As the Winter Olympics in Italy come to an end, attention is shifting to Los Angeles, where officials have been busily preparing to host the Summer Games in 2028. But recent revelations about the chairman of the city’s organizing committee and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, as well as concerns about whether key infrastructure projects will be ready on time, have thrown the planning into disarray.
A recently released batch of Justice Department files related to Mr. Epstein revealed that the Los Angeles chairman, Casey Wasserman, traveled on Mr. Epstein’s plane in 2002 and had exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Mr. Epstein who was convicted of sex trafficking years after those messages.
The board for LA28, as the organizing committee is known, said last week that after a review of Mr. Wasserman’s interactions with Ms. Maxwell, the chairman would remain in his role. But Mr. Wasserman, an entertainment executive, has continued to face calls to resign, from figures including Mayor Karen Bass, who issued such a call on Monday.
The controversy, coupled with Mr. Wasserman’s recent decision to sell the talent agency he founded more than two decades ago, have heightened concerns among members of the International Olympic Committee that he may not be an appropriate front person for an event that still requires sponsorships to meet its funding expectations.
Some LA28 organizers, for instance, are concerned that sponsors might not want to be photographed with Mr. Wasserman, said one person familiar with planning for the Summer Games, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Monica Rodriguez, a Los Angeles City Council member who called for Mr. Wasserman’s resignation after his name surfaced in the Epstein files, said the focus on the chairman had become a distraction from the athletes and their needs.
“Given the new revelations of Mr. Wasserman, I think we’ve got just a lot to contend with,” Ms. Rodriguez said, “but frankly just a lot more to roll up our sleeves and get accomplished and get done.”
She added: “These Games are bigger than Casey Wasserman. They’re bigger than any one elected official and what their position is. This is about what’s best for the Olympic movement and what’s best for the athletes.”
LA28 said it did not have anyone available for an interview about preparations for the Games.
Infrastructure Delays
With the 2028 Summer Games fast approaching, Los Angeles officials are increasingly anxious about whether the Southern California infrastructure will be sufficient to pull off a successful Olympics. And chief among their concerns is a subject that always worries Angelenos: traffic.
The biggest symbol of missed deadlines is the People Mover at the Los Angeles International Airport, which is meant to connect airport terminals to the city’s Metro rail system and was once expected to open in 2023. When Los Angeles made a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the city had planned to open the People Mover in time for those Games.
The latest projected opening date is sometime in the second half of 2026.
“I was hoping we’d be further along,” said Ms. Rodriguez, who traveled to Paris in 2024 for the Olympics.
This latest delay means it is unlikely the People Mover will be operating when the FIFA World Cup begins in June. Tens of thousands of fans are expected in the Los Angeles area, which will host eight matches, including the U.S. team’s opener.
Los Angeles leaders faced skepticism, and some ridicule, for saying years ago that they intended to have a car-free Olympics in which athletes and visitors could rely on transit and charter buses to get around the region. Driving is a way of life in the city, and getting people out of vehicles would require a major cultural shift, not to mention a well-run transit system.
Ms. Rodriguez said that she had been told that the People Mover would be completed in time, but that she remained worried about other transit projects being ready in time for the Games. An extension of the D Line of the Los Angeles Metro, for example, is still under construction with a target completion date of 2027.
The city of Los Angeles has 28 projects that it aims to complete by the 2028 Games, such as new bus corridors and car pool lanes on Interstate 5, a key artery. Of those projects, about one-third have been completed, and the remainder are still in progress, according to the city.
“Those remain of heightened concern,” Ms. Rodriguez said.
Amid the flurry of events in Italy this month, representatives from Los Angeles met with local officials and members of the I.O.C. board in Milan to gather insight on how Italy pulled off its Winter Games, which span an area of 8,500 square miles, about twice the size of Los Angeles County.
The delegation was led by Paul Krekorian, the executive director of major events for the city of Los Angeles. “It was especially useful,” he said, “to observe how Milan used the Games as a lever to bring stakeholders together and promote efforts that benefit all parts of the city and its residents.”
Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, which hosted the Winter Games with Milan, said that he had “many, many, many” recommendations for Los Angeles leaders.
Cortina, a mountain town in the Italian Alps, is about a four-hour drive from Milan. As in Los Angeles, officials in Italy wanted to host the Olympics without having to build new venues, an approach that saved on construction costs but meant spreading the contests across a sprawling network of venues far from one another.
It was so difficult for Olympians to gather in one central location that the Winter Games had to have two opening ceremony and six villages housing athletes.
Some attendees were displeased that it took long bus rides or car trips to travel between the venues and that there was no hub for athletes and fans to celebrate.
Mr. Lorenzi said efficient transportation would be crucial in Los Angeles, noting that he had to recruit bus drivers from as far away as Rome to ensure that there were enough public transit vehicles for the Winter Games.
In contrast to the building spree that some host cities have gone on in recent decades, LA28 has promised that it will have a “no-build Olympics” — using as many existing venues as possible rather than building expensive infrastructure that might go dormant in the future.
As in Italy, that means that the Los Angeles-area venues will be spread far and wide, requiring athletes and fans to spend more time traveling — a particular pain point in a region notorious for traffic jams.
Organizers have looked well beyond Los Angeles for congestion relief.
LA28 previously said that softball games and canoe slalom events would take place in Oklahoma City. And it announced this month that the Summer Games would host soccer matches in six U.S. cities beyond the region. They include two cities in California, San Jose and San Diego, as well as New York, St. Louis, Columbus and Nashville. The final stages of the soccer tournament will be played at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, just northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Despite concerns, Mr. Krekorian said the city was poised to have everything ready by the time the Games start in July 2028. The city also expects to meet its revenue goals, he said.
“While there will always be issues beyond our control that could create uncertainty,” he said, “we are extremely confident.”
Los Angeles leaders plan to encourage Angelenos to stay off the roads during the Games, but Mr. Lorenzi warned that local residents might heed that advice too well.
In Cortina d’Ampezzo, he said, several shop owners lamented that their regular customers were nowhere to be found, and that tourists were not spending heavily at the town’s luxury stores to make up for slower sales. Mr. Lorenzi suggested that officials send the message that residents can continue with their everyday lives.
But mostly, Mr. Lorenzi said, it is important to plan and build much faster than you think you need to.
“What I can say is, Go faster,” he said. “Move quickly.”
Tariq Panja contributed reporting from Milan.
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering Southern California.
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