LA 2028 in Inglewood: Mobile Data for the Opening Ceremony, Swimming and Basketball

If you only get one ticket to LA28, there is a decent chance it is in Inglewood. The two events most likely to be on it happen within sight of each other here: the Opening Ceremony, and the Olympic swimming programme.

The Inglewood Zone is small, just two venues, but the events inside it are the ones that fill flights. It also happens to be the zone most visitors reach first, because it is a short hop east of LAX. Which means your phone needs to be working before you have even collected a bag.

The two venues

2028 Stadium is the venue you know as SoFi Stadium. LA28, like every Olympic organiser, uses clean venue names during the Games for commercially named buildings, so this is what will appear on your ticket. It is the home of the Rams and the Chargers, it hosted Super Bowl LVI in 2022, and in 2028 it converts into what LA28 calls the largest swimming venue in Olympic history. It also co-hosts the Olympic Opening Ceremony with the LA Memorial Coliseum in what LA28 calls a dual-venue celebration, and it hosts the Paralympic Opening Ceremony on its own.

Intuit Dome opened in 2024 as the home of the Clippers and takes Olympic basketball. It is a short distance from the stadium, close enough that on a busy day the two venues share the same traffic problem.

That proximity is the reason to think about this zone as a unit. On a day when a swimming final and a basketball session overlap, the roads around Inglewood are carrying two venue-sized crowds at once.

Getting there, and what your phone is doing

Inglewood sits just east of LAX. On paper that is convenient. In practice, Los Angeles is a driving city and an Olympic session day compresses a lot of people into the same few roads at the same time.

The Metro K Line runs through Inglewood, and Metro's 2028 Games plan is built around a transit-first approach: extra bus service, park-and-ride mobility hubs, and shuttles serving venues rather than parking lots. Metro has said its goal is for every ticketed spectator to be able to reach a venue on public transport, walking or cycling.

All of that is easier with data. Live arrivals tell you whether to wait for the next bus or start walking. Mobile fare payment needs a connection. And if a road closes for the ceremony, the reroute arrives on your phone.

What a session day costs you in data

The usage comes from everything around the event rather than the event itself:

• Your ticket. Olympic entry is mobile. It has to load at the gate on a busy network.
• Both journeys. Maps open on the way in, live transit or a rideshare quote on the way out. In a zone this car-dependent, this is where most of the gigabytes go.
• The rest. Group chats to find your seats, a translation app, photos and clips after a final.

Together that lands most fans between 1 and 3 GB for a full session day.

Start from the referral link to get these rates, and pick the size that matches your trip rather than your single busiest day.

Why a data line beats the venue Wi-Fi

Because a full stadium is the worst possible conditions for shared Wi-Fi. Throughput drops when tens of thousands of devices hit the same access points, and the moments that happen are precisely the ones you care about: the gate scan on the way in, and the mass exit when everyone books a ride at once.

A mobile data line is a different network. It has its own congestion problems on a busy day, but it spreads across cell towers rather than a single access point serving the whole bowl, and it keeps working on the walk to the station, well beyond the reach of venue Wi-Fi.

Setup, start to finish

1. Buy a US plan and wait for the email saying your QR code is ready on the website.
2. On home Wi-Fi, view the QR code and install the profile. It sits dormant until you arrive.
3. Landing at LAX, open Settings and make the Lotsotravel eSIM your active data line.
4. Keep the home SIM on for calls, texts and two-factor codes.
5. Turn data roaming off on the home line so it stays clear of US networks and their daily fee.

One plan covers the rest of your Games too. If your tickets also take you to Exposition Park, downtown or Long Beach, the same line carries straight over. The full picture is in our LA 2028 eSIM guide.