LA84’s Renata Simril on Cultivating Legacy through Play Equity

Stephen Cheung (LAEDC CEO): Can you talk a little bit about the formation of the LA84 Foundation and its mission?

Renata Simril: Certainly, how many of you are at LA84 for your first time? Oh, my! I didn’t expect that many. What do you all think? 

An oasis in the city of Los Angeles? Let me share a little bit about the history of the house.

The house behind you was built in 1911 at the turn of the century, Eugene Britt was a water rights attorney. If you follow Los Angeles history, Bill Mulholland, Chinatown – if you were in the water business at the turn of the century, you did very well financially. This neighborhood was the Beverly Hills before Beverly Hills. Adams Boulevard was referred to as “Millionaires Row” because of USC, just up the street (Fight On!). Mr. Britt and his family lived here.

In 1978, the IOC awarded Los Angeles the games for the 1984 Olympics. This house had gone into bankruptcy. Peter Ueberroth was installed in 1979 as the CEO of the ’84 games, as you all know. The Helms Bakery was the official bakery of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and they were huge sports fans and amassed a collection of baseball memorabilia in particular because Mr. Helms’ uncle, Dummy Hoy, was a deaf baseball player and according to some sources Hoy is the reason baseball uses hand signals like “safe” and “out.”

They had a  huge collection, but sold the Helms Bakery, and put everything in storage. Peter, having to privately finance the Games, went to the Helms Bakery and sees this collection of sports memorabilia (and he, himself, was a water polo player in college).

He went to First Interstate Bank, who was a sponsor for the ’84 games and presents this idea that this would be great to host corporate sponsors to get them excited about sports and the Olympic Games. And the President said, “we've just foreclosed this house in West Adams. Let's take a look at it.” Peter buys this home out of bankruptcy, restores it and puts it on the National Register of Historic Places.

And in this house and library, leading up to the ’84 Olympic Games, leaders and famous figures like Ronald Reagan, Tom Bradley, corporate sponsors, members of the IOC, Tom Larkin, Lew Wasserman, and Lod Cook were among the historical civic and political figures and icons of their time who walked the halls of the Britt House, as we call it.

Many are aware that the 1984 Olympics are the most financially successful Games in the history of the Olympic movement, so far – we have one more coming in 2028 that will beat that, we hope. A portion of the surplus from those Games were used to found the LA84 Foundation.

We were originally known as the Amateur Athletic Foundation, and this has been our home for 40-plus years. These two buildings that you're sitting in represent the tri-part strategic plan that we had when we started. One was direct service grant making, and so our corporate offices are in the house. We make direct investment grants in nonprofit organizations using sport, play, and movement as a tool for positive youth development, staying true to Pete Ueberroth’s vision of building a better world through sport.

The second focus of our Foundation was coaching education. It was before the youth coaching initiatives currently being activated by the Positive Coaching Alliance, the Center of Healing and Justice Through Sport, or Up2Us Sports. LA84 created the art of coaching. This pavilion was built in the late ’80s to house our coaching training community convenings and continue to be part of the civic family of Los Angeles.

And the third was a research library on sport history and the impact on sports and society. The building where you saw the exhibit is an actual functioning library. Michael Salmon, who you might have met, is one of two librarians that we have on staff with Shirley Ito. Our library is fully digitized because of the foresight of Dr. Wayne Wilson, who built the library. 

We are a world research library with resources that cover the most prevailing issues on Olympic history, sport history and gender equity. We've been visited by authors of books, producers of documentary films and academics working on their research papers, all using our facility as a primary source research library.

And so that is the three functions of the LA84 Foundation and the legacy that still endures resulting from the 1984 Olympic Games.

…

Stephen Cheung: What is LA84’s mission and your role and what do we need to do to get ready for LA 28 so that we can have lasting impact? 

Renata Simril: That’s a question for Erikk Aldridge, but our work will continue. 

The Play Equity Fund will soon announce a statewide partnership  – Voices of Equity California  – which is part of a national network of similar intermediary, Play Equity-like coalitions that have formed to really address national policy to rebuild the grassroots youth sports system to address issues around the obesity epidemic or the mental health of our youth. We’re working with the CDC to unlock resources there. Or with the CA Education Department, we're hosting a State Senate hearing next Friday taking on PE as an unfunded mandate as we release a first of its kind report on physical education through a play equity lens. Schools are required to provide PE one to two days a week, but they don't have adequate funding or time in some cases to do that. So you wonder why the obesity rate in LAUSD schools is nearly 50 percent?  Kids aren’t moving.

The work of LA84 Foundation and the Play Equity Fund will continue, and quite frankly, it’s accelerating because of the global attention coming to Los Angeles from not only the Olympics, but also other global sports events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming to Los Angeles over the next 4 years.

We’re using these sporting events as an accelerator for our work, as a platform to demonstrate why sport, play, and movement are important for our youth, to highlight the inequities that exist, and to find systemic solutions. There's a network of organizations addressing that issue every day. And as it relates to ’28 in particular, we will continue to be a beacon to demonstrate the impact of a sporting event like the Olympics and how it can leave lasting impact long after the games end. 

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that when LA was awarded the ’28 Games, you'll recall, we were bidding for the ’24 Games. Not in exchange, but as a transactional acknowledgment for taking the Games four years later, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Casey Wasserman were able to negotiate an advance to the OCOG (Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) Budget that is actually leveling the playing field in the city's Recreation and Park system: $160 million over 10 years to reduce the cost of program fees for young people within our 94 parks throughout the City of Los Angeles.

It really has accelerated their adaptive programs, given that ’28 will host the Paralympic Games for the first time in the history of Los Angeles’ Olympic movement. The impact of the Olympics has already been making itself known. It’s a tremendous program.

I had occasion to attend the flag installation event last week at City Hall, and there were a number of young people from the Play LA program, which is what it's called, and one of the young women, Ariel, actually won a silver medal in shot put. So you see the impact that the investment in LA 28 has made in the city of Los Angeles is already paying dividends 

Stephen Cheung: Beyond LA28, one of the things that we've been talking about here is—to the point you mentioned—there's so many different sporting events that'll be happening, besides people who are coming to the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. There's also Super Bowl in 2027 and the All-Star game. US Open Championship for golf that goes all the way to 2039, candidate city for World Rugby Championship in 2033. So, these are all connected into a potential huge economic driver for the entire region. And you also sit on the board for LASEC (LA Sports & Entertainment Commission). How do we as an economic development organization that partners with all these public, private, nonprofit, academic, philanthropic, labor, and community groups leverage that to support the work that's really about tying this industry together?

Renata Simril: That's a great question. 

Just on economic impact,  the last three major sporting events  – Super Bowl ’22, College Football Playoff, and WrestleMania – is a thing. They generated about a billion dollars of direct economic impact in the region. The next three major sporting events, not counting the Olympics, are going to generate probably about another billion and a half in investments. That's hotels, restaurants, TOT  – all the things associated with visitors coming to our region.

There's sometimes a question of why Los Angeles is hosting these Olympic Games. That's why. They do drive an economic impact.

They're also an accelerator. If you look at Metro and the advancement of our transit infrastructure, and dare I say, not even just Metro, but also LAX. I mean, finally, we have a People Mover. (As a matter of satisfaction—as I worked for Jim Hahn as Deputy Mayor of Economic Development & Housing when the residents of Westchester voted down the consolidated car rental facility with the notion of welcoming the world to Los Angeles with an airport and a footprint that cannot be expanded.)  So, it's an accelerator for moving the People Mover forward. It's an accelerator for the 28 by ‘28 transit infrastructure. It's an accelerator for the mayor on issues around workforce development.

As it relates to businesses, I think being aware and informed is very helpful. The Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, led by Kathy Schloessman, is behind these major sporting events coming to Los Angeles. They bid on these events, they serve as the host committee, and they raise the dollars. For example, for the FIFA World Cup, the host committee has to raise $105 million   – 105 million! And for the Super Bowl, it’s probably another $150 million. If I were to make a plug as a board member, certainly finding ways in which you can be involved to financially help bring these major events to our city – that's one way to get involved. 

Kathy Schloessman is focused on major sporting events leaving a lasting impact as well. She has a program called “Business Connect.” It was actually an NFL program that was so successful that they allowed her to keep the brand.

What Business Connect does is it takes business competencies within the major sport events – barricades, flowers, grips, lighting, event production, things that you need to host a major event  –  and she heads a network of about 250 businesses, small, minority, veteran-owned businesses and builds awareness for what they need to bid on these contracts. 

For instance, what does your insurance need to look like? Being able to connect with Kathy on how the Business Connect program can be expanded is another way to be involved. There's about $7 million in contracts over the last two major sporting events that have been generated from that.

She also has a young professional development group to get young people from an individual workforce perspective interested and experienced in careers within the sports industry and within the major sporting events that are coming to Los Angeles. 

And then we have a partnership with Kathy on the social impact from the youth perspective, and so we curate and help to execute on the legacy. We did so for the College Football Playoff and for the Super Bowl. That's important because as an organization, we will be here and exist long after the games or events have left Los Angeles.

We're also so networked within the region that we're not duplicating the wheel. If you take away anything that you've heard today it’s don't duplicate the wheel. 

Don't start a new organization and focus on workforce. Work with the LAEDC.

Don't start a new youth sports organization to come in and curate legacy. Find an organization that is actually doing the work and executing. Doing that magnifies and amplifies the impact that we can make from these major sport events. What we've done is take the dollars in that we raise for legacy, and we identify organizations and individuals that are doing that work. Then, we shine the light of FIFA or the Super Bowl or the College Football Playoff on those organizations and act as an amplifier to deepen the impact that they're making in communities, because we feel that that's the best way to create legacy from these events.

Stephen Cheung: That was actually my last question as we were having that conversation earlier. One of the things that we've been hearing is, “we want to get involved,” which is exactly to that point. They want to create something brand new, but this region already has 88 cities and all of the industry of that. So, call to action, don't duplicate the process. Work with who is already doing this work so that we can coordinate, because it becomes very confusing. 

Renata Simril: Yes. I know that there's been a lot of conversations and questions, I get them every day, what's the mayor's priority? What's the focus? And I'll just say that the mayor is keenly focused on this issue of workforce development and working right now internally with her team to create more alignment in terms of the internal structure of City Hall and the departments.

Rallying around workforce is a number one priority for her. We all know that homelessness is her core value, but workforce development and small business growth – she's keenly focused on that. Sustainability and beautification. She fashions it as if we're about to invite the world to our house, and we need to make sure that our house looks good. Right now, our house does not look good.

Another thing that businesses can do is look around your business and your neighborhood and don't wait for the city. Call the Department of Sanitation to pick up this bulky trash. It is very small things that we can do. Make sure that the business outside is clean. 311 is still a number where you can get those resources but, beautification and sustainability is a priority. 

The third pillar is how do we make sure that all parts of Los Angeles are engaged, including the neighborhoods that are often overlooked, either through Fan Fests or community convenings? She came back from both Paris and the Paralympic Games with this renewed sense of how activity – pop-up break dancing – was occurring outside the stadium.

She talked about it with great excitement how that community had just joined together. And it's the spirit of Olympianism and community coming together – and that sense of belonging – that she really wants for the City of Los Angeles. 

I think we'll be making some announcements really soon in terms of how the structure of the city is in alignment across the priorities that she is focused on and how she's going to start to prioritize those organizations that she wants to work with to get the work done.