ITTF inspects LA28 table tennis venue at Los Angeles Convention Center

Petra Sörling, Bart Vermoesen and Freddy Almendariz spent the week in Los Angeles with LA28 competition management, a working visit that put the Los Angeles Convention Center, already confirmed for both Olympic and Paralympic table tennis, under direct inspection. Jack Smith, LA28’s head of competition management and senior sport group manager, joined the visit as the two sides focused on readiness, event delivery and how the arena will handle the demands of an Olympic and Paralympic table tennis program.

LA28’s current venue maps place Olympic table tennis in Hall 3 of the Convention Center in Downtown Los Angeles. That matters because the site is not being reserved for one sport alone. During the Olympics, the same complex is also set to host fencing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling. During the Paralympics, the Convention Center is listed for boccia, Para judo, Para table tennis, Para taekwondo and wheelchair fencing. The schedule and traffic flow across those disciplines will shape warm-up access, athlete movement, spectator entry and the rhythm of competition inside the building.

The Convention Center also comes with Olympic history. LA28 notes that the site was used at the 1984 Games as the Main Press Center, giving the venue a built-in legacy as the city prepares to stage table tennis there again in 2028. For the ITTF, that history is useful, but the present-day task is sharper: make sure the competition environment works for athletes, officials and broadcasters inside a multi-sport setting that will be heavily programmed on both the Olympic and Paralympic side.

The visit also fits into a wider push to raise table tennis’ profile in the United States. On July 15, 2025, ITTF and World Table Tennis launched a joint hub in Los Angeles to drive growth across the Americas, and the LA28 inspection showed that the federation is treating the Games as part of that longer expansion plan. LA28’s 2024 venue-plan update said the revised layout was designed to improve athlete and fan experiences, advance more sustainable solutions and produce more than $150 million in combined new revenue and cost savings.

That is why this site visit carried real operational weight. Table tennis already has its venue, but the key questions now are how Hall 3 is configured, how the program is slotted around other sports and how the sport is presented to a U.S. audience when LA28 arrives.