Indoor volleyball returns to Southern California
Olympic indoor volleyball at LA28 will be played at the Honda Center in Anaheim across fifteen days in July 2028. Twelve men's teams and twelve women's teams, from the group stage through both gold medal matches, in an arena seating roughly 18,000.
It is the only Olympic sport Anaheim will host.
The essentials
Venue. Honda Center, 2695 East Katella Avenue, Anaheim, California.
Dates. 15-30 July 2028.
Field. Twelve teams per gender, twenty-four in total.
Format. Group stage, then quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches. Reports put the tournament at 52 sessions.
Transit. ARTIC, the regional rail hub, sits directly next door.
Two sports, one name
Beach volleyball and indoor volleyball share a name and very little else.
Indoor is six players a side on hardwood, with substitutions, specialist positions and a libero who never rotates to the front. Beach is two players a side on sand, no substitutions, and both players do everything.
Indoor rewards specialisation and set plays. Beach rewards versatility and reading the wind. A world-class indoor middle blocker would be lost on sand, and a top beach player would find themselves boxed into one role indoors.
At LA28 they are 25 miles apart. Indoor is at the Honda Center in Anaheim; beach is at Alamitos Beach in Long Beach, covered by our beach sibling Rule the Sand.
Why Anaheim is the right place for it
Anaheim has been the training base for the United States Men's National Team since 2006. The squads built there won gold in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in Rio in 2016 and Paris in 2024.
Honda Center itself has hosted volleyball repeatedly, including an AVP beach event in 2024 played on sand brought into the arena. The Anaheim Convention Center hosted the Volleyball Nations League in 2023.
The 1984 connection
Los Angeles last hosted the Olympics in 1984, and the American men won indoor volleyball gold. It is arguably the single most important moment in the history of the sport in this country, and it happened twenty-five miles from where the 2028 tournament will be played.
Forty-four years is a long gap. The people who watched 1984 as children are the coaches now.
Qualification
Indoor volleyball qualifies on a different system from beach. Twelve teams per gender reach the Games through a combination of the host place, world championship results, continental qualification and world ranking.
The details are set by the FIVB and confirmed by the IOC, and the picture will not be clear until the qualification window opens properly. We will cover it as it happens rather than speculating now.
Playing indoors in Orange County
Orange County has one of the deeper indoor scenes in the country: club programmes, adult leagues, open gyms and rec centre drop-in across Anaheim, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Fullerton and Huntington Beach.
If the Olympics send you looking for a game, the courts are already there.
What we will cover between now and 2028
- The venue in detail, and what changes inside Honda Center for the Games
- Qualification, as the field takes shape
- Team USA's programme and who is in contention
- 1984, properly, because nobody else is writing about it
- Where to play indoors across Southern California
Independent coverage. Not affiliated with LA28, the IOC, FIVB, or USA Volleyball.