wasserman

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

But four months after the controversy appeared to threaten his position leading the effort for L.A.’s first Olympic Games since 1984, Wasserman said he never saw it the same way.

“No and yes,” Wasserman said matter of factly Thursday when asked if he considered stepping down as chairman of LA28 and whether he has spoken with Mayor Karen Bass since she was one of several local politicians to call for his resignation.

When asked about the nature of any discussions he’s had with Bass, Wasserman said he speaks with the mayor weekly if not more frequently.

“Our conversations are between us,” Wasserman said in his first public comments in months. “They continue to be thoughtful and productive with a completely shared vision on delivering the greatest Games for the city and our community.”

Bass is currently fighting for a second term in a hotly contested primary election. She has already advanced to November’s runoff, with reality TV personality Spencer Pratt and City Councilmember Nithya Raman 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.

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.

“Transitions of politics, whether they happen or not, is part of the world we live in,” Wasserman said. “And we have been able to and expect to fully continue to have great relationships with local, state and federal partners. It can’t 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.”

Wasserman, hand-selected to oversee L.A.’s first Olympics since 1984 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’t make additional public comments. In the following weeks, he put his talent agency up for sale and several local politicians called for Wasserman to step down.

But the LA28 executive committee backed him, releasing a statement of support after an outside investigation, citing “the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past 10 years.”

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.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

IOC members visiting L.A. for a regular coordination commission meeting this week gave an even stronger vote of confidence.

“This was the best CoCom ever,” said Nicole Hoevertsz, chair of the IOC coordination commission for LA28. “The 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.”

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’s unprecedented sponsorship dollars and the record-setting ticket sales as markers of success that signaled the 2028 Games are well on track.

LA28 has signed $2 billion in sponsorship and licensing deals, 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.

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

In these early stages of ticket sales, fans buy tickets within general sections of venues and not specific seats. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover 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 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.

“We’re not pulling a bait and switch on you,” Hoover told The Times.

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.

May 22 (UPI) — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., announced Friday she will run for a U.S. House seat to represent a newly drawn district, which now has majority Black or Latino voters.

The new map created four Republican-leaning congressional districts. She is running in the new 20th District, an all-Broward County district.

“I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be running for Congress for re-election in District 20,” she said in a telephone interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I just can’t wait to continue to fight on behalf of Broward County and our people. I know Broward County. I have represented Broward County my entire adult life. It’s the place I’ve raised my family. It is the place that I have served in public office, and the people of this county know me and I know them.”

But her decision has added to tensions with Black Democrats who are already frustrated with the Republican gerrymandering throughout the South.

Two Democratic districts held by Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., had been eliminated or mostly redrawn. In an interview with The New York Times, Wasserman Schultz said Republicans were taking a “cynical, disrespectful” approach to redistricting.

“We cannot let Trump destroy Broward County’s power,” Wasserman Schultz said in her video announcement. She is now serving in her 11th congressional term.

As of March 31, Wasserman Schultz had $2.5 million in her campaign account, which is more than all five other candidates combined, and she is well-known in Broward County, the Sun Sentinel reported.

“No one gets 100% in an election. So there are definitely going to be people that will support other candidates. There will be people that don’t think that I should run,” she said. “It’s my job to make sure that I can erase that doubt, that I can ease whatever concerns anyone might have.”

Republicans have said Wasserman Schultz is “abandoning her home district” because she would lose. She has long lived in Weston, Fla., which is in the new 22nd District.

“Instead of facing voters after years of backing Democrats’ failed agenda, Wasserman Schultz is running scared,” Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.

Fans are frustrated with LA28. City Council members are battling over billions of dollars and overdue contracts. But in front of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee board of directors, LA28 found support for the private organizing committee’s progress with a little more than two years remaining before the Games open in L.A.

Despite pushback from locals, LA28 leadership, including chief executive officer Reynold Hoover and chief executive officer responsible for revenue John Slusher, spoke to the USOPC on Wednesday about the ticket sale process, explained the superbloom-inspired look of the Games and celebrated the committee’s recent commercial success that surpassed more than $2 billion in sponsorship agreements.

“We were quite encouraged to hear from them,” USOPC chair Gene Sykes said during a conference call Wednesday after a board of directors meeting, “and quite confident in the direction of LA28 from an operational standpoint.”

The private group responsible for bringing the Games back to L.A. for the first time in four decades opened ticket sales this month after attracting a record number of interested fans. The first week of sales — reserved for locals in Southern California and Oklahoma City near competition venues — “significantly exceeded first-week sales for any previous Olympic Games,” LA28 said in a statement.

But many fans were shocked to see opening ceremony tickets topping $5,000. They complained about a shortage of options for the most in-demand sports and were surprised to see a 24% service fee. Global sales opened on April 9 and many of the problems, including website glitches and unavailable tickets, persisted.

The USOPC board discussed the fee with LA28, and recognized that it is “part of a framework that is a framework they accept,” Sykes said, “as opposed to challenging it or trying to make it something different.”

The fee is included in the listed price of the tickets, which start at $28. There will be 1 million tickets sold at $28 each, and nearly half of the Olympic tickets are under $200. More than 75% are under $400 and about 5% of tickets are more than $1,000.

“I know they’re thinking very, very seriously about how to manage the ticket activity so that it satisfies everybody,” Sykes said.

LA28 will have 14 million tickets available between the Olympics and Paralympics, which would break Paris 2024’s record of 12 million tickets sold. The current ticket drop, which is open to fans worldwide, ends April 19. LA28 expects to have a second drop this year, but has not released specific details about when.

Ticket headaches have added to a controversial run-up to the Games for LA28, which also faced backlash after chairman Casey Wasserman was mentioned in the Epstein files released in February. The LA28 executive committee backed Wasserman after a review with the assistance of outside counsel. Wasserman announced that month he would sell his talent agency but planned to continue working with LA28.

When asked Wednesday what the USOPC board believed Wasserman’s role with LA28 should be moving forward, Sykes said the organizations have had discussions and are monitoring the “impact on our community.” But it is ultimately the LA28 board’s decision to select its chair. Wasserman was appointed by former Mayor Eric Garcetti to lead the Olympic effort in 2014.

“Separate from the LA28 board … LA28’s leadership Reynold Hoover and John Slusher, but many other people among the hundreds of people who work for LA28 have continued to assemble a very strong team,” Sykes said, “and show measurable progress on all the fundamental things that they need to do to make the Games a very, very strong Games, and have a remarkable experience. We remain very confident that that progress is both evident and very solid and that [it] will involve the planning with partners, athlete engagement, public support and corporate interest, all of which remain very strong, and I think, very encouraging. The ongoing committee is executing effectively, and we’re very happy to work with them.”