LOS ANGELES — For the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history, the Los Angeles 2028 Games will allow naming rights at competition venues, organizers announced Wednesday, unveiling Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios and Honda Center as the first to carry corporate names during the Games.
The landmark change is part of a pilot program developed with the International Olympic Committee, giving existing LA28 and worldwide partners the chance to keep their venue names during the Games and purchase additional marketing assets. Organizers say the move will help support what they call the largest commercial revenue raise in sports, while maintaining the Games’ clean venue policy for non-partners.
“From the moment we submitted our bid, LA28 committed to reimagining what’s possible for the Games,” LA28 chairperson and president Casey Wasserman said. “This historic announcement creates the first-ever venue naming rights program in Olympic and Paralympic history while advancing LA28’s mission of a fully privately funded and no-new-build Games.”
Comcast Squash Center will host the sport’s Olympic debut at Universal Studios’ Courthouse Square, a famed Hollywood backlot. Honda Center in Anaheim will keep its name while hosting Olympic volleyball, marking the first time an existing arena will do so during the Games.
Jennifer Khoury, Comcast’s chief communications officer, said the partnership builds on the company’s role as a founding partner of LA28 and broadcaster of the Games on NBC and Peacock. Honda marketing executive Ed Beadle called the opportunity to showcase the Anaheim arena on the Olympic stage “immensely proud” and a way to “power Olympic dreams at the highest level.”
Additional naming rights partners are expected in the coming years as the three-year countdown to the Games continues. Los Angeles will host the Olympics for the third time — following 1932 and 1984 — and the Paralympics for the first time.