A little more than three years from this very week, the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad kick off in America’s second-largest city, Los Angeles, California. The 2028 games will mark the ninth time the United States has hosted a summer or winter gathering of the world’s best athletes, with L.A. joining Paris and London as the only municipalities to host the Olympics on three separate occasions.
In addition to the larger-than-life pomp and circumstance the will no doubt accompany the modern Olympic spectacle setting up shop against the backdrop of beaches, mountains, palm trees and the world center of popular culture, LA28 will also serve as a seminal moment for the sport of lacrosse, when the Sixes form of the Creator’s Game makes its modern Olympic debut.
Field lacrosse was an active aspect of the proceedings during both the 1904 and 1908 games, with Canada winning gold in the St. Louis and subsequent London incarnations of the enterprise. Lacrosse would continue as a non-medal demonstration sport in 1928, 1932 and 1948, but has been dormant in the decades since.
Sixes operates as a hybrid of the box and field games, with the outdoor competition featuring five players and a goalie, four eight-minute quarters, a 30-second shot clock, on-the-fly substitutions, amid a roughly 76 X 39-yard field. Sixes will join flag football, cricket and squash as new Olympic sports, with both baseball and softball being reintroduced to the slate of events.
Flag football’s manifestation is especially noteworthy due to the NFL’s decision to allow active pro football players the opportunity to participate in this modified version of their sport.
Courtesy of LAFC
Lacrosse and flag football will collectively take the field at BMO Stadium, home of the MLS’s LAFC and the NWSL’s Angel City FC. Opened in 2018, at a cost of $350 million, the 22,000-seat venue will be known as “Stadium In Exposition Park” throughout the course of the co-existing contests. BMO sits immediately adjacent to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will serve as the co-location for the opening and closing ceremonies (along with SoFi Stadium in nearby Inglewood), as well as track and field, the signature event of the summer games.
Part of the Downtown Sports Park, the twin lacrosse and flag football showplace is situated within the boundaries of 160-acre Exposition Park, 0.5 miles south of the USC campus, in close proximity to the Galen Center (home of badminton) and John C. Argue Swim Stadium (site of diving). Crypto.com Arena, the game-day environs of the Lakers, Kings and Sparks, during the non-Olympic calendar, rests two miles straight north of BMO Stadium. The former Staples Center will function as the epicenter of the gymnastics medal chase.
Exposition Park is also the location of a slew of museums, including the California Science Center, which houses the retired Space Shuttle Endeavor. After the successful execution of 25 missions to the cosmos, the orbiter arrived at the interactive educational edifice in 2012. The shuttle exhibit is currently on a pause from the public, as the complex adds the brand-new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center to its offerings. The 200,000-square-foot undertaking is scheduled to open later this year and will no doubt be a major attraction come July 2028.
Location, location, location has long operated as the preferred adage of the world of real estate. When it comes to lacrosse’s participation in the Los Angeles Olympics, it can easily be argued that the above axiom also holds incredibly true.
“Lacrosse caught a break on its venue. Assigned to BMO Stadium in Exposition Park and sharing the site with Flag Football, Sixes is sure to be a hot ticket in 2028. Being next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Los Angeles Swim Stadium, that will drive ticket interest, and further exposure for lacrosse in just three years’ time,” notes Rich Perelman, editor of the award-winning TheSportsExaminer.com, the only U.S. site devoted to coverage of the Olympic Movement and Olympic sport.
We came to play #NextUpLA28
Check out our new sport program featuring baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash. Which sport are you most excited to watch in #LA28?
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Perelman, who held the title of Vice President/Press Operations at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, further explains the long-term implications of performing on the planet’s biggest stage.
“There’s no doubt that Olympic re-inclusion for Lacrosse, after 120 years, will bring new exposure and new energy to the sport,” enlightens the Olympic historian.
“How many stories have been seen across decades of young people who are mesmerized by watching the Olympic Games and saying, ‘I want to do that too.’ That’s what happened to a nine-year-old Kirsty Coventry, watching the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games on television in Zimbabwe. Just 12 years later, she won an Olympic swimming gold in Athens and in 2025, she was elected as the first female President of the International Olympic Committee. That’s Olympic magic at its finest!”
Away from the global possibilities at play courtesy of the lacrosse/Los Angeles amalgamation, San Diego Seals CEO Paul Speaker foresees enormous local repercussions for a sport that already draws the attention of roughly 20,000 combined male and female high school participants throughout the state of California and it’s 40 million inhabitants.
“It’s been really exciting to see the growth in the game, especially since lacrosse was selected for inclusion in the 2028 Olympics,” opines the veteran sports executive. “The game is growing at such a rapid pace and participation levels are at an all-time high. Here in our own backyard, we’ve seen tremendous growth all throughout Southern California, and it’s everything from club and youth tournaments that are drawing thousands of players and their families from all around the country, to more and more opportunities for kids to play in high school and middle school, and even here with our own Junior Seals program, we’ve seen interest and participation grow to levels that far exceeded even our own expectations.”
Taking the field nine miles northeast of Los Angeles International Airport and 0.5 miles from the Expo Park/USC Metro Rail station, while simultaneously being broadcast to the more than 200 Olympic recognized countries around the globe, lacrosse teams competing for 2028 gold are perfectly primed to generate real-time eyes and ears, gazing at the festivities in gigantic numbers, both in-person and via a screen.
A spotlight of this magnitude is likely to produce a launch sequence worthy of the legendary rocket ship permanently parked within a nice downfield pass of what will undoubtedly be history in the making for all things lacrosse.
