BY: ZACH EDGAR
Staff
The Summer Olympics and Paralympics will be hosted in Los Angeles in 2028, bringing with it men’s and women’s soccer across six stadiums for preliminary and knockout rounds. While the final medal games will be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the six stadiums selected to host these preliminary and knockout rounds are Etihad Park, Queens; Scotts Miracle-Gro Field, Columbus; Geodis Park, Nashville; PayPal Park, San Jose; Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego and Energizer Park, St. Louis.
Each field selected for the Olympic tournament, outside of the Rose Bowl, is a soccer-specific stadium. Etihad Park is currently being built in Queens, New York for New York City FC’s home stadium. The construction is set to finish sometime in 2027. Energizer Park is located in St. Louis, recently built to be the home of our new MLS team St. Louis City SC. The stadium was built for just shy of $460 million and has previously won the Prix Versailles World Title by UNESCO from Paris, France, recognizing it as the best designed new sports facility in the world in 2024. This set the scene for St. Louis to become a part of the world’s stage of hosting national games and setting an example of what a soccer specific stadium can be; not only for club soccer, but for the surrounding area.
This coming summer Olympics tournament will be slightly different than previous iterations. The 2028 tournament will feature 16 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams competing, instead of the usual reverse of 16 men’s and 12 women’s. Each national team, men’s and women’s, will have different restrictions on how each team can be made up of its competing players. The women’s national teams are allowed to call up any player regardless of their age, and the player’s current club team cannot refuse a player from being called up to this tournament. The men’s national team has some key changes, including that a club team can refuse a player’s participation in the tournament, and there can only be three players included in the roster that are over the age of 23.
This tournament gives an opportunity for young players who might not normally make the cut for a roster without these kinds of limitations to display their talents. Some might earn a transfer to a new club team after the tournament or set themselves up for a spot in a subsequent tournament roster depending on how the individual performs.
As the host nation of the 2028 Olympics, both the men’s and women’s soccer team will automatically qualify for the tournament. Anyone interested in purchasing tickets will need to register in a draw on the Official LA28 Olympics website going through March 18.
