● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
It’s an election year and a good time for pollsters, including a California Elections and Policy Poll conducted by a tri-university group from Cal Poly Pomona, Long Beach State and the University of Southern California.
The poll was taken from 12-25 September and included 1,685 likely voters across the state of California, with 311 in Los Angeles County. Those 311 voters were asked two questions related to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles:
Q1: “How excited are you about the Los Angeles region hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics?”
● 33.3%: Very excited
● 34.4%: Somewhat excited (67.7% total)
● 8.0%: Somewhat not excited
● 21.2%: Not very excited (29.2% total)
● 3.2%: Don’t know
With just 311 responses, the margin of error is 5.6%, but there is no doubt of the overall positive view of the 2028 Games. The details of the responses showed that the positive view of the 2028 Games was essentially equally shared by men and women, and by all age groups.
The splits by race and ethnicity showed strong enthusiasm among Asian likely voters (66.8%), among Latinos (73.4%) and whites (67.4%), with the least positivity among Blacks (50.9%).
The responses are quite a bit happier than the last major local poll asking about the Games, a Suffolk University poll in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times in March 2023, of 500 respondents. It showed:
● 27.0%: Very excited
● 29.8%: Somewhat excited (56.8% total)
● 15.4%: Not very excited
● 25.2%: Not at all excited (40.6% total)
● 2.6%: Undecided to refused to answer
A national poll of 1,000 Americans from July 2023 from the Commission on the State of the U.S. Olympics & Paralympics asked whether having the 2028 Games in the U.S. will have a positive or negative impact were strongly positive:
● 78%: Positive or Somewhat Positive
● 15%: No impact
● 4%: Negative or Somewhat Negative
● 3%: Not Sure
The second question concerned transportation and the promise of a “car-free Games”:
Q2: “Los Angeles will host the Olympics in 2028. Public officials have promised a car-free Olympics in order to allow for athletes and others to travel around the region easily to Olympic events. How feasible is a car-free Olympics in 2028?”
● 9.3%: Very feasible
● 22.9%: Somewhat feasible (32.2% total)
● 17.6%: Somewhat unfeasible
● 46.2%: Very unfeasible (63.8% total)
● 4.0%: Don’t know
Both men and women and all of the age groups split out in the survey had majorities who thought the idea was somewhat or very unfeasible. Same for all four ethnic groups surveyed.
Interestingly, the split by income showed that those making less than $50,000 annually had 62.0% saying a “car-free Games” was feasible, while those from $50-100,000 had 68.3% saying it was not feasible and 68.2% of those from $100,000 and saying it was not feasible.
There’s a lot more work that will be needed to convince people on this one.
The overall popularity of the 2028 Olympic Games has been a constant in Southern California since the success of the 1984 Olympic Games and is continuing, with an uptick in this new poll, taken following the successful Paris Games. That’s a good thing for both the LA28 organizers and the City of Los Angeles, whose own policies will become ever more closely scrutinized as the Games come closer.
~ Rich Perelman
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