Los Angeles Rams funded 1,000 free LA28 tickets: young people will watch flag football's Olympic debut and swimming competitions
The LA28 Organizing Committee and the American football club Los Angeles Rams announced that ten nonprofit organizations from the Los Angeles area will receive a total of 1,000 free tickets for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is the first concrete distribution of tickets under the Community Ticket Program, launched to give residents of local communities, particularly young people and families who might not otherwise be able to afford such an expense, direct access to one of the world's largest sporting events. According to LA28's announcement, the tickets were funded from the Rams' initial donation of five million US dollars, which the club announced in November 2025 as the program's first donor. The first beneficiaries will watch flag football's Olympic debut at the stadium in Exposition Park or swimming competitions at the venue that organizers call 2028 Stadium during the Games, normally the home of the Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers in Inglewood. The initiative, conceived as a long-term model for community involvement, has thereby moved from the fundraising stage to the actual distribution of tickets.
The announcement of the first recipients took place on July 27, 2026, during the Rams' training camp, and the names of the organizations were presented by head coach Sean McVay. The following day, LA28 confirmed that each of the selected organizations would distribute the tickets among its members and families, in accordance with its own programs and the community's needs. The organizers did not state that all ten organizations would receive an equal number of tickets, but rather that they would jointly have access to a pool of 1,000 seats. The emphasis was placed on groups that continuously work with children, adolescents, families and residents of neighborhoods with more limited access to sporting, educational and cultural activities. The program was designed so that the tickets would not end up in general sales or promotional prize draws, but directly in the hands of local nonprofit organizations that know the people they serve.
Ten organizations from different parts of Los Angeles
The first ten beneficiaries of the program are A Place Called Home, After-School All-Stars, Al Wooten Jr. Youth Center, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro LA, Brotherhood Crusade, Heart of Los Angeles, Project Blue, Social Justice Learning Institute, Swim Up Hill and YMCA of Metro LA. LA28 selected them because of their long-standing work with young people and local communities, as well as programs encompassing education, sport, mentoring, life-skills development and family support. The list includes large organizational networks, such as the YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs, as well as locally rooted initiatives focused on particular neighborhoods or groups of young people. These organizations will decide which members and families receive the individual tickets.
According to the official announcement, the selection criterion was their contribution to empowering young people and their strong connection with the communities they serve. The organizers did not publish individual quotas or detailed internal criteria according to which each organization will select the final beneficiaries. This means that practical implementation will depend on the rules and programs of each organization, while the common goal is to enable attendance by people who might otherwise remain outside the Olympic stands. At the same time, LA28 opened the possibility for other interested organizations to apply for future rounds of the program, and announced that new donors and new recipients would be disclosed later. The Rams' donation was therefore not presented as a one-off action, but as seed funding for a broader model that is expected to grow as 2028 approaches.
LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said that awarding tickets to community organizations is precisely why the program was established. Rams President Kevin Demoff emphasized that the club works with many of the selected organizations throughout the year and that the donation should give access to the Games to people whose work contributes to Los Angeles every day. Sean McVay stated that the Rams want to use their public platform to create a positive impact and change in the community. LA28 Vice President of Social Impact and Legacy Erikk Aldridge described the donation as a starting point for creating access to competitions directly through local neighborhoods and youth-development organizations. The shared message from the organizers and the club is that the social impact of the Games should not be limited to infrastructure, tourism and international visibility, but should also include the tangible participation of residents of the host city.
Flag football on the Olympic program for the first time
Some of the beneficiaries of the free tickets will watch flag football, a discipline that will be part of the Olympic program for the first time at Los Angeles 2028. The competition will be held at Exposition Park Stadium, an open-air stadium completed in 2018 and located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The venue is the regular home of the soccer clubs Los Angeles FC and Angel City FC, and during the Games it will host flag football and six-a-side lacrosse. According to the published Olympic schedule, flag football will begin on the first day of competition, and the first Olympic women's and men's champions in the discipline will be determined during the first week of the Games. The organizers have thereby given the new sport a highly visible position in the program, while the selection of tickets for young people carries additional symbolism because of the Rams' strong connection with the development of American football in local schools and communities.
Flag football is a non-contact version of American football in which a defensive play ends by removing a flag attached to a player's belt instead of tackling the opponent. The International Olympic Committee approved its inclusion in the Los Angeles program alongside cricket, lacrosse and squash, as well as the return of baseball and softball. Men's and women's national teams will compete at LA28, giving the sport a global stage considerably larger than the one it has previously had in most international markets. For organizations working with young people, attending such a competition is not only an opportunity to watch sport, but also a direct encounter with a new Olympic discipline at a time when its international audience is only beginning to take shape. As an NFL club, the Rams are a natural partner in this part of the program, although the Olympic competition is governed by a separate international sporting system.
The inclusion of flag football also reflects the organizers' effort to connect the Games program with the culture and sporting habits of the host city. Los Angeles has a strong American football market, a large base of school and recreational programs, and two NFL teams that play at the same stadium in Inglewood. At the same time, the Olympic format opens the sport to countries where traditional American football has no professional league or extensive infrastructure. For the audience with free tickets, this will be the historic first edition of the competition. It is precisely this combination of local familiarity and a global debut that is one of the reasons flag football was selected for the initial ticket distribution.
Swimming in a converted stadium in Inglewood
The second group of beneficiaries will watch swimming competitions at 2028 Stadium, the name LA28 uses for SoFi Stadium during the Olympic period. The stadium was built as the centerpiece of the Hollywood Park complex in Inglewood and regularly serves as the home of the Rams and the Chargers. For the Games, it will be temporarily converted into the largest swimming venue in the history of Olympic competition, according to LA28. The same venue will take part in the Olympic Games' dual opening ceremony together with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it will also host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The transformation of the stadium from a venue for American football and major concerts into an Olympic swimming venue will be one of the most striking examples of the use of existing infrastructure in LA28's organizational plan.
Swimming will also have an unusually prominent place in the final stages of the Olympic schedule in Los Angeles. According to the competition plan published by LA28 in November 2025, the final Olympic medals will be awarded in swimming on the last day of the Games, immediately before the closing ceremony. The temporary pool inside the stadium will thereby become the stage for the concluding sporting act of the entire Olympic program. For young people from the selected organizations, visiting such a venue means gaining access to a competition taking place in a space normally associated with professional American football and major commercial events. They will also be able to see how an existing stadium can be adapted to an entirely different sporting function without the construction of a new permanent Olympic complex.
This approach fits into LA28's broader strategy, according to which the Games will not require the construction of new permanent sporting venues. The organizers state that these will be the first Olympic Games since 1948 without new permanent infrastructure intended for competition. Instead, existing stadiums, arenas, university facilities, beaches and temporary adaptations across the wider Southern California area will be used, with some competitions taking place in Oklahoma City. The model reduces the risk of creating venues with no long-term purpose, but at the same time brings demanding logistics involving conversion, transportation and the distribution of events across a large geographical area. SoFi Stadium, or 2028 Stadium, is one of the key examples of this strategy because, within a short period, it will have to fulfill the functions of both a ceremonial venue and a world-class swimming arena.
Five-million-dollar donation launched a broader program
The Rams announced the five-million-dollar donation on November 20, 2025, slightly fewer than one thousand days before the start of the Olympic Games. The club thereby became the first donor to the fund through which LA28 intends to finance tickets for local nonprofit organizations. Under the program's rules, professional sports clubs, philanthropists, companies, organizations and individuals can fund additional ticket packages through their contributions, after which LA28 directs them to organizations that distribute them within their communities. The first 1,000 tickets do not necessarily represent the full scope of the Rams' donation: official announcements state that the program is intended to provide access to thousands of residents, while further distributions will be announced later. The current allocation can therefore be viewed as the first publicly presented stage, rather than the completion of the use of the donated funds.
The program addresses one of the most visible challenges of major sporting events: the fact that holding an event in a particular city does not in itself mean that the city's residents will be able to watch it live. Ticket prices, demand, transportation costs, work obligations and a complex sales system can limit access, particularly for lower-income families. The Community Ticket Program does not remove all of those obstacles, but it ensures that at least some of the available seats are reserved for people whom the organizers reach through trusted local partners. The key difference compared with a traditional corporate distribution is that the tickets are allocated by organizations that already work with the beneficiaries and understand their circumstances. The decision concerning the final recipients is thereby decentralized and brought closer to the communities for which the assistance is intended.
As of August 2, 2026, the broader Olympic ticket sales system was already in its second phase. According to LA28's official portal, registration for the second ticket draw closed on July 22, the Visa presale took place from July 29 to 31, and notifications regarding purchase windows in the second round were scheduled for August 6 and 7. Sales in that round were expected to run from August 10 to 20, subject to availability. The Olympic Games will be held from July 14 to 30, 2028, and the Paralympic Games from August 15 to 27. While most spectators compete for tickets through a system of registrations and time-limited purchase windows, beneficiaries of the community program receive them outside the commercial process.
Broader significance for Los Angeles and the organization of the Games
In 2028, Los Angeles will become the third city to have hosted the Summer Olympic Games three times, following the 1932 and 1984 editions, and it will host the Paralympic Games for the first time. LA28 expects more than 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes, while the Olympic program encompasses 51 sports, 49 competition venues and 18 organizational zones. The organizers are also announcing the first edition of the Olympic Games with a higher proportion of female athletes than male athletes: women have been allocated 50.5 percent of the overall quota, and every team sport will have an equal or greater number of women's teams compared with men's teams. A project of this scale makes the issue of access for local residents an important part of its public legitimacy. Free tickets do not resolve all debates concerning the cost, traffic and impact of the Games, but they represent a measurable benefit that reaches part of the community directly.
For the Rams, the initiative is also connected with the fact that their stadium will be one of the centers of the Games. Club owner E. Stanley Kroenke built the stadium as the main venue of the Hollywood Park complex, and LA28 included it in the ceremonies and swimming program. The club is therefore not only a donor, but also an institutional partner whose infrastructure will play a key role in the Olympic organization. The donation further strengthens the connection between professional sport, privately financed venues and the public legacy of a major international event. The organizers expect the Rams' example to encourage other professional clubs, companies and philanthropists to fund new ticket packages.
The most important effect of the first round, however, will be seen only when the organizations select the beneficiaries and young people enter the stands with their families in 2028. For some, it will be their first visit to a major sporting competition; for others, their first encounter with an Olympic sport in person; and some will watch the historic debut of a discipline that has never previously had a place at the Games. LA28 has not yet announced how many free tickets the program will distribute in total or what the final amount of all donations is expected to be. It has only been confirmed that additional contributions and new rounds of recipients are expected in the coming months. The first 1,000 tickets are therefore both tangible assistance and a test of a model that, if expanded, could involve a considerably larger number of Los Angeles residents in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Sources:
- LA28 – official announcement of July 27, 2026, concerning the allocation of 1,000 tickets and the list of ten organizations (link)
- LA28 – report of July 28, 2026, on the presentation of the recipients at the Rams' training camp and the selected competitions (link)
- Los Angeles Rams – announcement concerning the initial donation of five million dollars and the launch of the program in November 2025 (link)
- LA28 – official information about Exposition Park Stadium and the sports that will be held there (link)
- LA28 – official information about 2028 Stadium, the ceremonies and the planned Olympic swimming venue (link)
- LA28 – published Olympic schedule, number of sports and venues, and information concerning the representation of female athletes (link)
- LA28 Tickets – official dates of the Games and the current schedule for the second round of ticket sales (link)
- Olympics.com – official Olympic overview of the rules, format and debut of flag football at the 2028 Games (link)1