It’s a setting you’ve frequently seen on the big and small screen.

In “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “The Sandlot,” it was home to rambunctious and lovable children getting into a variety of misadventures. You could watch Ritchie Valens come of age in “La Bamba.”

In the 1990s, kids enjoyed “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” at home. More recently, audiences experienced “Barry,” with the titular character combining acting and hitman work at his new home.

And in 2028, the Summer Olympics and Paralympics will bring the San Fernando Valley to a global audience as it plays host to a handful of sporting events and spectators visiting from all over the world.

“It definitely puts the Valley on the global stage. It’s going to highlight it,” says Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, chief executive of the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce. “We have tourism. We have the studios. We have the museums. We have the Six Flags Magic Mountain adjacent to us. I think it really makes a great stage for what this giant suburb in the city of Los Angeles has to offer.”

Third time’s the charm

It will of course be Los Angeles’ third Olympic Games. This time, those games will be more spread out.

For the San Fernando Valley – and in keeping with the LA28 Committee’s desire to utilize existing facilities in lieu of new construction – that puts the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area on the board.

“We’re not building anything like they did in past Olympics,” says Vanyek, “but we’re very fortunate that the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area already has so many great pieces.”

The area – which is the second largest urban park here the city of L.A. – will host archery, skateboarding and both BMX freestyle and racing.

“These three sports are so iconic for the Valley,” says Sonya Kay Blake, president and chief executive of the Valley Economic Alliance. “It’ll be a great opportunity for us to feature the Valley and talk about it.”

This represents a homecoming of sorts for Olympic-level skateboarding and BMX biking – both culturally took off locally. What’s more, BMX bikes were once manufactured here.

“BMX and skateboarding were such big things in my teenage years and lot of those BMX manufacturers started off in the San Fernando Valley, so it’s really cool to bring this back home,” Vanyek says.

The games are projected to have up to $11 billion in economic impact to the Greater Los Angeles area and create 79,000 jobs. While it isn’t yet clear how much of that could be concentrated in the Valley – the rest of Los Angeles along with Inglewood, Carson and Long Beach will host many events – it ought to be a sizable impact of real dollars and earned media.

“It should be a great boon for our tourism industry. We’re really excited about the potential impact there,” Blake says. “We’re excited about how the Valley is a part of this. Clearly, LA28 has been very intentional and mindful of benefiting all areas of the city and county.”

The prospect of a no-build Olympics helped secure L.A. the 2028 bid. In addition to the plethora of historic venues here – many of which hosted the 1984 Games – several more have come online in recent years. Some events will also be hosted as far away as Temecula and Oklahoma City.

On top of that, the athletes themselves will need places to train and practice once they’re here. This has the potential to put universities and community colleges in play for participating in the games.

“We are fortunate to have these amazing facilities that support our athletic teams and can certainly understand the interest in them,” says Los Angeles Valley College President Barry Gribbons, who adds that many teams have expressed interest in the college’s facilities. “There are quite a few issues that would have to be worked through for the facilities to be used by Olympic teams. That said, it’s important to us that we ensure that our facilities benefit the community whenever possible.”

Stephen Chueng, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., notes that the 88 cities and more than 100 unincorporated communities in the county have ample “world-class facilities” to accommodate the games.

“The Valley did not host any events in the ’84 Olympic Games and it is wonderful that we get to showcase the Valley to the world,” he adds. “By hosting events like skateboarding at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Facilities, we get to reduce the cost of hosting the games while bringing visitors from around the world to the Valley.”

Making the most of the events

Economic stakeholders of course have their sights on providing a memorable, efficient Olympics – think more of this past Paris 2024 Games and less the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, the most expensive to date and marred by construction issues.

Depending on how some facets of the games are executed, it could leave a lasting impact on the region – the Valley included. This would come in the form of boosting the local businesses here – Chueng estimates about 100,000 contracts will be issued for Olympics prep work – and establishing an infrastructure for the future.

“This also could provide enormous economic opportunities for local companies as attendees of the events will likely want to remain in the Valley before and after the events for dining and entertainment,” Chueng said. “As the host, we need to develop a comprehensive guide for visitors to know where to eat, drink and play (and how to get to and from the venue) while they are in the Valley.”

‘Car-free’ games

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has declared the 2028 Games will be “car-free.” This means public transit will become a key factor for spectators.

In the Valley, this will manifest in tweaks to surface road bus routes and the G Line rapid transit bus. As the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority specs out the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project and the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit project, it’s likely they’ll be informed by how the existing transit infrastructure performs in 2028.

Blake is hopeful the games will provoke local residents to at least reconsider their travel habits, if not change them.

“Only 4% of our residents are using public transportation to get to work,” she says. “I think the Olympics can really help people be encouraged to take public transportation to work when those lines are completed. Hopefully we’ll have changed peoples’ habits enough afterward.”

Chueng agrees.

“If we can leverage the games to increase and improve public transportation access to the Valley, this could change long-term behaviors of Angelenos and (hopefully) increase the usage of public transportation in the future (and therefore, reduce traffic congestion),” he says.

Using experience and examples

Chueng attended the Paris Olympics and brought back with him fresh perspective on how those hosts prepared for the event – organized street closures along with providing public transit; installing signage in multiple languages and placing staff ambassadors around; ensuring adequate access to restrooms, waste bins and water stations; and staffing a police presence to “espouse a sense of security without intimidating the visitors.”

“L.A. needs to carefully think through how to replicate some of those best practices and expand the reach to the vast regions throughout Southern California where the games will be held,” Chueng says.

And Angelenos will have a fairly fresh memory of other major sporting events hosted here – including the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and Super Bowls in both 2022 and 2027. With L.A.’s growing identity as a global sports center, how it performs in 2028 may open more doors in the future.

“If local companies in the Valley are able to contract with the Olympic Games, this will allow them to be competitive in the future to bid for other major events,” Chueng says.

Another factor will be heat-mitigation: portions of the Valley easily reach triple-digit temperatures during the height of summer, presenting a health hazard to competitors and spectators alike.

“It’s likely that the event organizers and the City of Los Angeles will be looking into measures to ensure the safety and comfort of both athletes and spectators,” Hoffman says. “These could include scheduling events during cooler parts of the day, providing ample shade and hydration stations, and possibly implementing cooling technologies.”

And given that small businesses make up 94% of all the companies in L.A., the impact to those entrepreneurs can be life changing. With the labor disruptions of the past few years, Blake says, a boost like this can save many of those companies – if officials put them in a position to succeed.

“One of the concerns with the Olympics is, how can we really crack the code to make sure that it’s a very inclusive type of economic prosperity? How are we able to leverage the event to transform the underserved portions of our community?” she says. “One of the concerns is that this opportunity would come and go and we wouldn’t see any significant change to the way our economy is growing.”