LA Mayor Karen Bass, LA28 Head Casey Wasserman on Plans for the ’28 Olympics
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA28 chief Casey Wasserman detailed their early planning for the 2028 Summer Olympics during a panel held Tuesday as part of the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan conference in Santa Monica.
Wasserman endured a few awkward minutes toward the end of the session when moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed him about a report published in August by the British tabloid Daily Mail accusing him of being a “serial cheater.” who had numerous alleged workplace affairs with his Wasserman. Media group. Wasserman rejected that report and vowed he will not step down from his unpaid role in LA28 at the organization charged with running the three-week Summer Olympics, which run from July 14 to 30, 2028.
“If The Daily Mail qualifies as reporting, we’re all in trouble,” Wasserman said. “People can say whatever they want, without facts, without confirmation. … I’m going to do my job and see it through to the end. That is the commitment I made.”
Bass issued a major clarification on her plan to limit car use during the Games. Her earlier comments had been interpreted by some as implying that the city would restrict car use during this period. Bass said the hope is to limit the number of cars driving to the various Olympic venues. “Life goes on in the city,” she says. “We hope no cars come to the locations.”
Bass noted that the last time the Olympics were held in Los Angeles, in 1984, arrangements were made to reduce the amount of regular traffic on the roads. She noted that 40 years ago, then-Mayor Tom Bradley had made truck deliveries happen at night instead of during the day.
“We can organize the region in such a way that traffic becomes less and manageable,” she said.
Bass agreed with Sorkin that the success of this year’s Paris Summer Games has set the bar high for Los Angeles. “The way they got the whole city involved,” she said when asked what impressed her about the way the city of Paris rolled out the event that was widely praised for restoring the luster to the quadrennial global sporting event after a number of heavy cycles.
“They reminded people why people fall in love with the Olympics,” Wasserman said.
Grant Hill, NBA executive and managing director of Team USA Basketball, and actor-entrepreneur Jessica Alba, who sits on the board of LA28, also shared impressions of Paris and thoughts on what will happen in less than four years. Hill noted what a cultural milestone it was for many Olympic fans to see none other than Snoop Dogg as a featured player who brought the color and excitement of the Games to American viewers.
“Snoop is the face of the Olympics – this is progress,” Hill told the crowd at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel on the Santa Monica coast. Alba emphasized that organizers plan to involve Hollywood’s creative community in organizing memorable events. “We are so diverse and culturally relevant,” Alba said of the vast and densely populated Southern California region.
(Pictured: LA28 and Wasserman Media Group chief Casey Wasserman and actor-entrepreneur Jessica Alba on Tuesday at the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan conference at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica)
There’s more to come
