Los Angeles Moves Olympic Diving from Exposition Park to Rose Bowl Aquatics Center

Los Angeles will stage Olympic diving at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena for the 2028 Games after the City Council approved the venue change in September 2025. 6 million in combined cost savings and revenue growth, according to LA28. Organizers said the Pasadena site requires fewer improvements than the previously planned Exposition Park location and offers greater certainty in budgeting.

The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center sits adjacent to the Rose Bowl Stadium and includes two Olympic-sized pools. It was built with surplus funds from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and opened in 1990. U.S. National diving championships and training camps for Olympic athletes.

"The RBAC itself was born out of the 1984 Olympic Games, built with funds left over from that historic moment in Los Angeles," Rose Bowl Aquatics Center Executive Director Melanie Sauer said. The site was previously home to the Brookside Plunge, a municipal pool opened in the 1920s.

The Plunge operated under discriminatory practices that excluded African Americans and other minorities. Community activists, including Dr. Edna L. Griffin, challenged those practices. LA28 has emphasized reuse of existing venues to limit new construction costs.

The diving move follows that approach and addresses athlete safety concerns identified during planning reviews. By the summer of 2028, the center will host Olympic competition nearly four decades after it was funded by the surplus from the 1984 Games.