In the six years since Los Angeles won the 2028 Summer Olympics, support for hosting the massive sporting event remains widespread, though it may be starting to wane.

According to a Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll conducted March 9-12, 57 percent of Angelenos believe the Games will be good for LA. Twenty percent are concerned that hosting will have a negative impact on the city.

The survey also found that younger LA residents are more skeptical than their elders that the games will benefit the city.

Polls over the past six years by the Los Angeles Times/Survey Monkey, Loyola Marymount University and the International Olympic Committee found between 76% and 83% approval for hosting the Olympics. The difference may indicate a decrease in support, but since those surveys were conducted among a larger group of residents of provinces and regions, the figures are not entirely comparable.

The Summer Games last nearly three weeks and bring together more than 10,000 athletes, plus tens of thousands of officials and fans from around the world. They represent an immense logistics enterprise, spanning a range of locations.

The most recent research is important for two reasons.

In the somewhat backward process by which cities often bid for the Games, there was no public referendum beforehand.

Still, city and state lawmakers agreed to serve as a financial backstop, pledging tax dollars to cover any cost overruns for an event currently budgeted at nearly $7 billion.

LA28’s private organizing committee has vowed to pay for all costs through corporate sponsorship, ticket sales, merchandising and other sources. Critical to this promise was a decision to avoid billions in construction by relying on existing venues like Crypto.com Arena

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Pauley Pavilion and Dignity Health Sports Park.

I think it’s a good thing, Marissa Hamilton, a 42-year-old Sherman Oaks resident who was one of the poll’s respondents, said of the Olympics. I feel it will bring more people and more income to our city.

Q&A: How will the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics affect me?

But there are signs of community concern. The basic organization

NO LA Olympics

sponsored a poll in 2018 that showed 45% of respondents nationwide opposed hosting. In that survey, respondents were asked if their support could be affected by jeopardizing taxpayers’ money, but the organizers had no forecast of a balanced budget and perhaps a surplus.

Some respondents to the most recent Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll expressed concern about diverting attention from pressing issues such as homelessness. And now that residents are aware that previous host cities had major shortages, there are signs that organizers have not fully communicated their plans.

In money terms, it’s going to cost a lot, said Christ Ahmanson, 29, of Mid-City, another pollster. We have a lot of infrastructure that will only exist and be useful for the Olympics.

Opinions on hosting are fairly consistent across genders, races and political parties, the new poll found.

The greater support from residents 35 and older may have something to do with memories of the last time LA hosted the Olympics.

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The 1984 Summer Games were a financial success, leaving more than $200 million in additional revenue. With many businesses switching to flexible hours and some residents taking vacations, the highways were surprisingly traffic free for those 17 days.

Everything was fine, said Irene Goldenberg, 88, of Westwood.

The Games will move back to Southern California through an unusual deal where the IOC settled a compromise between two bid finalists, with Paris taking 2024 and LA agreeing to be runners-up.

The 11-year wait has given LA28 organizers more time to get corporate support and make big deals with Delta Air Lines, Nike and others in an ongoing campaign to $2.5 billion in domestic sponsorship.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the longer preparation time, only 27% of respondents said they were very excited about the 2028 Summer Games. Nearly 30% were somewhat excited while about 40% were not very excited or not at all.

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The Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll

conducted from March 9-12,

interviewed 500 adult residents of the city of Los Angeles, making live calls to cell phones and landlines. Quotas and demographic information, including region, race, and age, were determined from census and American Community Survey data. Surveys were conducted in English and Spanish.

The sampling error margin for the total sample is 4.4 percentage points in both directions. Margins of error increase for smaller subgroups. All surveys may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage errors and measurement errors.