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Media Contact: Zan Dubin (310) 383-0956
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS CALL ON L.A. OLYMPICS ORGANIZERS TO URGE DODGER OWNERS TO CUT TIES TO BIG OIL
Dodger Fans Against Fossil Fuels urge an end to the team's Phillips 66 sponsorship before 2028 Olympics arrive
Activists are calling on organizers of the 2028 Olympics, who have touted commitments to make the games green, to urge owners of one of the games’ most renowned venues, Dodger Stadium, to drop their team's sponsorship deal with oil giant Phillips 66.
Members of Dodger Fans Against Fossil Fuels, a campaign urging Dodger owner Mark Walter to end the sponsorship, will hold their third rally at Chavez Ravine. Protesters cloaked in sackcloth and ashes to express the grief and anxiety widely associated with climate change will march in front of Dodger Stadium. Called Lamentors, they will be accompanied by a bagpiper and drummer.
"We are thrilled that Dodger Stadium has been chosen as an Olympics venue," says campaign lead Zan Dubin. "But we don't want our beloved team to shill for fossil fuels--on a global stage--every time a camera pans to the scoreboard. We are asking L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, the International Olympic Committee and Dodger owners: During the Olympics, will Dodger Stadium be a symbol of sustainability or L.A.'s biggest billboard for Big Oil?”
Bass, working with LA28 Olympics organizers, has stated a commitment to sustainability that includes lowering the games' "overall footprint," reducing waste, conserving water and aiming for a car-free games. LA28 organizers envision 'hosting
The climate commitment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which approved LA28's venues, includes halving the games' carbon emissions by 2030. New IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, has proposed that all Olympics promote sustainability.
Separately, over 400 Olympians--citing LA's fires as an example of disastrous climate impacts--recently urged stricter standards on high-polluting Olympics sponsors. Among those athletes is Olympic gold medalist Etienne Stott (2012, canoe slalom), who spoke on a Dodger Fans Against Fossil Fuels sportswashing panel in April.
"To those who hold the levers of power," Stott says, "whether that's at the club level, the organizational governing body level or the international governing body level, we say: You have the power and if you are not using it, you are supporting the status quo, which is basically supporting the villains that are killing us and everything on Earth." Stott is active with Extinction Rebellion, whose street-theater Lamentors will be protesting at Dodger Stadium.
Associating Big Oil with Dodger baseball makes fossil fuels seem wholesome and trivializes the deadly pollution and climate change they cause. Campaigners have amassed over 28,000 signatures on a petition to Walter. He has not responded, nor to a similar plea from California State Sen. Lena Gonzalez.
Campaigners have also requested meetings with Walter, Dodger co-owners Billie Jean King and Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Bass and the IOC.