{"id":176313,"date":"2026-02-13T08:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176313\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T08:53:23","slug":"casey-wasserman-fresno-frenzy-and-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/176313\/","title":{"rendered":"Casey Wasserman, Fresno Frenzy and Epstein files"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among revelations discovered in a recently released trove of Epstein file documents were references to longtime sports and entertainment executive<\/a> (and chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games) Casey Wasserman.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old son of Hollywood movie mogul Lew Wasserman is facing celebrity backlash<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

He was also a familiar name in Fresno.<\/p>\n

\"Chairman 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<\/p>\n

In 2001, Wasserman showed up in Fresno with the promise of a professional arena football franchise.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe strongest football-based city\u201d for arenafootball2, the feeder league for the Arena Football League, according to a story in The Bee at the time.<\/p>\n

And the city was all in.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever before have city officials taken such active interest in the arrival of a pro team,\u201d The Fresno Bee wrote of the team\u2019s arrival, \u201cnot the Triple-A baseball Grizzlies, hockey Falcons, tennis Sun-Nets, basketball Flames or football Bandits.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWasserman held up a check from Council Member Jerry Duncan for a deposit on the first season-ticket package,\u201d The Bee reported. \u201cCouncil members Tom Boyajian, Sal Quintero and Dan Ronquillo also took the opportunity to pose for the cameras with Wasserman.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the team finally got its name and branding, it held an unveiling at Selland Arena \u2014 done \u201cin ear-splitting fashion to the sounds of the Edison High marching band, blazing fireworks and rock-n-roll music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wasserman was there, moving \u201cthrough the crowd of 350 onlookers like a proud papa,\u201d The Bee wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like naming my kid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Casey 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 <\/p>\n

But the Fresno Frenzy lasted just one season and folded in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business wasn\u2019t as successful as we hoped and we didn\u2019t have the confidence the next few years would change dramatically,\u201d Wasserman said at the time. \u201cWe lost a substantial amount of money for a team that we didn\u2019t think should lose any money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

At the time, Wasserman said the failure was not an indictment to Fresno.<\/p>\n

\u201cI attended games there. I\u2019m grateful to the fans who supported the Frenzy. I\u2019m sorry it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Fresno in email that references Tony Hawk wedding rumor<\/p>\n

Fresno itself has been mentioned at least once within documents released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.<\/p>\n

The city was mentioned in an Oct. 22, 2024 email<\/a> 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 \u201cJeffery Epstein Island when she was 13 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same victim said she was there at the same time as Prince Edward and \u201cwhen Tony Hawk got married on the island\u201d \u2014 a claim that the pro skateboarder quickly refuted.<\/a> In a social media post Hawk called the rumor \u201cmisinformation,\u201d and laid out a timeline of his four marriages, none of which occurred on Epstein\u2019s private island estate<\/a> in the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

\"In 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 <\/p>\n

This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 4:13 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Joshua Tehee<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among revelations discovered in a recently released trove of Epstein file documents were references to longtime sports and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[37911,58184,112,83920,83921,114,113,83922],"class_list":{"0":"post-176313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-casey-wasserman","9":"tag-epstein-files","10":"tag-fresno","11":"tag-fresno-arena-football","12":"tag-fresno-frenzy","13":"tag-fresno-headlines","14":"tag-fresno-news","15":"tag-tony-hawk-rumor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}