LA 2028 in Oklahoma City: Softball, Canoe Slalom and the Plan That Follows You There

Somebody looking at the LA28 venue map for the first time usually stops at the same place: Oklahoma City. The football tournament travelling is normal, every Olympics does that. OKC is the outlier: the one zone beyond California holding sport of its own, more than a thousand miles from the Coliseum.

The reason comes down to a rule LA28 set itself about permanent venues, and this is the clearest example of that rule in action.

Why Oklahoma City

LA28 has said it will be the first Games in 80 years where every permanent venue already exists, with temporary builds covering the rest. Follow that rule and you end up wherever the best facility already stands, which for two of these sports means Oklahoma.

OKC Softball Park, known ordinarily as Devon Park, is described by LA28 as the premier softball-specific ballpark in the United States. It hosts the WBSC Softball World Cup and the NCAA Women's College World Series. Softball is returning to the Olympic programme for the first time since Tokyo 2020, and it is going to the best purpose-built ground the country has.

OKC Whitewater Center, or Riversport OKC, takes canoe slalom, which LA28 lists as slalom paddle. It is an official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site and it staged the US Olympic Team Trials ahead of Paris 2024. Artificial whitewater courses of that standard are rare, and building one in a Los Angeles park for a fortnight is beyond even an Olympic budget.

LA28 points out that the two venues sit close to each other, which makes a single weekend covering both a reasonable plan rather than an ambitious one.

Planning the trip

Two things separate an OKC leg from the rest of the Games.

It is a flight. About three hours from Los Angeles. Will Rogers World Airport is the city's main commercial airport, which LA28 confirms on its travel page.

The clock moves. Oklahoma City is on Central Time, two hours ahead of Los Angeles. If you are bouncing between Games cities, put session times into your calendar with the time zone attached rather than doing the arithmetic in your head at an airport gate.

And a small trap for baseball fans: softball is here, baseball is at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The two sports share a governing body and an Olympic slot while sitting a thousand miles apart.

What the data goes on

A session day in Oklahoma City looks like a session day anywhere: 1 to 3 GB once you add a mobile ticket, journeys in both directions, group chats and a few clips.

The difference is everything around it. For most visitors this will be a first trip to Oklahoma City, which means:

• Fresh maps to load, in a city you are reading rather than recalling.
• A hire car or rideshare, and the parking, fuel and return logistics that come with it.
• A hotel and a restaurant you found on your phone rather than a recommendation.

If OKC is a leg inside a longer Games trip, size the plan for the whole itinerary rather than buying separately for this bit.

Start from the referral link to get these rates.

Setup, once, for the whole trip

1. Buy a US plan and wait for the email saying your QR code is ready on the website.
2. Install the profile over home Wi-Fi before you fly. It stays dormant until you arrive.
3. On landing in the US, set the Lotsotravel eSIM as your active data line in Settings.
4. Keep the home SIM on for calls, texts and two-factor codes.
5. Turn data roaming off on the home line.

Then forget about it. The plan works in Los Angeles, in Oklahoma City, and in every football host city. The full venue map is on our LA 2028 hub, and the complete setup is in the LA 2028 eSIM guide.