LA bid chief holds Games return torch
MASTERMINDING a successful Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympics will complete a lifelong odyssey for Casey Wasserman that began when he took part in the torch relay at the 1984 Games as a 10-year-old.
In the 33 years since Los Angeles last hosted the Olympics, a transformative Games that reinvigorated the spectacle, Wasserman has emerged as a titan of the sports and entertainment world.
The LA 2024 chairman is also head of the Wasserman Media Group listed as the world’s fourth-most valuable sports agency in 2013.
It has taken Wasserman out of the shadow of his famous grandfather, Lew Wasserman, the iconic former Hollywood talent agent and studio executive from the movie industry’s golden age.
The younger Wasserman has often credited the wisdom of his grandfather – who he would meet for breakfast each weekend – as helping shape his career.
“He was my most valuable resource in terms of information. In broad terms he knew what he wanted to do and I followed in his footsteps,” Wasserman has said of his grandfather.
Experiencing t he 1984 Oly mpics as a child lef t a last ing impression on t he man now charged with bringing the Games back to California.
Sporting love affair
“Well, certainly, 1984 was a magical moment in t he cit y,” he said in a 2015 interv iew. “My grandfather [Lew Wasserman] was intimately involved, so I have t he fortune of going to a bunch of events.
“I got to run in the torch relay. It was a really magical time and you couldn’t have been a kid in the city, whether you were at events or not, and not been touched by all that happened.
“It was special and extraordinary. I think that is why you know that 88 percent of Angelenos support hosting the Games in 2024, because 1984 was such a special time and such a great success.
“It inspired me, certainly my love for the Olympics, no question, inspired or furthered my love of sport.”
That Olympic experience was just the beginning of a lifelong love affair with sport.
As a 12-year-old he worked as a ballboy for the Cleveland Browns National Football League team, and by the age of 24 he was the owner of his own sports franchise – the Los Angeles Avengers – who played in gridiron’s indoor Arena Football League.
Wasserman also found the time to launch a successful business venture, partnering with designer James Perse to create his childhood friend’s burgeoning fashion label.
But it was in the field of sports representation that Wasserman’s talent became most apparent as he rapidly emerged as one of the most influential agents in professional American sport.
Wasserman’s firm expanded its reach in 2006 with the acquisition of soccer agency SFX, putting WMG in charge of the likes of English Premier League stars such as Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane and Michael Owen.
Noted philanthropist
With a net worth estimated at $200 million, Wasserman has also become one of Los Angeles’ most noted philanthropists. His charitable foundation has been involved in the construction of a new medical facility at UCLA, while also funnelling millions of dollars towards the city’s public school system.
A prominent supporter and donor of the Democratic Party, Wasserman held fundraisers for Hillar y Clinton during last year’s US Presidential election.
When Boston abruptly withdrew as the US candidate for the 2024 Olympics in July 2015, Wasserman was only too willing to enter the fray as the head of LA’s bid to carry the torch.
The $60 million cost of running Los Angeles’s bid for the 2024 Olympics has been financed by a group of private individuals, of which Wasserman says he is the biggest single contributor.