From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: More than 40 years after L.A. produced the most financially successful Olympic Games in history, the 2028 Summer Olympics will feature a new advertising revenue path for the Games.
In an Olympic first, venues used for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics will be allowed to have corporate sponsor names after LA28 and the International Olympic Committee came to a tradition-bucking agreement announced Thursday.
Historically, the IOC has sought to limit corporate influence by keeping venues free from advertising. Major sponsors are still ubiquitous at the Games, where only Visa credit cards are accepted and Coca-Cola products monopolize the concession stands, but venues and fields of play have remained commercial-free. The traditional clean venue policy has forced L.A. organizers to refer to SoFi Stadium, which will host Olympic swimming, officially as “2028 Stadium” or “the Stadium in Inglewood.”
Not only will the new agreement help logistically by not requiring well-known venues to adopt generic temporary nicknames, but it will ease costs as existing signage can remain in place outside of the venue.
“Our job is to push and our job is to do what’s best for the Olympics in Los Angeles,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman told The Times. “Our job in those conversations [with the IOC] was to explain why this was more than just about money. It was about experience and value and opportunity.”
The additional revenue opportunities from naming rights agreements will help cover what LA28 has promised will be a privately funded Games.
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LAKERS
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: As LeBron James enters his record-setting 23rd NBA season and superstar Luka Doncic returns for his first full season in L.A., the Lakers are tied with the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks for the most nationally televised games in the league.
The NBA announced the regular season schedule Thursday, and the Lakers’ slate highlights the league’s growing number of broadcast partners. The Lakers open the season at home against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 on NBC, have ABC/ESPN’s 5 p.m. prime-time slot against the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day and will welcome a familiar face back to Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 28 on Prime.
Anthony Davis’ return to L.A. with the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m. on Nov. 28 will wrap up NBA Cup group play. The former Lakers star forward was injured during what was going to be his return to L.A. last season after he was sent to the Mavericks in a shocking trade.
CLIPPERS
James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Ivica Zubac and Chris Paul are poised to lead the Clippers through a 2025-26 schedule that opens on the road but closes with four of its final six games at the Intuit Dome.
From Ben Bolch: Kwazi Gilmer, yearning to do something no other UCLA wide receiver has managed, unveiled a new play after practice Wednesday.
Call it the go-for-it route.
“I want to go win the Biletnikoff,” Gilmer announced, “so I’m coming for all the receivers out there.”
Those are bold words for someone from a program whose closest association with the award that goes to the nation’s top college receiver might have been former Bruins coach Dick Vermeil once delivering the keynote speech at the presentation banquet.
No UCLA player has won the award that dates to 1994. Neither Gilmer nor any of his teammates made the award’s 47-player preseason watch list, which is based on past performance. Players can be added during the season as their performance dictates.
Gilmer’s debut college season featured spectacular spurts, the freshman making 31 catches for 345 yards and two touchdowns. Emerging from a deep and experienced group of wide receivers, he started the final five games and increasingly became a go-to guy, snagging a season-high six catches for 54 yards in the finale against Fresno State.
DODGERS
From Dylan Hernández: In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.
The Dodgers have dropped out of first place.
The team that was expected to win 120 games has fallen a game behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West, and who knows how much further baseball’s most expensive collection of players could plummet?
The geniuses in the front office improved the farm system more than they did the obviously problematic bullpen at the trade deadline, resulting in blown lead after blown lead after blown lead.
Mookie Betts has a playoff soundtrack infused with ‘the relaxing vibe of the beach’
Shohei Ohtani focused ‘on the field,’ not distraction of Hawaii real estate lawsuit
Dodgers Dugout: The 10 best left fielders in Dodger history
RAMS
From Austin Knoblauch: Matthew Stafford didn’t participate in the Rams’ joint practice with the New Orleans Saints on Thursday in Carson, but the team hopes he can take meaningful steps this weekend toward a return from injury.
Stafford, who has missed the entirety of training camp because of an aggravated disc in his back, is scheduled to work out Saturday, coach Sean McVay told reporters. The workout will be similar to one Stafford had on Aug. 9 when he threw more than 60 passes, McVay said.
McVay described that workout as “awesome” and was hopeful Stafford would return to practice this week. But the 37-year-old signal-caller didn’t feel up to the task Monday and has sat out of practice this week.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1948 — Babe Didrikson Zaharias wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf title over Betty Hicks.
1950 — Ezzard Charles knocks out Freddie Beshore in the 14th round to retain his world heavyweight title.
1965 — Dave Marr edges Jack Nicklaus and Billy Casper to take the PGA Championship.
1966 — Jose Torres retains his world light-heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Eddie Cotton in Las Vegas.
1993 — Greg Norman lips his putt on the PGA Championship’s second playoff hole, giving Paul Azinger the title and leaving Norman with an unprecedented career of Grand Slam playoff losses. Norman, despite winning his second British Open title a month earlier, has lost playoffs in three other majors — 1984 U.S. Open, 1987 Masters, 1989 British Open.
1993 — Damon Hill, son of the late Graham Hill, becomes the first father-son Formula One winners when he takes the Hungarian Grand Prix.
1995 — Monica Seles returns to the WTA Tour after a 28-month absence following her 1993 stabbing with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Kimberly Po at the Canadian Open.
1999 — Tiger Woods makes a par save on the 17th hole and holds on to win the PGA Championship by one stroke over 19-year-old Sergio Garcia. Woods, 23, becomes the youngest player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros in 1980.
2004 — In Athens, Greece, the U.S. men’s basketball team loses 92-73 to Puerto Rico, the third Olympic defeat for the Americans and first since adding pros. American teams had been 24-0 since the pro Olympic era began with the 1992 Dream Team. The U.S Olympic team’s record was 109-2, entering the game.
2005 — Phil Mickelson delivers another dramatic finish in a major, flopping a chip out of deep rough to 2 feet for a birdie on the final hole and a one-shot victory in the PGA Championship.
2007 — Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleads guilty to felony charges for taking cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on games he officiated in a scandal that rocked the league and raised questions about the integrity of the sport.
2010 — Martin Kaymer wins the PGA Championship in a three-hole playoff against Bubba Watson. Dustin Johnson, with a one-shot lead playing the final hole at Whistling Straits, is penalized two strokes for grounding his club in a bunker on the last hole. The two-shot penalty sends him into a tie for fifth.
2012 — The U.S. breaks a 75-year winless streak at Azteca Stadium with an 80th-minute goal by Michael Orozco Fiscal and Tim Howard’s late sprawling saves in a 1-0 victory over Mexico.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1905 — Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a five-inning no-hit game to beat the St. Louis Browns 2-0.
1916 — In a classic pitching duel, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox beat Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, 1-0, in 13 innings at Fenway Park.
1945 — The Chicago Cubs routed the Brooklyn Dodgers 20-6, at Ebbets Field. Paul Gillespie knocked in six runs with two home runs and a single to lead the attack.
1955 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves hit a home run off Mel Wright of the St. Louis Cardinals to give Spahn a homer in every NL park.
1975 — Baltimore manager Earl Weaver was ejected twice by umpire Ron Luciano. Weaver was thrown out in the first game and was ejected before the second game.
1989 — Dave Dravecky of the San Francisco Giants, in his second start after coming back from cancer surgery on his pitching arm, broke his arm but earned the win in a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Expos. In the sixth inning, after throwing a wild pitch to Tim Raines, he collapsed and clutched his left arm in agony.
1990 — Philadelphia’s Terry Mulholland pitched the record eighth no-hitter of the season as the Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 6-0. The season’s eighth no-hitter surpassed the modern record of seven set in 1908 and 1917.
1990 — Mark McGwire hit a grand slam in the 10th inning to become the first major leaguer to hit 30 or more homers in his first four seasons and lifted the Oakland Athletics to a 6-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
2001 — Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 300th career save, completing a two-hitter that lifted the San Diego Padres over the New York Mets 2-1.
2005 — Randy Winn hit for the cycle in his first four at-bats in San Francisco’s 7-3 win over Cincinnati.
2011 — Jim Thome belted his 600th home run an inning after he hit No. 599 to help the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 9-6. Thome became the eighth player to reach 600.
2012 — Felix Hernandez pitched the Seattle Mariners’ first perfect game and the 23rd in baseball history, overpowering the Tampa Bay Rays in a 1-0 victory. It was the third perfect game in baseball of the season — a first — joining gems by Chicago’s Philip Humber against the Mariners in April and San Francisco’s Matt Cain against Houston in June.
2014 — Mo’Ne Davis, one of two girls at the Little League World Series, threw a two-hitter to help Philadelphia beat Nashville 4-0. Davis, the first girl to appear for a U.S. team in South Williamsport since 2004, had eight strikeouts and no walks.
2015 — Jackie Bradley Jr. had two homers, three doubles and seven RBIs, powering Boston past Seattle 22-10.
2022 — The Rangers fire manager Chris Woodward. While the club is in third place in the AL West after two consecutive last-place finishes, it is still 12 games below .500 and 23 games out of first after having spent some $500 million on free agents in the off-season. He is replaced on an interim basis by coach Tony Beasley.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.