{"id":347272,"date":"2026-06-05T00:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:07:09","slug":"la28-chair-casey-wasserman-will-not-resign-over-epstein-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347272\/","title":{"rendered":"LA28 chair Casey Wasserman will not resign over Epstein fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The list of politicians grew daily. Major stars from his talent agency joined the chorus calling for Casey Wasserman<\/a> to resign as the chairman of LA28<\/a> after emails the mogul exchanged with Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a> were revealed in the Epstein files<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

But four months after the controversy appeared to threaten his position leading the effort for L.A.\u2019s first Olympic Games since 1984<\/a>, Wasserman said he never saw it the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo and yes,\u201d Wasserman said matter of factly Thursday when asked if he considered stepping down as chairman of LA28<\/a> and whether he has spoken with Mayor Karen Bass<\/a> since she was one of several local politicians to call for his resignation.<\/p>\n

When asked about the nature of any discussions he\u2019s had with Bass, Wasserman said he speaks with the mayor weekly if not more frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur conversations are between us,\u201d Wasserman said in his first public comments in months. \u201cThey continue to be thoughtful and productive with a completely shared vision on delivering the greatest Games for the city and our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bass is currently fighting for a second term in a hotly contested primary election. She has already advanced to November\u2019s runoff, with reality TV personality Spencer Pratt and City Councilmember Nithya Raman<\/a> battling for the second spot on the ballot. California is also set to elect a new governor with Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra leading the heated race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to a changing of the political guard, Wasserman pointed out the local organizing committee has already seen four different presidential administrations since the bid for the Games began in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransitions of politics, whether they happen or not, is part of the world we live in,\u201d Wasserman said. \u201cAnd we have been able to and expect to fully continue to have great relationships with local, state and federal partners. It can\u2019t be dependent on the person there, it has to be dependent on the relationship and the connectivity we have, and our team has done a great job of maintaining that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wasserman, selected to oversee the Olympics by former Mayor Eric Garcetti, has laid low since his name was revealed in the Epstein files. The controversy hit during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, where Wasserman participated in a mandatory presentation to International Olympic Committee members but he didn\u2019t make additional public comments. In the following weeks, he put his talent agency up for sale<\/a> and several local politicians called for Wasserman to step down.<\/p>\n

But the LA28 executive committee backed him, releasing a statement of support after an outside investigation, citing \u201cthe strong leadership he has exhibited over the past 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LA28 <\/p>\n

LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman, right, sits next to Reynold Hoover, LA28 CEO (center) and Jacie Prieto Lopez, LA28 vice president of communications, during a news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

IOC members visiting L.A. for a regular coordination commission meeting this week gave an even stronger vote of confidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the best CoCom ever,\u201d said Nicole Hoevertsz, chair of the IOC coordination commission for LA28<\/a>. \u201cThe team is ready. The Games are on track and the Games are in the safe hands of a very qualified and a very capable team.\u201d<\/p>\n

After their seventh coordination commission visit since L.A. was awarded the Games in 2017, Hoevertsz and IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi lauded LA28\u2019s unprecedented sponsorship dollars and the record-setting ticket sales<\/a> as markers of success that signaled the 2028 Games are well on track.<\/p>\n

LA28 has signed $2 billion in sponsorship and licensing deals<\/a>, putting its $2.5 billion goal well within reach. Domestic sponsorship money is expected to be the largest revenue source for what the organizing committee promised to be a privately funded Games. Ticketing and hospitality, the second-largest source of revenue expected to cover the total $7.1 billion budget, started strong with more than 4 million tickets sold in the first ticket drop earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The second ticket drop will begin in August. Fans who have not previously registered can still register at tickets.la28.org<\/a> to enter the lottery until July 22.<\/p>\n

In these early stages of ticket sales, fans buy tickets within general sections of venues and not specific seats. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover<\/a> said as the organizing committee gets more clarity on the seating arrangement in each venue, fans will get their seat assignments. A similar arrangement for the FIFA World Cup caused a stir<\/a> when FIFA appeared to create a new ticket category two months before the event began, frustrating fans who already had spent hundreds of dollars for what they believed were prime seats. Hoover said LA28 would not do anything similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not pulling a bait and switch on you,\u201d Hoover told The Times.<\/p>\n

Hoover said LA28 is observing operations for the FIFA World Cup, especially transportation for spectators, but recognizes that the scope of eight World Cup matches in L.A. pales in comparison to what the organizing committee will face in 2028. The 2028 Olympic Games will be the largest in history with almost 11,000 athletes. That event will be followed by the longest Paralympic Games in history and the first Paralympics in L.A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The list of politicians grew daily. Major stars from his talent agency joined the chorus calling for Casey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11154,11190,120601,142358,90724,2303,48,52,51,27729,142360,142359,47,50,49,3906,142361,427,23970,19368,77055],"class_list":["post-347272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-fan","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-following-week","tag-great-games","tag-hoover","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-la28","tag-la28-chair-casey-wasserman","tag-local-organizing-committee","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-month","tag-nicole-hoevertsz","tag-team","tag-ticket-sale","tag-venue","tag-wasserman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347272","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=347272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}