LA28’s decision to move the Olympic equestrian venue out of the Galway Downs Equestrian Center has prompted sharp criticism to Capitol Hill.
LA28 informed Galway Downs, Temecula city and Riverside County officials late Wednesday that the local organizing committee for the 2028 Olympic Games has selected another site.
The move came just two weeks after LA28 listed Galway Downs as the Olympic and Paralympic Olympic site in at least two documents provided the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Karen Bass and a move by a Los Angeles City Council to approve LA28’s amended venue plan that included relocating the equestrian events from the Sepulveda Basin to Temecula. LA 28 told the LA City Council last year that the move to Galway Downs would generate a $26 million projected gain over what holding the event in the Sepulveda Basin would have generated.
“We are extremely surprised that we were suddenly removed from consideration,” Galway Downs owner Ken Smith said. “We don’t understand how, based on the March 28 City Council’s vote of approval, that this could happen. When we started this process more than four years ago, we understood the equestrian venue selection for LA28 would be a highly competitive, evolving process. Being selected as the proposed equestrian venue put Galway Downs and Temecula Valley on the world stage. We’re very proud of that, and we’re just getting started.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, whose congressional district includes Temecula, demanded an explanation from LA28 officials on Friday.
“I’m deeply disappointed to learn that Galway Downs in Temecula is reportedly no longer LA28’s proposed host site for equestrian events at the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games,” Issa said. “This abrupt move appears arbitrary, unwarranted, and our community deserves a clear explanation of the process that led to this change. At this time, a satisfactory reason has yet to be offered.”
Issa was one of six lawmakers who wrote LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman, outgoing International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and LA City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson on April 6 in support of Galway Downs.
LA28 presented its Olympic venue masterplan to the IOC Executive Board this week. The plan was approved by the international federations governing the various Olympic sports and supported without reservation by the Executive Board, completing its final stage of approval, according to LA28.
LA28 said it will share the updated Olympic plan at a later date.
LA 28 officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The move out of Galway Downs is the second major venue shift by LA 28 in a week.
LA 28 told Santa Monica officials last Friday that had decided to hold the beach volleyball competition elsewhere.
A 12,000-seat beach volleyball stadium in the self-proclaimed birthplace of the beach game with the iconic Santa Monica Pier in the background was one of the cornerstones of an original venue plan that was instrumental in LA 28 convincing the International Olympic Committee to award Los Angeles the 2028 Olympics, the city’s third Games.
But negotiations between LA 28 and Santa Monica had stalled for several months because city concerns about the financial impact on city during its peak tourist season. A financial impact study commissioned by Santa Monica city officials that while hosting the Olympic beach volleyball competition would generate $14.09 million in revenue, the city would also incur $15.54 million in expenses leaving the city with a $1.45 million deficit. That same study found that Santa Monica didn’t host the beach competition it would still generate $11.3 million from tourism against $650,000 in expenses for a profit of $10.65 million.
“Taken together, these findings suggest that choosing to host the Olympic beach volleyball competition translates to a net loss of roughly $2.10 million to the City,” the study said.
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