LA28 Basketball Tournament to Start Before Opening Ceremony

Basketball at the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles will start two days before the opening ceremony for those Games, FIBA said on Wednesday in a news release.

FIBA said it has reviewed a revised schedule for LA28 and that games will begin on July 12, 2028, at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood — ahead of the July 14 Opening Ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium.

“This adjustment allows the quarterfinals to be played over two days and will also ensure that no game will start earlier than (noon), enhancing the overall experience for players, teams, fans and broadcasters,” FIBA said in a news release.

It is unclear if the men’s tournament, the women’s tournament or both will start before the Opening Ceremony. A preliminary schedule released last month calls for three basketball games on July 12 and three more on July 13.

Bronze-medal games will be played on July 28 and 29 and gold-medal games will occur on July 29 and 30. July 30 is the final day of the Games.

Several other sports also are scheduled to start before the Opening Ceremony, including field hockey, rugby sevens, water polo, handball, cricket and soccer. The canoe slalom competition in Oklahoma City is expected to start in the morning of July 14, hours before the opening ceremony later that day about 1,200 miles away.