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A multipurpose venue which hosts horse racing and the LA County Fair will be turned in to a cricket ground for the sports return at the 2028 Olympics. The six-team, T20 competition will be played in a temporary, purpose-built structure at the Fairgrounds in Pomona, a city in Southern California about 50 kilometres from Los Angeles. FOX CRICKET, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of the 2025 Indian Premier League exclusively LIVE | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1.
Limited time offer > The Fairgrounds, officially known as Fairplex, is a near-500-acre event complex that has hosted the Los Angeles County Fair since 1922 along with concerts, trade shows, sports and cultural events. The venue is set to be renovated later this year. Other venue options, including Oakland Coliseum, which will host Major League Cricket matches this year, were overlooked.
For last year’s Men’s T20 World Cup, hosted by the United States and West Indies, a 34,000-seat stadium was built in New York for blockbuster contests, including India vs Pakistan. The ICC welcomed the venue confirmation. “It is a significant step towards the preparation for our sport’s return to the Olympics,” ICC Chair Jay Shah said.
“Although cricket is a hugely popular sport, it will be a fantastic opportunity to expand traditional boundaries when it features in the Olympics in the fast-paced, exciting T20 format that should appeal to new audiences. “On behalf of the ICC, I want to express my gratitude to LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for their support and look forward to collaborating with them and ICC Members in preparing for LA28 and making cricket a huge success there.” Cricket, hoping to increase its footprint in the United States following the recent Men’s T20 World Cup, will return to the Olympics for the first time in 128 years — the sport’s only previous Olympic appearance was at the Paris Games in 1900.
Cricket’s long-awaited Olympic return was confirmed in October 2023, alongside the inclusion of baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash. LA28 chef executive Reynold Hoover said they had “promised the world an incredible Olympic Games and today we’re proud to share the plan that will make it happen”. “Los Angeles is the epicentre of sports, culture and entertainment, and every venue selected for the 2028 Games will provide athletes and fans the best possible experience,” he said.
“The 2028 Olympic venue plan invites communities from across the region to celebrate the Games coming to their backyard with the most exciting sports staged at some of the world’s top-tier existing stadiums and arenas, famous beaches and purpose-built temporary structures.” Both the men’s and women’s T20 competitions will feature six teams each, with a 90-player quota allocated per gender, allowing each nation to field a squad of up to 15 players. T20 cricket has previously featured in multi-sport events, with both men’s and women’s competitions held at the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham featured a women’s T20 tournament. Elsewhere, baseball’s Olympic return will be staged at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium, where cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne headlined the Cricket All-Stars Series finale in 2015. The 2028 Olympics will take place in Los Angeles from July 14-30.
The full tournament schedule will be finalised closer to the event..
