LA28 · Olympic and Paralympic Games, July–August 2028
The organising committee is buying right now. This page tells you where the work is posted, what it buys and when, which certifications actually open doors, and the one portal mistake that quietly costs small firms six months.
LA28's CEO told a City Council committee it is “close to $4 billion” and would fluctuate. Not a published budget line.
Derived: 25% of addressable spend. The part of the market with no geography test.
177 distinct services; three appear twice under different categories. LA28 plan, March 2026.
Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura. Outside them, the 25% small-business share is the door.
This page began as notes from the American Ismaili Chamber of Commerce session on Olympic procurement in October 2026. It has since been rebuilt from primary sources, and none of it is their material or carries their endorsement. Figures are the organiser's own where published, and labelled where they are estimates — see references.
LA28 runs two systems with similar names and completely different jobs. Confusing them is the most expensive mistake in this market, and most guides make it.
| RAMP LA | LA28 Supplier Portal | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The bid board | A supplier directory |
| Address | rampla.org | la28.supplierone.co |
| Do opportunities post here? | Yes. Every one. Only here.3 | No. In LA28's words: “Opportunities will not be posted on this site.”14 |
| What you do | Register, enable alerts, check weekly for the keyword LA28 | Register once with accurate NAICS codes, then forget it |
A firm registers on the Supplier Portal, gets a polite confirmation, and waits for an email that is never sent — by design. Months later it concludes the market is closed. It was never watching the board.
Entry costs one Expression of Interest. That is an unusually low price for a programme of this size, and it is the single most useful fact in LA28's plan.
This page does not list current opportunities, on purpose. The board turns over weekly, and a list of dates on a static page is wrong within days — which is worse than no list at all, because you would plan around it.
Open the RAMP announcements board and set the organisation filter to LA 28. That link always carries today's records, which is exactly why this page does not.
An earlier version of this page carried twelve dated opportunities. It was accurate for about two days, and then it called live work closed. If you want a snapshot, take it from RAMP yourself and put a timestamp on it.
A deliberate two-step process, built so that a small firm is not eliminated on paperwork before anyone reads what it can do.
Because subcontracting plans are scored, a prime has a commercial reason to want you on its bid before the solicitation exists. Approach primes while they are assembling a response, with a capability statement and one named scope you can carry. You are an asset at that moment, not a supplicant afterwards.
LA28's targets are measured against addressable spend — the portion of its total expenditure that can be met locally. Sponsorship value-in-kind, broadcast contributions and existing public infrastructure are excluded before the targets apply.
| Term | LA28's definition | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Local | Headquartered or holding a principal office in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino or Ventura County. | 75% of addressable spend |
| Hyper-local | Headquartered or holding a principal office inside the City of Los Angeles itself. | Explicit priority |
| Small | Meets the U.S. Small Business Administration size standard for its industry. | 25% of addressable spend |
| Micro | 10 or fewer employees, or 25 or fewer in manufacturing. | Explicit priority |
The asymmetry is worth sitting with. Local is a geography test you cannot pass from outside five California counties. Small is a size test with no geography at all. If you are outside the region, the 25% small-business share is the door, and subcontracting is the corridor.
The Games generate work through three separate channels, and they do not share a buyer, a portal or a rulebook.
LA28 is a nonprofit funded by sponsorship, broadcast and ticketing. Its preference is geographic: 75% of addressable spend to Greater Los Angeles, 25% to small business. The local half is effectively closed if you are not in the five-county region. The small-business quarter carries no geography test at all — and that is the open door.
The 2028 Games are a National Special Security Event, with the U.S. Secret Service as lead federal agency. Congress funded Games security through FEMA grants rather than direct federal procurement, so the contracts surface downstream at state and local agencies. That makes this a watch-and-position lane, not a SAM.gov search.
LA Metro, Caltrans, the County and the City all buy Games-related work under ordinary public procurement rules, with periods of performance that run to the closing ceremony. Steady, well-funded, and gated by residency and pre-qualification rules.
The National Special Security Event designation is a matter of record. The aggregate funding figures that circulate for Games security come from trade press and committee statements; this page does not reproduce a total, because none has been reconciled to a primary appropriation here. Treat any specific federal number you see quoted about LA28 security as unconfirmed until you have found it in the legislation.
LA28 published a forward projection of 182 line items: category, expected quarter and a relative spend band. It is a projection, and LA28 says so, but it is the closest thing to a shopping list that exists.
| Category | Projected sourcing | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| Software and IT | Q2–Q4 2026, Q1–Q3 2027, Q2 2028 | $$$$ |
| Janitorial services | Q3 2027 | $$$$ |
| Marketing services | Q4 2026, Q3 2027 | $$$ |
| Events management | Q2–Q4 2026, Q1, Q2, Q4 2027 | $$$ |
| Catering | Q2, Q3 2026, Q1, Q3 2027, Q1 2028 | $$$ |
| Project management | Q2 2026, Q3 2027, Q1 2028 | $$$ |
| Security | Q3 2027 | $$ |
| Signage | Q4 2026, Q3 2027 | $$ |
| Furniture and fixtures | Q2 2026, Q3 2027 | $$ |
| Waste containers | Q4 2026, Q4 2027 | $$ |
Spend bands run from one to four dollar signs: a relative band, not a figure. The full 182-line projection is in the March 2026 plan, pages 14 to 18, with NAICS codes in the category rows.
The early quarters are weighted toward operational commodities and venue services, while most of the software, data, consulting and management categories sit in 2027.1 That is a reason to prepare now rather than watch now: the work you do on NAICS codes and a capability statement this quarter is what qualifies you when those open.
Procurement readiness has three faces, and firms usually fail on the one they have never tested. Check what is true today and this page will score you.
Where you score low, two organisations give this help away free: ProcureLA for City of Los Angeles businesses, and Path to 2028 for the county. Both are aimed at firms at exactly this stage.
The fastest way to waste a quarter in this market is to chase a certification your firm cannot hold. Here is which doors each one actually opens.
| Certification | Geography required | What it is worth |
|---|---|---|
| SBA small business8 | No geography. Size only. | This is the definition behind LA28's 25% of addressable spend. Limits are set per industry. |
| SBA 8(a)7 | No geography, but a one-time, term-limited programme. | “8(a) certification lasts for a maximum of nine years” — four development, five transitional. Apply when you are actually ready, because you do not get a second run. |
| California Small Business / DVBE9 | Administered by the state; the two tests differ. | Useful for state work. This page does not restate the eligibility rules because they are specific and they change — read them at DGS before spending time. |
| LA County LSBE10 | LA County footprint. | The Local Small Business Enterprise Preference Program, and certified LSBEs are paid within 15 days of an undisputed invoice — which speaks directly to the cash-flow problem. |
| SBA VOSB / SDVOSB16 | No geography; federal value nationally. | Carries weight on federal set-asides and on a prime's small-business plan. No LA28 or California value on its own. |
Read the eligibility rules at the administering body before you spend time on a certification. Several programmes test the qualifying individual as well as the company, and no filing fee changes where anybody lives or works. This page deliberately does not restate those rules, because they are specific, they differ between programmes, and a stale summary is worse than a link.
Read the solicitations in your industry and let them set the regime. Certifications you never needed are months and money you cannot recover, and several of them are term-limited or available only once in a firm's life.
This is where small firms burn money. The three acronyms people ask about most answer to federal money, not to this market.
| Regime | What it is | When it applies to you |
|---|---|---|
| CMMC11 | Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, imposed through a DFARS contract clause. | When a Department of Defense contract, or a DoD prime's flow-down, carries the clause. |
| CAS12 | Cost Accounting Standards — how costs are measured, allocated and disclosed on covered federal contracts. | Applicability is decided at contract level against a threshold, not by the kind of buyer you are selling to. |
| FOCI13 | Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence — part of the National Industrial Security Program. | Tied to eligibility for access to classified information. Irrelevant to commercial or municipal work. |
State and local procurement, including LA28, does not run on these regimes. LA28 is a privately funded nonprofit whose procurement plan sets its own compliance instrument — the Responsible Sourcing Code — and names no federal acquisition regime.1 It does not impose CMMC, CAS or FOCI. Those arrive with federal money and federal primes. If you are bidding city, county or LA28 work, your compliance burden is insurance, licensing, certifications, wage and labour rules, and sustainability criteria — not a cybersecurity maturity assessment.
Two questions get confused constantly: can I register on a portal, and am I eligible for a preference. They have different answers.
| You are… | Register on RAMP? | “Local” to LA28? | Your realistic route |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the City of LA | Yes | Hyper-local — strongest position | Bid directly and claim local participation. |
| In the five-county region | Yes | Local | Bid directly; expect hyper-local firms to edge you on some scopes. |
| Elsewhere in the US | Yes — registration is not residence-gated4 | No | Subcontract to a local prime, or bid scopes where local preference does not decide. |
| Outside the US | Yes | No | Public buyers generally require a US-established entity. Form a subsidiary, or partner with a US firm that carries you on the budget. |
And the footprint is wider than Los Angeles. Oklahoma City hosts softball and canoe slalom, and football preliminaries reach New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San José and San Diego. If you are outside California, that is the part of the map worth reading: the venue plan.
Two different instruments, routinely conflated. One is nearly universal; the other is not.
| Insurance | Bonding | |
|---|---|---|
| Required? | Almost always | Only on some contracts, typically construction |
| Typical form | General liability for non-specialised services | Performance and payment bonds |
| The binding constraint | The limit. Some contracts require limits far above a small firm's standard policy | Whether a surety will write it against your balance sheet |
| How firms fail | They discover the limit requirement after winning, and lose the award | They cannot obtain bonding and are excluded before evaluation |
Ask a broker this week what a $1m, $2m and $5m general liability limit would cost and whether you qualify. Ask a surety what your current financials would support. Both answers are free, and both change which opportunities are worth your time.
Claims that circulate widely and do not survive contact with LA28's own publications. Repeating any of them will cost you credibility with a procurement officer.
| Claim | What is actually true |
|---|---|
| “LA28 has a minority business set-aside.” | Not supported. LA28 publishes 75% local and 25% small, defined by geography and SBA size. No race, ethnicity or diaspora goal appears in the plan or on its supplier pages. |
| “Register on the LA28 Supplier Portal to bid.” | It is a discovery directory. LA28's own text says opportunities are not posted there. Bids are published and filed on RAMP. |
| “$17.6 billion is the Olympic procurement budget.” | That is expected regional economic output. LA28's addressable spend is the figure that governs contracts, and it is roughly $4 billion. |
| “LA28 procurement is federal, so FAR and SAM.gov apply.” | LA28 is a privately funded nonprofit buying under its own plan and Responsible Sourcing Code. Federal acquisition rules do not apply. |
| “LA28 will host about 10,500 athletes from 206 nations.” | Those are Paris 2024 numbers for a single Games. LA28's own release says the Games will unite “more than 15,000” athletes across the Olympic and Paralympic Games. |
| “Boxing is not on the LA28 programme.” | Outdated. Boxing is on the programme and LA28 publishes a sport page for it. |
| “The Games are at SoFi Stadium.” | LA28 calls the Inglewood venue 2028 Stadium. Use the organiser's own name in anything you submit. |
Twenty-four destinations, each requested on 21 October 2026 and confirmed live. If you bookmark nothing else on this page, bookmark the first two.
Ordered so that each step makes the next one possible. Nothing here requires a California office, except where it says so.
Every numbered claim on this page points here. Where a claim could not be traced to one of these sources, it was removed rather than softened.
This page is built from primary documents: LA28's own procurement plan, its supplier pages, its newsroom, the RAMP listing, and the publishing bodies' own sites. Where a number is an estimate rather than a published line, it says so.
$4 billion. This is not a published budget line. It is what LA28's chief executive told the City Council's Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Games, in these terms: it is “close to $4 billion”, and “that number is going to probably fluctuate”. The $1 billion small-business figure is arithmetic on his 25% commitment, not a separate announcement. The press record is linked; the council transcript itself is not reproduced here.
182 forecast line items. Counted from the PDF's own table structure, not from a text dump. The plan carries 177 distinct services across pages 14 to 18; three of them appear twice under different category headings, which is why the row count and the service count differ.
The RAMP board was read live in a browser on 21 October 2026 and all twelve LA28 announcements were captured with their dates. Every external link was requested directly and its response recorded. Two destinations do not answer an automated request and are still live: the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment site blocks bot traffic, and the International Olympic Committee's domain refuses scripted requests. Both are marked in the link directory rather than removed.
LA28's October 2023 release described boxing as on hold. Boxing is now on the programme, and LA28 publishes a sport page for it. The 2023 release should not be quoted on that point.
HARBOR works with federal contractors and small businesses on procurement strategy: what to bid, what to skip, and how to be credible to a procurement officer in the first two minutes. This page is free, and it stays free. If you want the version built around your firm, that is a conversation.
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