Natasha Watley grew up in Irvine, played softball at UCLA, won gold for Team USA 20 years ago. She lives in Los Angeles now, and she was excited to share her hometown and her sport with the current generation of Olympians.
Until last month, that is, when Olympic organizers announced that softball games for the 2028 L.A. Olympics would be played in Oklahoma City.
“To me, it almost felt like a slap in the face,” Watley said. “It’s the easy way out, to send everybody to Oklahoma.”
Watley and Jennie Finch, another of the 2004 gold medalists, joined Major League Baseball here this week as part of the All-Star Game festivities. Finch, who grew up in La Mirada, said she initially considered the decision to move Olympic softball games out of Los Angeles “heartbreaking.”
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Watley said the decision would deprive softball players of the full Olympic experience.
“I had that experience,” she said, “just coming into the dining hall, and seeing Michael Phelps with his actual medal after he won, seeing Kobe Bryant and hanging out with him.
“It’s the little intricacies of day-in, day-out life that they’re going to miss out on. That makes me so sad. That decision was not about the athletes.”
Softball players should get to participate in either the opening or closing ceremonies in Los Angeles, according to LA28 organizers.
They say millions would have been required to downsize a major league baseball stadium or add seating to a softball or minor league baseball stadium, even if one could be found that would allow for months of renovation, and that spending could be perilous in an Olympics for which taxpayers could be on the hook for any financial losses.
In Oklahoma City, softball games will be played in a 13,000-seat, double-deck stadium that is regularly filled for the women’s College World Series.
“I go back and forth,” Finch said. “But then part of me is like, ‘Oklahoma City, where else are we going to get 13,000 fans to come out? What other stadium would hold that for softball?’
“We would have to go to a baseball stadium and, really, our game just isn’t showcased the best at a baseball stadium. Dugouts are so far. Our game is intimate. It’s fast. And a baseball stadium just takes all that away.”
Finch said she would love to see an Olympic-class softball stadium built at UCLA. In the meantime, however, softball is a demonstration sport, so it could be part of the 2028 Games but not part of the 2032 Games.
“I know how Oklahoma can pack a stadium,” she said. “My biggest concern is getting softball back into the Olympics permanently. What’s going to give us the better chance?”
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Two members of the Los Angeles City Council have expressed concerns about Olympic events moving out of the city of Los Angeles. Watley said she has discussed the issue with former teammates.
“We are actively having conversations and trying to see if there is a solution,” she said.
Watley said she would appreciate the chance to meet with LA28 officials.
“I’m just really trying to protect the athletes,” she said. “If there is something that can still be done that is cost-efficient, then I hope that we can make a change.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
