An Olympian Task: Security for the Super Bowl, World Cup, and Olympics

Over the next few years, California will host several mega-events—including the 2026 and 2027 Super Bowls, FIFA World Cup matches, and the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics—that will bring millions of visitors and major security and mobility challenges to the Golden State. This perspective explores the massive and complex logistical undertaking of security threats to mega-events and how these threats are shaped by geopolitics, patterns of terrorism, and psychology. This perspective draws on the author’s anti-terrorism expertise and professional experience with security for mega-events—beginning with the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles—and traces the historical shifts in mega-event planning over the last four decades. It discusses the importance of public transportation in facilitating safe mobility for mega-events  and explores the often unpredictable nature of current and emerging threats like violent extremism. This perspective calls for sustained civic engagement and careful planning and policymaking in order to ensure the safety of mega-events and the communities that host them. This piece furthers the insights from the 16th Annual Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit: “Beyond the Stadium: Keeping Cities Moving During Mega-Events” event presented by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs and the Mineta Transportation Institute.