Despite the setback of this year’s wildfires, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be “out-of-control good” and credit for their success will be taken by Donald Trump, according to Endeavor and TKO exec Mark Shapiro.
The “L.A. and Back” narrative will drive strong interest in corporate hospitality packages offered by TKO’s On Location subsidiary, Shapiro predicted during an appearance at a Morgan Stanley media conference. Ben Swinburne, the Morgan Stanley analyst moderating Monday’s session with Shapiro, asked the exec if he felt “bullish” about L.A. in 2028 and anticipated that they will “go on as planned” despite the fires.
“They’ve had time to rebuild, and it’s going to be a coming-out party,” Shapiro said. “Sort of at the other end of the spectrum from where the Oscars were last night when they celebrated L.A. and the pageantry and the history and, of course, encouraged folks to give back and support the rebuild.”
Shapiro then made a sharp turn as he continued to paint the picture, getting political without any prompting. “President Trump is going to walk out of office with the trophy that is the L.A. Olympics, that ‘I did it, I brought it back, I was behind it, I put the resources, the support,’” the exec said. “He’ll be sitting front and center. I’m a true believer that this will be his Olympics as much as anything else.”
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Shapiro made the forecast without indicating explicitly whether the victory lap would be justified, but numerous ties exist between his businesses and the Trump administration. Endeavor and its CEO, Ari Emanuel, represented the president during his multi-year run as host of NBC’s The Apprentice franchise, which gave him enough visibility and resources to later enter politics. Vice President JD Vance was a client of Endeavor’s WME when he published his bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, which would catapult him to elected office. More recently, Emanuel has affiliated himself with Elon Musk, a major Trump backer during the 2024 campaign who has become a close adviser to the president. Dana White, head of the TKO-owned UFC, also has been connected with Trump through the years.
A former top exec at ESPN and Dick Clark Productions, Shapiro joined Endeavor in 2014. TKO, which is majority-owned by Endeavor and run by Emanuel, Shapiro and other Endeavor execs, was formed in 2023 from the merger of WWE and the UFC.
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The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026 already are putting experiences up for sale, Shapiro said. “Between Milan and L.A., we’re projecting to do $2 billion in revenue and $130 million in adjusted EBITDA. So it will be a good story.”
On Location was acquired by TKO from Endeavor along with two other former Endeavor assets, the Professional Bull Riders and IMG, for $3.2 billion. The transaction, which closed Friday, will position TKO as “pure sports” and Endeavor as “pure representation,” Shapiro said. As TKO continues its successful run as a publicly traded company, Endeavor is set to exit the public stage in the next few weeks as Silver Lake takes it private.
After Shapiro mentioned Trump and then added that the Paris Olympics also were lucrative despite the “French being difficult,” Swinburne said he felt tempted to explore the Olympics topic in more detail but opted to move on.
