Casey Wasserman and LA28 Prepare for an Olympics That Extends Across Los Angeles
Written by Will Jones
When Los Angeles hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, the impact will extend well beyond the stadiums, arenas and competition zones appearing on official venue maps.
That may be particularly true in West Hollywood.
With its concentration of hotels, restaurants, nightlife and entertainment, the city sits within a part of Los Angeles County accustomed to attracting visitors from around the world. The Olympics could amplify that role considerably, even without West Hollywood serving as a major competition site.
At the center of the larger effort is Casey Wasserman, chairperson and president of LA28, who has helped guide Los Angeles’ Olympic project from its bid phase into the increasingly operational work of preparing for 2028.
The Olympic Games will take place July 14 through July 30, 2028, followed by the Paralympic Games from August 15 through August 27.
For Wasserman and LA28, the challenge is not simply organizing sporting events. It is integrating one of the world’s largest international gatherings into a metropolitan region whose communities have distinct identities of their own.
West Hollywood offers an example of how that strategy could play out.
An Olympics Spread Across Los Angeles
Unlike an Olympic model built around a single newly constructed district, LA28 is using existing and temporary facilities spread throughout Southern California.That approach takes advantage of one of Los Angeles’ greatest assets as a host city: much of the infrastructure needed to stage elite sports already exists.
From historic venues to modern stadiums and arenas, LA28 is assembling the Games around facilities that are part of the region’s everyday sports and entertainment landscape. The strategy reduces the need for permanent Olympic-specific construction while allowing organizers to showcase different parts of Southern California.
Athletes will compete in designated Olympic zones, but visitors will sleep in hotels, eat in restaurants, attend events and explore neighborhoods across the region. For places already associated with Los Angeles nightlife, hospitality and culture, that could create a second layer to the Olympic experience.
West Hollywood is well positioned to participate in it.
West Hollywood Is Already Preparing
The Olympics may still be two years away, but West Hollywood has already begun planning for their arrival.The city has been working with neighboring Westside communities on transportation improvements ahead of LA28. One initiative, the Westside Bus Connection project, is examining ways to improve bus speed and reliability on several major corridors, including North La Cienega Boulevard.
The effort illustrates how Olympic preparation can create changes outside the immediate vicinity of a stadium.
Transportation will be one of the defining logistical challenges of LA28. Southern California’s geographic scale makes moving spectators among venues fundamentally different from doing so in a compact Olympic host city.
For West Hollywood, improvements made in preparation for 2028 could have relevance long after the closing ceremony.
That possibility fits into a larger question surrounding the Games: not simply what Los Angeles will build for the Olympics, but what improvements can remain useful to residents afterward.
Culture Could Be as Important as Competition
There is another reason West Hollywood could have an unusually visible role during LA28: the Olympics are also a cultural event.LA28 is developing a Cultural Olympiad intended to incorporate local art, film, fashion, food, music and performance into the Games. Organizers have been working with hundreds of arts organizations as they develop a program designed to showcase the cultural character of Los Angeles alongside the sporting competition.
For West Hollywood, that aspect of 2028 may be particularly significant.
The city has already been developing plans for a West Hollywood art project connected with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Community engagement and coordination with regional arts organizations have formed part of that process.
It creates the possibility that West Hollywood’s contribution to LA28 could be defined as much by culture as by athletics.
That would also reflect Wasserman’s broader challenge as head of LA28. The Olympics must function as a sporting competition, but a successful host city also has to communicate something distinctive about itself to a worldwide audience.
In Los Angeles, entertainment and culture are inevitably part of that equation.
A Global Audience Arrives in Los Angeles
The scale of the audience coming in 2028 is difficult to separate from the economic opportunity it represents.Olympic visitors will need accommodations, dining and entertainment throughout their stays. Corporate sponsors, international media organizations and other groups associated with the Games will also establish a substantial presence throughout the region.
West Hollywood already has much of the infrastructure designed to serve precisely that type of visitor.
Hotels along Sunset Boulevard and elsewhere in the city could become attractive bases for Olympic travelers. Restaurants, nightlife venues and retailers could benefit from visitors looking for experiences outside competition hours.
The broader effect could make the summer of 2028 feel less like a conventional sporting event and more like a weeks-long international festival spread across Los Angeles County.
For local businesses, preparation could become increasingly important as the Games approach.
Wasserman’s Decade-Long Olympic Project
For Wasserman, reaching 2028 will mark the culmination of an undertaking that began more than a decade earlier.He became a central figure in Los Angeles’ Olympic bid in 2015 and continued leading the effort after the International Olympic Committee awarded Los Angeles the 2028 Games in 2017.
That extended timeline has required LA28 to plan through changes in government, the sports industry and the broader Los Angeles region.
Wasserman has consistently presented the city’s existing infrastructure and experience with major events as advantages.
“LA is an ambitious city of endless possibilities and the Games will reflect our community,” Wasserman said when dates for the 2028 Games were announced.
The decentralized venue strategy is one manifestation of that philosophy.
Instead of attempting to create a temporary Olympic city separate from Los Angeles, LA28 is effectively placing the Olympics within the city and region that already exist.
That makes communities such as West Hollywood relevant even when athletes are competing somewhere else.
The Olympic Experience Beyond the Stadium
For residents, LA28 will inevitably bring practical considerations.Transportation patterns may change. Visitors will increase demand on hotels and businesses. Security and municipal services will require additional coordination. Major corridors could become significantly busier during the Games.
But there is also an opportunity for West Hollywood to determine how it wants to participate.
The city’s preparations around transportation and cultural programming suggest that work has already begun.
By 2028, the Olympic experience in West Hollywood could mean watching competition elsewhere during the day before returning to Sunset Boulevard at night. It could mean Olympic visitors encountering local art, restaurants and entertainment as part of their impression of Los Angeles. It could also mean transportation projects accelerated by the Games becoming part of everyday life afterward.
That broader impact is an important part of what Wasserman and LA28 ultimately have to deliver.
The success of the Los Angeles Olympics will not be measured exclusively by what happens inside competition venues. It will also be measured by how effectively one of the world’s largest sporting events integrates with the communities surrounding them.
When the Olympic flame arrives in 2028, West Hollywood may not need a medal ceremony of its own to feel very much like part of the Games.
