LA28 organizers lay out renovation plans to host track events at L.A. Coliseum

LA28 is planning a $100M project to build a new floor at the L.A. Coliseum to host the track and field competitions, which LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman characterized as “the most expensive and probably complicated thing we actually have to build,” according to David Wharton of the L.A. TIMES. After renovations in the early 1990s added 14 rows of seats at the bottom of the bowl, there “wasn’t enough room” on the Coliseum floor for a track. LA28's solution to that issue will require “thousands of columns and metal plates to build a new floor” about 11 feet above the current one. Because the bowl slopes away in all directions, this elevated surface will “have room to stretch out, covering all those added seats.” LA28 expects to begin construction “as soon as USC plays its last football game of the 2027 season.” That means the stadium “might not be ready for Olympic test events or the U.S. track trials in the early summer of 2028.” Turf and dirt will be “scraped away to expose the stadium’s concrete base” and adjustable columns will be “arranged every 10 or so feet.” After laying a metal deck across the top of the columns, workers will “add almost 2 feet of gravel and soil to create a stable base.” Then comes a synthetic track and a turf infield for events such as discus and javelin. Wharton noted the space underneath the floor could “be used for a warm-up area and the call room,” where athletes check in before competing. LA28 is also “considering a mechanical platform that would slowly raise athletes to field level for a dramatic entrance” (L.A. TIMES, 6/27).