Yahoo Sports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, LA28 Chief Casey Wasserman Talk 2028 Summer Olympics Plans
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA28 chief Casey Wasserman detailed their early planning for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games during a panel held Tuesday as part of the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan conference in Santa Monica.
Wasserman faced an uncomfortable few minutes toward the end of the session when moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed him on a report in August published by the U.K. tabloid Daily Mail that accused him of being a “serial cheater” who had numerous alleged workplace affairs at his Wasserman Media Group. Wasserman dismissed that report and vowed that he will not step down from his unpaid LA28 role at the organization tasked with executing the three-week Summer Olympics, set for July 14 to July 30, 2028.
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“If The Daily Mail qualifies as reporting, we’re all in trouble,” Wasserman said. “People can say whatever they want, without facts, without corroboration. … I’m going to do my job and do it to the end. That’s the commitment I made.”
Bass offered a big clarification about her plan for limiting car use during the Games. Her previous remarks had been interpreted by some that the city would clamp down on car use during the period. Bass said the hope is to limit the volume of cars driving to the various Olympic venues. “Life goes on in the city,” she said. “We hope to do no cars to the venues.”
Bass noted that the last time the Olympics came to Los Angeles, in 1984, arrangements were made to lessen the amount of regular traffic on the roads. She noted that 40 years ago, then-Mayor Tom Bradley arranged so that truck deliveries were made at night rather than during the day.
“We can organize the region so that traffic will be less and manageable,” she said.
Bass concurred with Sorkin that the success of this year’s Paris Summer Games has set a high bar for Los Angeles. “The way they involved the entire city,” she responded when asked what impressed her about how the city of Paris’ rolled out the event that has been widely praised as restoring the luster of the quadrennial global sporting event after several rough cycles.
“They reminded people why people fall in love with the Olympics,” Wasserman said.
(Pictured: Andrew Ross Sorkin and Karen Bass Tuesday at the CNBC x Boardroom: Game Plan conference at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica)
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