The 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are expected to feature some of the most popular team sports in the world, per a Monday morning report from The Guardian.
Sources told The Guardian that cricket, flag football, baseball and softball will all be added to the program for the Games in LA, with a possibility remaining that lacrosse and squash will be added as well.
Per the report, the LA organizing committee is expected to go public with its choice of sports for the 2028 Olympics within the next day. Its decisions will then officially be confirmed at the 141st International Olympic Committee session in Mumbai, India, which begins on Sunday.
The addition of cricket is viewed as particularly notable, as the game has been played in the Olympics only once, in Paris in 1900. Cricket is rated the second-most popular sport in the world, per Sports For Business, behind only soccer.
Per The Guardian, Olympic broadcast rights in India are currently sold on an individual Olympics basis and are worth approximately $20 million for the upcoming games in Paris next summer.
But industry experts told the outlet that, depending on a few factors like “format and guaranteed matches for India”, the broadcast rights for the Los Angeles Olympics could rise to nearly $160 million with the addition of cricket.
Flag football would be another addition of note, as many believe it could have a positive impact on interest in the NFL worldwide.
“This is huge for the NFL, as flag football is the easiest way for them to grow their audience outside the US,” wrote Joe Pompliano on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
If added to the LA lineup, baseball and softball would be making a return to the Olympic Games after being voted out in 2005 (for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London). They were the first sports voted out since polo was removed in 1936.