Among revelations discovered in a recently released trove of Epstein file documents were references to longtime sports and entertainment executive (and chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games) Casey Wasserman.
The 51-year-old son of Hollywood movie mogul Lew Wasserman is facing celebrity backlash for emails he wrote to convicted sex trafficker (and Jeffery Epstein associate) Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003, and for admittedly being on a plane with Epstein during a two-week tour of Africa with the Clinton Foundation in 2002.
At the time, the 28-year-old was the heir to a philanthropic foundation worth millions, the founder of a growing sports marketing firm and an Arena Football League team owner (the youngest in pro sports).
He was also a familiar name in Fresno.
Chairman of LA28 Casey Wasserman speaks during the IOC Session at the Main Media Centre MPC at Allianz MiCo on February 03, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Andreas Rentz Getty Images Wasserman and the short-lived run of Fresno Frenzy
In 2001, Wasserman showed up in Fresno with the promise of a professional arena football franchise.
It was something fans over the years had been advocating for, and something Wasserman thought could be a success. A review of potential West Coast franchises showed Fresno as “the strongest football-based city” for arenafootball2, the feeder league for the Arena Football League, according to a story in The Bee at the time.
And the city was all in.
“Never before have city officials taken such active interest in the arrival of a pro team,” The Fresno Bee wrote of the team’s arrival, “not the Triple-A baseball Grizzlies, hockey Falcons, tennis Sun-Nets, basketball Flames or football Bandits.”
The introductory news conference was attended by Wasserman along with then-Mayor Alan Autry and other local officials. It looked more like a city council meeting than a press event, according to The Bee.
“Wasserman held up a check from Council Member Jerry Duncan for a deposit on the first season-ticket package,” The Bee reported. “Council members Tom Boyajian, Sal Quintero and Dan Ronquillo also took the opportunity to pose for the cameras with Wasserman.”
When the team finally got its name and branding, it held an unveiling at Selland Arena — done “in ear-splitting fashion to the sounds of the Edison High marching band, blazing fireworks and rock-n-roll music.”
Wasserman was there, moving “through the crowd of 350 onlookers like a proud papa,” The Bee wrote.
“It’s like naming my kid,” he said.
“It’s forever.”
Casey Wasserman is seen in a file photo from October 2001 at Selland Arena announcing the naming of the Fresno Frenzy arena football team. KURT HEGRE The Fresno Bee
But the Fresno Frenzy lasted just one season and folded in 2002.
“The business wasn’t as successful as we hoped and we didn’t have the confidence the next few years would change dramatically,” Wasserman said at the time. “We lost a substantial amount of money for a team that we didn’t think should lose any money.”
The Frenzy had a $1.3 million budget that was stretched thin by travel costs, start-up expenses (the field alone cost $260,000) and marketing blitz that the team admitted got a late start. It needed to draw 5,000+ fans per game.
At the time, Wasserman said the failure was not an indictment to Fresno.
“I attended games there. I’m grateful to the fans who supported the Frenzy. I’m sorry it didn’t work.”
Fresno did get a second go at arena football with the Coyotes, which played at Selland from 2004 to 2010, when the Arena Football League (and arenafootball2) went bankrupt.
Fresno in email that references Tony Hawk wedding rumor
Fresno itself has been mentioned at least once within documents released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The city was mentioned in an Oct. 22, 2024 email involving a minor who had allegedly been trafficked at 5 years old. According to the FBI email, the girl ended up in Fresno, where she stayed for several years before being taken to “Jeffery Epstein Island when she was 13 years old.”
The same victim said she was there at the same time as Prince Edward and “when Tony Hawk got married on the island” — a claim that the pro skateboarder quickly refuted. In a social media post Hawk called the rumor “misinformation,” and laid out a timeline of his four marriages, none of which occurred on Epstein’s private island estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In this file photo from August 2001, Casey Wasserman, owner and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Avengers, announces that Fresno will be the next site for an arenafootball2 franchise to play at Selland Arena. TOMAS OVALLE The Fresno Bee
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 4:13 PM.
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Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.