For a century, sporting competitions such as the Central American and Caribbean Games
have created opportunities for countries across the Americas to come together through shared competition, investment, and people-to-people diplomacy.
The Olympics, whether the Summer or Winter edition, make a resurgence on the global stage every four years. The World Cup likewise operates on a quadrennial cycle. Both events tout aspirations of global unity and camaraderie through the promotion of sport. While FIFA understandably maintains a focus on soccer and the sport’s development as a central goal, the Olympic Movement takes a macro approach, encompassing dozens of sports in which individuals and teams represent their home countries. Guided by the values of Olympism, the Olympic Movement seeks to honor excellence; facilitate friendship; and promote respect for oneself, one's opponents, the rules, the environment, and society.
As the Western Hemisphere prepares to serve again as a nexus of cooperation with the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, recent examples of regional cooperation warrant review. Already this summer, we saw an iteration of international collaboration with the trilateral hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup (WC) by the US, Mexico, and Canada. The implications of the WC cooperation remain a salient topic of discussion.
More recently, the world witnessed another exercise in successful cooperation within the Western Hemisphere, albeit with less media attention than the WC. From the end of July to the beginning of August, over 6,200 athletes from 37 countries and territories competed in more than 40 athletic disciplines at the Central American and Caribbean Games (CACG), hosted in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
A regional competition, the CACG operates just where the name indicates. With its inaugural competition commencing in 1926, the regional games are running one hundred years strong. Ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, this recent event and other related events in the region provide fertile ground for reflection on the economic implications that follow and on how cooperation among countries might serve as an expression of sports diplomacy in the Olympic context in the Western Hemisphere.
The Olympics, as a network, consists of lesser-known elements beyond the Olympic Games with which most people are well acquainted. These are the Olympic Charter, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Olympic Movement, National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and, of course, the Olympic Games themselves. The charter stipulates the values of Olympism and comprises the rules and standards that the IOC recognizes and enforces. The IOC is the leadership arm of the Olympic apparatus and is responsible for facilitating the Olympic Games in its pursuit to improve the world through sport.
The Olympic Movement comprises the deliberate actions undertaken by entities under the authority of the IOC that demonstrate a commitment to Olympic values. The pinnacle of this action is the Olympic Games, which consists of competition among 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Team. NOCs are members of the Olympic Movement, where each NOC represents its respective country. All NOCs fall under IOC authority. These NOCs are the same actors who select the Olympians who participate in the Olympic Games. Each nation may have its own selection process. Still, at a minimum, selected athletes must adhere to the principles of the Olympic Charter and comply with the International Federation (IF) governing their respective sport. The IFs are tasked with maintaining the integrity of each sport and conducting the qualifying events necessary to advance to the Olympics. Each NOC selects the athletes that advance to the Olympic Games and represent their nation.
Regional competitions like the Central American and Caribbean Games (CACG) do not operate as traditional universal qualifying events for the broader Olympics. Rather, they function independently yet in the spirit of the same values of Olympism laid out in the charter, and, in the case of the Central American and Caribbean Games, often with explicit recognition from the IOC. The Western Hemisphere boasts not only the CACG but also the South American Games (ODESUR) and the Pan American Games (Panam Sport); much like the former, ODESUR and the Pan American Games are regional or continental competitions held as expressions of Olympic values. ODESUR is taking place in Rosario, Argentina, in September 2026. The Pan American Games are especially relevant, as the Lima 2027 Edition plays a role in qualifying athletes for the Los Angeles Games in several sports across the Western Hemisphere. These games will bring 41 national delegations from the Americas and more than 6900 athletes to compete in 38 sports and 58 disciplines.
The games in the Americas use different funding models for their events. The CACG in Santo Domingo was funded by a public trust established by the Dominican government in 2022. It was estimated that the organizing committee’s operating budget was $185 million USD.[1] For ODESUR, the funding model is mixed, including local government funding and borrowing from a regional development bank. The provincial government of Santa Fe, where the city of Rosario is located, is investing more than $90 million USD, with CAF, or the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, financing $75 million USD. For the Lima 2027 Pan American Games, the Peruvian national government pledged to finance the event, which was estimated at around $369 million USD in the bid. These games are expected to leverage infrastructure built for the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima.
The 2028 Olympic Games will be primarily privately funded, with federal funding for security and transportation and city and state funding to cover financial losses. The budget for carrying out the event has been estimated at around $7 billion USD. There are some interesting facts regarding funding Olympic activities in the US. First, funding for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) activities comes from sponsorship and licensing agreements, as well as the sale of broadcast rights for sporting events. Second, the 2028 Games were designated as a National Special Security Event in January 2024, which established an executive steering committee led by the US Secret Service of six federal, state, and local entities to coordinate the event; it was requested that the federal government fund 100-percent of the cost reimbursement for public safety and related costs. As of August 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in 2025 has allocated $1 billion USD to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the State Homeland Security Grant Program. Interestingly, LAPD alone estimates the cost of security-related personnel expenses to carry out the event at $1.15 billion. Third, regarding transportation-related costs, the federal government has already allocated $94.3 million USD. Currently, there is a call to Congress to secure $1 billion USD to acquire, operate, and store 1,750 buses for spectators. Fourth, the city and the state will share the event's financial losses. LA28, the organizing committee, has created a $270 million USD contingency fund to reimburse eligible city expenses. Beyond that fund, the city is responsible for the first $270 million USD in losses. There is also legislation mandating that California taxpayers cover the next $270 million USD in losses. Any financial losses beyond these will fall to the city.
The longevity of these competitions may hold significance for the future of cooperation within the Western Hemisphere, especially by providing the region an opportunity to demonstrate the relevance of such cooperation in the context of the 2028 Games. The Olympic movement has provided a legacy of promoting opportunities for the US in “people-to-people” diplomacy through sport. While the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 governs US Olympic and Paralympic activities, funding for hosting is renegotiated for each Olympic Games. When it comes to cooperation in the Americas, there are really few mechanisms we have seen lasting more than 100 years.
[1] Authors’ conversion from $11 billion RD, at approximately $60 RD to USD $1 USD as of August 2026.
