Is it any wonder Los Angeles is set to host its third Olympic games in 2028?

This place is just about purpose-built for it.

If there’s a city that can lay claim to being LA’s sporting superior, I’d like to see it.

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When the Games of the 35th Olympiad arrive at Brisbane in 2032 — and most other places, to be fair — the Australian city will have spent years building new infrastructure and equipping itself to host the world’s biggest sporting event.

When they get to LA for the 34th, the southern Californian mecca will have been effectively sitting and waiting for them to arrive.

Of course, that is not entirely true. But where else in the world is there such an embarrassment of riches in pre-existing stadiums and sporting precincts?

The city’s problem will not be where to host all the different events, but how to use all of its ready-made assets adequately.

There are as many as 28 infrastructure projects and initiatives in the works ahead of the Games to transform LA into the most technologically advanced and carbon-neutral Olympic host city in history.

SoFi Stadium and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will both play major roles, with the ceremonies expected to take place in a dual-venue format.

And what a destination it will be for even the most casual of sports fans who are looking for an excuse to experience LA for the first, second, or 10th time.

Downtown LA and surrounding areas in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Inglewood boast some of the world’s most eclectic and interesting food and culture scenes in the world.

I travelled to LA for a four-day trip of a lifetime and here are some highlights that blew me away.

Cosm, Inglewood

As I said to nearly everyone I spoke to inside Cosm — we need one of these in Australia.

The best way I can describe Cosm is it’s like a cinema for sport, but better.

When you walk up the escalators of the enormous sports bar, you’re transported into the front row of any stadium in the country.

An absurdly large screen swallows your gaze as you find a seat in one of the many cosy spots in what is effectively the indoor grandstand.

The screen is a semi-circular dome that stretches 87 feet wide and 55 feet tall. That’s over 26 metres of screen across and almost 17 metres high.

For context, most cinema screens are around half that width. You could turn Cosm’s screen 90 degrees and it would still be wider than most cinema screens.

It takes a minute just to process how big this thing is. And by the time you have, there will be someone by your side asking for your food and drink order.

Since going to the Cosm, lots of people have asked me if it’s like being at the game. My answer is it’s better.

With the exception of a stadium’s real-life atmosphere and seeing the athletes in the flesh, Cosm outperforms tickets to the game in every way.

You’re always in the best seat in the house because wherever the ball is, you are.

So, for the NCAA football match between Georgia and Texas that I watched, when the ball was down one end of the ground, we were sitting behind the goals. When the ball was in the middle of the field, so were we.

And forget queues to get a drink — they come to you.

“Cosm is redefining content and the fan experience, and reimagining how we share it with others,” a spokesperson for Cosm said.

“Our revolutionary technology and state of the art venues completely immerse and transport you into the content, putting you in the front row of an NBA game or within a spectacular piece of art.

“And no matter where you are in the venue, you can enjoy in-house dining and full bar service.”

Food culture, Downtown

What do you want? Take your pick.

Grand Central Market is a perfect place to start, as I did, with the help of Six Taste Food Tours LA.

The market has been an institution of Downtown LA since 1917, at which time it was called Wonder Market.

Back then, it was billed “the largest and finest public market on the Pacific Coast”.

It may no longer be the biggest, but it’s still very much one of the best.

Steeped in history, the busy food hub has everything from Japanese to Mexican, fresh produce to cooking ingredients, and everything imaginable in between.

According to the market itself, its 40 stalls are “a microcosm of the historic immigrant communities that have shaped Los Angeles and a mosaic of the creativity and vision of the people who call this city home”.

For the record, I had the best ramen of my life in there and it’ll be the first place I return to next time I’m in LA.

For something a bit more formal, I had the pleasure of dining out at Level 8, a few blocks away, also in Downtown.

Not only will they cook the exquisite food on a hot plate in front of your eyes, they’ll also entertain you with some tricks from the resident magician while you wait.

It’s abundantly clear at Level 8 that they’re as invested in the dining experience as they are the food, which in and of itself, is outstanding.

For something easy and quick, none other than LeBron James has one of his 19 Blaze Pizza franchises in LA — not far from Level 8.

My Uber driver was so excited about taking me to Blaze Pizza that I thought he was about to join me for a second.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park

For an Australian, it’s almost impossible to process the gravity of this stadium and its purpose.

The pure size of it is nothing foreign; Melbourne regularly hosts up to 100,000 people inside its mighty MCG for some of the most gripping sporting events on planet earth.

But we turn up in our thousands for professional senior sport.

The Coliseum is preserved for university students.

NCAA sport is something Australians will never fully understand because of its stark juxtaposition to our effectively non-existent university sport culture.

Watching college sports fans cram into stadiums around the US is something to behold even on television.

But to see the infrastructure they have at their disposal for it in the flesh is something else.

Could you imagine 90,000 people at the MCG for a clash between Sydney’s Macquarie University and The University of Melbourne? RMIT v ACU?

It will never make sense to us, but it’s a beautiful thing for them.

And to be on the cut grass for the stadium set to host the athletics at the 2028 Olympics was surreal in itself.

I challenge you to find a more spectacularly aesthetic sports stadium in the world.

The Coliseum is comfortably in the same company as the MCG, Wembley in London, Maracana in Rio de Janerio, Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, and Madison Square Garden in New York.

The only people who may not agree are the players and staff from the away teams, whose changerooms are infamously small and unaccommodating.

SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome, Inglewood; Crypto.com Arena, Downtown

In a market once dominated by the brilliant Crypto.com Arena, home to the LA Lakers, LA Sparks and LA Kings, there are now three major players.

Since their relocation to Los Angeles in 1984, the LA Clippers have assumed the role of little brother to the Lakers.

That might still be true of the team, but the same can’t be said of their stadium.

Intuit Dome is modern sporting fan experience on steroids.

When Intuit Dome was built, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had a vision to create a stadium with a fan experience second to none — and he meant it.

Ballmer asked fans what they wanted; he asked them how to optimise their experience inside the four walls as best he could.

They said they didn’t want queues.

So, he equipped the $US2 billion, 18,000-seat stadium with 1400 toilets and automatic drink bars.

At Intuit Dome, your face is your ticket, so when you enter a bar, you don’t need to stop and wait behind 13 other people who are trying to scan their cards — just walk out with the drinks and the stadium will debit the money from your account with facial recognition.

You know you’re living in the future when you’re inside this incredible building.

Down the road at SoFi, swimming fans will pack into the converted stadium for the Olympics in three years.

In the meantime, its regular football programming will roll on, including hosting the 2027 Super Bowl.

SoFi’s 114-metre halo screen hangs from its spell-binding glass roof, and is glaringly visible from any of the 70,000 seats in the stadium.

Of those 70,000, you’ll find zero with a poor view of the action. Every seat in the house is a good one.

And don’t forget Crypto.com Arena, which has lived most of its life as the city’s preeminent sport stadium, but now has some competition.

Still, it remains one of the world’s best places to watch basketball, ice hockey, concerts and other events.

For the Olympics, it will be the home of the gymnastics.

Vice President of guest services at Crypto.com Arena, Amber Watts, said the stadium remains ever evolving.

“We are very excited to provide guests with an exclusive look into our latest renovations and upgrades as part of our newly launched Crypto.com Arena VIP Tours,” she told www.20304050.best.

“We look forward to showcasing the venue and hope guests take the opportunity while here to explore all that Downtown Los Angeles and LA LIVE have to offer.”

Accommodation

Again, it’s an embarrassment of riches. You’d have to search far and wide to go wrong.

I had to search no further than Downtown LA Proper Hotel, whose accommodation was first-class.

Boasting a central location with access as easy to Hollywood in the north as it is to Santa Monica in the west, Proper was perfect for my four-day whirlwind, but would be just as good for a longer stay.

Their service alone made me want to stick around.

A beautiful restaurant downstairs and a rooftop pool with a view upstairs made were the cherries on top.

The writer travelled as a guest of LA Tourism and Delta Airlines.