride.  Also, you seem to forget the accommodations they have to make for a Paralympic event.  Since they are budgeting $100 million for Memorial to host regular Athletics AND other Paralympic events, so extensive accommodations for wheelchairs, etc., can easily be designed and built in from the start.  While SoFi I am sure fulfills ADA rules and the City of Inglewood's own disabled edicts (if different from what ADA requires), SoFi might not want LA28 doing more tinkering than what LA28 will already do for its OC and the switch to Swimming.  (Like NBC's contract with the IOC, I think IPC's arrangement with the IOC is up for negotiation starting either with Brisbane or with SLC.)  

LA Memorial is fine for Para-athletics, since you're only moving a few hundred athletes at a time. For the Opening Ceremony you're moving thousands of athletes, cast members, etc. within a shortened time frame while dealing with staging and what not. SoFi is perfect for this as it's about as modern and accessible as you can get.

I genuinely do not understand why you are so adamant at having the ceremonies (more specifically the Opening Ceremony, but this could also apply to the Closing Ceremony) take place in a venue that does not have the infrastructural capacity to hold them (not my words - remember that Wasserman himself said this) just because you have the delusion that not enough people exist to fill up a 70k seater stadium. London was able to fill its 80,000 seat stadium for their Paralympic ceremonies, Beijing had at least 90,000 people watch the 2008 Paralympic Opening, and even Athens in 2004 was able to have around 72,000 spectators for the Opening Ceremony.

[Sir Rols]

My theory regarding the paras:

When it comes to the main Olympics, for most events - certainly the ceremonies and blue riband events and finals - there’s always never enough tickets to meet demand. Not only that, but large blocs of those tickets are also allocated to overseas markets - Olympic tourists - to sponsors and NOCs. Everybody want to attend the OC and the 100m finals at their home games, but only a tiny fraction actually hit the jackpot.

For the paras, certainly in the lead-up there isn’t the same demand, and there’s far, far fewer foreigners coming in to watch them. For the host nation, though, when the senior Olympics start and Games-fever takes hold, there’s suddenly a keen desire to experience the action and go to those venues they’ve been watching on TV - and the paras become a way to slake their thirst to have a “games experience”. I’ve seen it first hand - family members who didn’t get tix for Sydney 2000 jumped at the chance to get paras tickets and friends in England, when I couldn’t get tix for them for the main games, ended up enthusiastically going to the paras just so they could attend Olympic Park in games mode. The paras crowds thrive on lingering Olympic fever and the locals having a better chance to get those tickets than at the main games. It doesn’t surprise me that the paras manage to pack stadiums, even though for the most part the broadcasters - certainly the overseas ones - have moved on. It’s more a host sensation than a global sensation.

As for PC, as Bear pointed out, the remoteness of the location likely did indeed limit the opportunity to replicate this effect fully.

[baron-pierreIV]

And also, Para TV coverage at least in the past -- before the age of streaming and all that, has been skimpy and hard to follow.  So for the die-hards who really want to see Para action, they go buy live tickets -- but it's not like it's competition being watched in 20 million (US) homes or what.  If it were, the Paras would break off from the IOC mother-ship and have their own multi-billion dollar TV contracts.  

[Sir Rols]

4 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

And also, Para TV coverage at least in the past -- before the age of streaming and all that, has been skimpy and hard to follow.  So for the die-hards who really want to see Para action, they go buy live tickets -- but it's not like it's competition being watched in 20 million (US) homes or what.  If it were, the Paras would break off from the IOC mother-ship and have their own multi-billion dollar TV contracts.  

So true. Even the rights holders only market the paras half-heartedly.

You see it also here on GamesBids. Yes, there’s the die-hards who insist the games aren’t over until the paras have come and gone. They’re a minority, though. Often mostly the ceremonies crowd., Most of the rest of us have moved on and give them cursory attention at best.

[Bear]

Saw the tiny preview for the LA28 handover segment that was shown at the IOC Session. If the Tom Cruise appearance is true, then that part is probably going to go like this:
Tom Cruise takes the Olympic flag from Paris to LA, where an Olympic flag "relay" between various Angelenos take the flag across LA.

There are probably going to be references to 1932 and 1984 as well.

of course this is all speculation from a short clip and rumors so I could be wildly wrong. only way to find out is by watching the handover on August 11th 😄

[Bear]

after today there is only one way we can match Paris. we must hold our ceremony on the LA River.

[Olympics2028]

2 hours ago, Bear said:

after today there is only one way we can match Paris. we must hold our ceremony on the LA River.

🤣

[Bear]

BREAKING:

 

[venuedesignlover]

2 hours ago, Bear said:

BREAKING:

 

I really wouldn’t be opposed to this

[Anthony]

okay but real talk: the two stadium idea makes me nervous given how disjointed the Paris opening was. i’m all for one ceremony at the coliseum 

[illustrado]

I’m think  less nervous about the two stadium idea.

1) the road is less difficult than the water.

2) the public would love a parade with the athletes. And the athletes would love the parade because traditionally they are sequestered in a stadium doing nothing.

 

 

 

 

[Ikarus360]

For what I understand, the plan is just starting the final leg of the torch relay in the Colosseum, then moving to SoFi's where the actual opening ceremony will take place.

Perhaps they can take notes from Paris and have some fun with the last leg, making it go through different spots in LA in different manners before reaching Inglewood.

I also understand the other plan is lighting the Inglewood and Colosseum cauldrons simultaneously, but if it depended on me, I would lit the 1984 cauldron first to start the ceremony, then end it by lightning the SoFi one. Mostly because we've seen too many corruptions of what a cauldron should be as of recently to see yet another fake lightning.

[illustrado]

I could see them doing a short program (national anthem) and a lighting of the olympic cauldron at the LA memorial. Start a parade to sofi stadium with interesting bit in between (lot of parking spaces that could be used as stages) speech and athletes  at sofi before lighting of the olympic flame 

[Bear]

9 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

I also understand the other plan is lighting the Inglewood and Colosseum cauldrons simultaneously, but if it depended on me, I would lit the 1984 cauldron first to start the ceremony, then end it by lightning the SoFi one.

actually im 99% sure this is the plan

[Ikarus360]

I also hope they bring back John Williams and that he's still healthy by then. An Olympics in the US don't feel the same without him.

[ejaycat]

5 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

I also hope they bring back John Williams and that he's still healthy by then. An Olympics in the US don't feel the same without him.

Totally.  The Olympic Fanfare he wrote for the Los Angeles '84 Olympics has been used in Olympic broadcasts ever since... at least in the US.  

[Olympics2028]

7 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

I also hope they bring back John Williams and that he's still healthy by then. An Olympics in the US don't feel the same without him.

That regrettably isn't likely. He's already 92 years old, so when he's 96-97 (and it will be nice if he survives that long) he'll probably be too infirm to deal with any Olympic games.

Compare and contrast:

 

[Bear]

bit of a fun and lighthearted article:

https://www.citywatchla.com/gelfand-s-world/29299-la-olympics-2028-can-we-do-any-better

Quote

GELFAND’S WORLD - The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic organizing committee are rumored to have been in a panic after watching the opening ceremony from the Paris Olympics. Looking at the scenic shots of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe, they were concerned but still moderately hopeful, but the sight of the athletes traveling on boats along the Seine, with views of Notre Dame cathedral and the Left Bank left them in a near frenzy. "How can we possibly compete with Paris," they asked. Then somebody remembered how Los Angeles engaged in the Millennium New Year celebration (hardly at all) compared to the way Paris was televised around the world, and they were approaching despair. But in the nick of time, someone came up with a way to compete for our upcoming 2028 Olympic Games opening. "Let's do our parade of athletes on the L.A. River," they suggested. You heard it here first.

In a city that suddenly (but not unexpectedly) finds itself without extra money to throw at the Olympics, ideas for an internationally competitive kind of opening ceremony have been few and far between. The proposal to put the athletes on gondolas going up to Dodger Stadium didn't in the end have much traction, largely because there is no such thing at the moment. The counterproposal, to use the old Angel's Flight funicular foundered due to similar issues.

Another proposal, to carry the athletes up the northbound 405 at rush hour (to capture the spirit of Los Angeles) was rejected peremptorily.

And finally, one last suggestion that the opening parade consist of the athletes arriving at LAX and using ground transportation was initially received positively, but was found to be impossible to achieve in the mere 36 hours that have been set aside for the celebrations.

It turns out -- once you get past the usual jokes about L.A., that our most essential virtue is our stinginess. We were one of the only places in the world willing to bid on the Olympics to be held anytime during the decade of the 2020s, because there is such a dismal history of cities bankrupting themselves to put on extravagant productions. It's not so much the opening ceremonies as it is the cost of building all those venues for all those different sports. In an era when a new NFL football stadium might run in the billions, 21st century cities looked at the cost of an Olympic stadium -- multiplied by 5 or 10 -- and just said No. Los Angeles looked at its past, where we have hosted the Olympics on a thin budget, and said Maybe.

So we are not going to build another Eiffel Tower, but perhaps we could preserve the Graffiti Towers until 2028. They're not Eiffel, but at least they are towers. And they are now a tourist attraction. We could introduce base jumping as a new Olympic sport and make lemonade out of those lemons.

A few viewers who were totally impressed by the balloon-carried Olympic Flame (how did they do that, anyway?) realized that we could compete with les Parisiennes by using our own La Brea Tar Pits as the next Olympic flame cauldron. It turns out that doing so would violate an obscure rule from the International Olympic Committee, because the expected life of the flame (about 10,000 years) would run over into the following Olympic Games.

And there is one rumor that needs to be laid to rest. In spite of the fact that Los Angeles managed to bring in a retired battleship -- the Iowa -- and features it here in San Pedro, there is absolutely no truth to the story that we are planning to refloat a sunken German battleship and bring it to the Miracle Mile along the same route taken by the Space Shuttle and feature it as a tourist attraction that will be called the La Brea Tirpitz.

 

[AustralianFan]

Joining Two Iconic Stadiums

Just reposting this concept video from the LA 2028 organisers which was released a while back about uniting the two Opening Ceremony venues, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sofi Stadium.

The Torch Relay heads to Sofi Stadium after LA Memorial Coliseum.

 

[Bear]

Just now, AustralianFan said:

Joining Two Iconic Stadiums

Just reposting this concept video from the LA 2028 organisers which was released a while back about uniting the two Opening Ceremony venues, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sofi Stadium.

The Torch Relay heads to Sofi Stadium after LA Memorial Coliseum.

 

yep, my understanding is that the ceremony would begin with the lighting of the LA Memorial cauldron, and end with the lighting of the SoFi cauldron

[AustralianFan]

1 hour ago, Bear said:

yep, my understanding is that the ceremony would begin with the lighting of the LA Memorial cauldron, and end with the lighting of the SoFi cauldron

Yes, it will be interesting to see how they link and include spectators in both stadiums, especially after the so many complaints from Paris 2024 spectators who forked out big time on tickets only to not see much and feel left out, spending most of their time on the banks of the Seine looking at large tv screens.

There’s a real risk of this spectator disconnection and disengagement happening with the dual stadium concept in LA2028’s Opening Ceremony if the lessons of Paris 2024 are not learned from.

[Bear]

6 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

Yes, it will be interesting to see how they link and include spectators in both stadiums, especially after the so many complaints from Paris 2024 spectators who forked out big time on tickets only to not see much and feel left out, spending most of their time on the banks of the Seine looking at large tv screens.

There’s a real risk of this spectator disconnection and disengagement happening with the dual stadium concept in LA2028’s Opening Ceremony if the lessons of Paris 2024 are not learned from.

oh absolutely. I would rather they just stick with SoFi (or LA Memorial, if they can work things out there). the dual concept didn't exactly work well with Gangwon earlier this year either, as we missed the entire concert that took place at the PyeongChang Dome. Hopefully LA28 is taking notes from both ceremonies this year 🙂