OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) – Business and community leaders from across Oklahoma City gathered Wednesday for an in-depth fireside chat about how the city is preparing to host competitions for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber hosted the event at The Petroleum Club, 100 N. Broadway Ave. It featured a lively discussion between Team OKC President Michael Byrnes, who is the head of Oklahoma City’s Olympic effort, and Zac Craig, who serves as president of the Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Oklahoma City will host softball and canoeing competitions for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
In March, the Los Angeles City Council officially approved LA28’s request for Olympic competitions to be held in Oklahoma City in 2028.
LA28 is in charge of the the 2028 Olympics. The entity designated Riversport Rapids as the location for Canoe Slalom competitions, and the Adventure District’s Devon Park for the softball competitions.
The Los Angeles City Council’s unanimous vote in March was the final step in designating Oklahoma City’s participation in the next Summer Olympics.
Byrnes, who served as president and general manager of the Oklahoma City Comets since 2010, said preparation for the Olympic Games coming to Oklahoma City is in the early stages.
“The early stages have really been very focused on understanding our stakeholders. There are quite a few as it relates to how we deliver this event. At the top of the pyramid, it starts with the International Olympic Committee, the IOC. And they have created the relationship with LA28 to provide the opportunity that LA28 has in that one particular year to deliver the games,” Byrnes said.
International federations such as the World Baseball Softball Confederation and the International Canoe Federation as well as national governing bodies, such as USA Softball and American Canoe Association, are among those stakeholders who factor into staging the games in Oklahoma City.
“There are a wide grouping of stakeholders just related to international games. And then as we begin to narrow to the local environment, there are the relationships at state level. Obviously commerce and tourism have a strong interest in how this event will deliver,” Byrnes said.
Team OKC will collaborate with several entities across Oklahoma City to pull the event off.
“We have world-class venues, and that’s why we have this opportunity,” Byrnes said.
LA28 selected Oklahoma City for the competitions because Southern California lacks a Canoe Slalom venue and does not have a softball venue that seats more than 2,000 people, according to Olympics officials.
“Instead of undertaking additional construction projects to build temporary venues for these sports, LA28 will assign Canoe Slalom and Softball competitions to the world-class venues in Oklahoma City,” Olympic officials said last June. “Both the Canoe Slalom and softball venues in Oklahoma City are built to international competition standards, ensuring a high-quality experience for athletes and fans, while allowing LA28 to realize cost savings and revenue gains to support its balanced budget.”
Team OKC is delving into a wide range of considerations to ensure that the Olympic Games run smoothly in Oklahoma City, including housing for the athletes and other individuals who help run the games. Brynes and his team also engage in day-to-day discussions with LA28 officials.
The LA28 team has very ambitious goals, Byrnes said.
“LA is eager to produce the biggest and best games that have been produced,” he said. “Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1984, and this games in 2028 will have double the athletes and double the venues of what they had from a scale at that stage.”
Byrnes said Casey Wasserman, the chair of the Los Angeles Olympic Host Committee, was in Oklahoma City recently to attend an NBA finals game. Wasserman spoke to a small group in OKC and said the 2028 Olympic Games will be the equivalent of delivering seven Super Bowls a day for 30 days.
“So, as you think about the Olympic Games itself and then the Paralympic Games, that period of time, this is a large-scale operation. And so, we have a responsibility, obviously, for our portion of that, and it’s going to be really critical that we deliver for them,” Byrnes said.
The OKC and LA teams frequently interact, discussing logistical concerns. Team OKC discussions have primarily been with LA28’s event venue management group.
“They’re thinking about all the elements related to experience, whether that’s guest experience, whether that’s the athlete experience, broadcast, competition itself. They are also focused on general operations — safety and security, transportation, [Olympic] Village management,” Byrnes said.
LA28 is also concerned about stakeholder services for press, broadcast and athletes’ families.
Housing is an important consideration. OKC will host around 200 athletes and technical officials.
“And then they have supply and thinking about the volume of individuals coming to and from our venues, whether here locally or in Los Angeles, and then replenishing that venue and being ready again for tomorrow’s events. They have a lot of logistics related to that,” Byrnes said.
Byrnes said he wants to make the Olympic experience as broad as possible across Oklahoma City, which means activations and activities throughout the community.
“It will [include] a torch relay that will come through. Not only through Oklahoma, but the ambition is it will pass through all 50 states. LA is really positioning this as America’s games,” he said.
There will be a wide assortment of events people can physically attend, Byrnes said.
The Games’ presence in Oklahoma gives a large number of people the opportunity to participate in the wide range of events and festivities that will be held in Oklahoma City in conjunction with the Games, according to Byrnes.
“With our central location in the United States, I believe we’re going to be really accessible to a lot of people who want to be part of America’s games and maybe aren’t prepared or don’t have the opportunity to travel to Southern California,” he said. “I believe there’s going to be a wide range of people here.”
He said the event will be a major opportunity for Oklahoma City’s service and hospitality industries.
“Beyond the [competition] venues themselves, it’s all the opportunity for hospitality — restaurant, retail perspective — to greet everyone of these individuals and really deliver on the experience that we as Oklahomans provide in every instance that we host,” Byrnes said.
LA28 officials were impressed by the Oklahoma Standard.
“The LA folks — some of them from Southern California, some from somewhere international — they were just blown away by how they were treated here in our community. And we’re going to have that on an international scale in 2028,” Byrnes said.
Byrnes also wants to focus on youth engagement.
“We want our youth to learn more about the two sports. But overall, how do we get them more active in general? There will be a lot of thought and planning that go into all of those elements. I think that’s really what’s going to allow us to build momentum and excitement and make it so that 10 or 20 years down the road, so many people in our community will say, ‘I had a part of that. I was able to attend an Olympic event. I was able to experience what this means as one of the largest global events that gets produced,'” he said.
Kelly Garrison Funderburk, an Oklahoman and former Olympian, attended the fireside chat. Funderburk was an alternate on the 1984 U.S. Gymnastics Team and member of the 1988 U.S. Gymnastics Team. She said the Olympics brings the community and world together.
“It will give Oklahoma the opportunity to be showcased to the world in a very positive light. When thinking of international exposure for Oklahoma, we think of the [Oklahoma City] bombing [in 1995]. It was so tragic and so dramatic and unexpected. The whole world was shocked,” Funderburk said. “It will be nice that the world gets to see what type of people Oklahomans are.”
She said Oklahomans will to get to see the great spirit and energy of people from across the globe.
“They might be walking right beside someone from a completely different country. They [might otherwise] never have that experience,” Funderburk said.
The Olympics gives people across the globe a chance to come together and share a united spirit.
“It’s an opportunity to unify the world. It brings together Oklahoma, L.A., all the people watching around the world supporting their country, focused in one direction,” she said. “An uplifting thought is to have all these people focusing on positive instead of focusing on negative and the division of the world. Let’s pause and say, ‘Look at what we have in common. Look at the good. Maybe it will be a turning point.”
