Defining L.A.’s 2028 Legacy: Empowering Angeleno Businesses

In August, as the proverbial torch was passed from Paris to Los Angeles, so too was the spotlight as we prepare to host the world’s largest sporting events in the coming years. Throughout the L.A. region, the success of these events will be measured not only by medals won but also by its economic impact and lasting legacy for our community.

Over the next four years, Los Angeles will prepare to welcome visitors from around the world for several large-scale events. Together, these global sporting events will bring a wave of economic activity, projected to inject over $10 billion into the regional economy through event-related investments and spending. This is in addition to significant public investments in infrastructure and transportation improvements, including L.A. Metro’s Measure M, set to fund over $120 billion in infrastructure projects over the next 40 years.

This capital infusion has the potential to transform our regional economy and set a pathway toward a more inclusive, vibrant Los Angeles. To create a lasting legacy from these investments, Los Angeles must proceed with the intention to make an outsize impact by ensuring the city’s small, local and diverse businesses have the opportunity to participate and compete for global sporting event procurement.

They need to be prepared to “Get in the Game.”

The nearly 1.4 million small businesses are the backbone of the Southern California economy and employ approximately 1.8 million Angelenos in Los Angeles County alone. Small businesses represent 93% of all businesses in the region and are responsible for fueling the 14th-largest economy in the world.

Yet, when it comes to participating in procurement opportunities, small businesses often face significant obstacles, from navigating complex regulations and systems to obtaining working capital, which makes competing for contracts challenging. Efforts must be made to help support small businesses, preparing them to ensure they can get in the game. An important first step in that effort is gathering a large coalition of local stakeholders – public organizers, private sponsors, and local small businesses – to create a mechanism for all coalition members to coordinate and collaborate more effectively to ensure small businesses can participate in the procurement process. These procurement opportunities have the power to dynamically transform a small business, create jobs, foster generational wealth and infuse investment to spur innovation.

To meet this moment, the L.A. Area Chamber, Next Street, and Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation, with support from LISC LA, have launched the Get in the Game initiative to support small and diverse businesses across Greater Los Angeles in accessing and competing for upcoming contracting opportunities. Learning from examples from events in London and Paris, our public-private coalition will tackle the issue through procurement matchmaking, procurement innovation, supplier development and learning, and supplier financing.

First, we have been hosting procurement matchmaking events to connect qualified suppliers and private and public sector buyers and expand awareness of upcoming procurement opportunities.

Second, we have established a forum for organizers and private sponsors to share best-in-class practices and tools to facilitate procurement and supplier diversity reforms that foster small business participation within contracts.

Third, we will launch in early 2025, a resource hub with access to a network of advisors offering small businesses management assistance to grow their operations, train their staff, and build their capabilities for contract opportunities.

Lastly, a strategy in development is to work with local financial partners to introduce funds that provide responsible supplier and contract financing products to manage cash flow and operations and invest in business growth needed to compete for and fulfill contracts.

Get in the Game takes a holistic approach to ensure small businesses have their fair share of our region’s generational opportunities. Together, we can make L.A.’s global sporting events catalysts with a lasting impact that transform the regional economy, businesses, and communities. Let’s get in the game and bring a championship-caliber approach that makes Los Angeles and its small businesses shining examples for the world.

-Maria S. Salinas, Quentin Strode, Nicole Williams. Donald Jones, and Spencer Lau