The 2028 Summer Games are laying the groundwork, with LA organizers releasing the upcoming soccer tournament schedules this week — locking in the largest women's competition in Olympic history.
Designed to increase rest time throughout the travel-heavy, short-form event, the women's tournament will kick off on Tuesday, July 11th — three days before the 2028 Summer Games' Opening Ceremony.
The LA28 women's soccer tournament will feature 16 teams for the first time in Olympic history, outpacing the 12 teams who will compete in the men's event.
Both the men's and women's competitions will play out across seven stadiums nationwide, sweeping East to West as the tournaments advance toward the medal matches.
New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, and San Diego will host group-stage matches on Tuesday, July 11th, Friday the 14th, and Monday the 17th, with Nashville, San Jose, San Diego, and LA's iconic Rose Bowl hosting one quarterfinal each on Friday, July 21st.
San Diego and LA will the split the women's semifinals on Tuesday, July 25th, with San Diego hosting the bronze medal match on Friday, July 28th, before the gold medal final takes over the Rose Bowl on Saturday, July 29th — the 2028 Summer Games' penultimate day of competition.
International soccer fans should start saving airline miles, as organizers for the LA Olympics announced on Tuesday that the 2028 Summer Games' soccer tournament will play out in seven stadiums across the US.
Giving the competition a coast-to-coast footprint, organizers tapped venues in New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, and San Diego to host both men's and women's matches, before returning to the Rose Bowl in LA for both tournament finals.
All six venues outside LA house MLS clubs, with San Diego's Snapdragon Stadium and San Jose's PayPal Park also serving as home pitches for the NWSL's Wave and Bay FC, respectively.
"Bringing Olympic Football group-stage and knockout matches to stadiums across the United States means more fans will witness this global event and experience the Olympic spirit firsthand," said LA28 chief of sport and games delivery officer Shana Ferguson in a Tuesday statement.
Joining several other off-site LA 2028 events including Oklahoma City's softball tournament and canoe slalom races, the Summer Olympics' expanded soccer competition will likely kick off before the Opening Ceremony.
The tournament will also follow a progressive east-to-west itinerary to minimize travel demands for the teams, with dates and match distribution set to drop this April.
The LA Olympics' women's football final will take place on July 29th, 2028 — the Summer Games' penultimate day of competition.
The 2028 LA Olympics schedule dropped on Wednesday, featuring significant changes to the traditional Summer Games lineup — especially for women's sports.
The women's triathlon will hand out LA's first medals on July 15th, becoming the first-ever women's event to open the medal count at an edition of the Summer Games.
July 29th's "Super Saturday" is also a new addition, with the LA28 organizers creating a single day to showcase 26 high-stakes finals across 23 sports, including swimming, women's soccer, women's basketball, and the women's marathon.
The LA Games will be the first Summer Olympics to feature more women's sports competitors than men's, with all team sports featuring an equal or greater amount of women's squads and 50.5% of the total athlete quota allotted to women's events.
In one of the biggest changes to the Olympics schedule, swimming and track and field will swap weeks in 2028, with all three rounds of the women's 100-meter dash set for opening day while swimming closes out the LA Games on July 30th.
"To be the preeminent event on the first night of competition in the historic LA Memorial Coliseum, I think when we presented it to the athletes that way, there was excitement," chief athlete officer Janet Evans said of the switch.
"With Olympic ticket registration opening in January of 2026, now is the time to start planning," LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said in a press release. "Athletes and fans from around the world now have what they need to plan an unforgettable Olympic experience."