Quick! Which Los Angeles megaevent is happening right now? It's the NBA All-Star Game, of course. And while technically the game itself is in Inglewood, there are basketball-adjacent activations happening all weekend in more places than you might think. As our golden megaevent era ushers in new possibilities for the Branding of Everything™, prepare yourself to be surprised; seriously, I found an Undefeated pop-up store in my neighborhood. My expert opinion is that we've essentially turned the city into one giant sneaker drop.
Friday afternoon I was able to swing through downtown where the NBA Crossover fan experience is hosting watch parties, concerts (Ludacris!), and pickup games at the convention center. Next door, LA Live has been taken over by the Foot Locker Takeover. Torched readers know the stretch of Chick Hearn Court between Crypto.com Arena and LA Live was recently pedestrianized with rows of glorious silver bollards, which is excellent. But it's also become privatized. You can walk around the edges, but to use the plaza you have to go through a metal detector; there was a similar setup before a recent Laker game as well. But, friends, was it worth it to visit a charming Adidas-branded fake city with a basketball court town square? New Urbanism for megaevents. My favorite part was how the plaza was filled with people marveling at very talented graffiti artists making Foot Locker-branded murals in the shadow of the Graffiti Ghost Towers that our leaders say we have to clean up because they're too offensive to tourists.
If you do go downtown, be sure to poke around in the streets around LA Live to find more activations. I discovered a Detroit Pistons food truck giving out Detroit-style pizza. And yes, they sourced from local fave Dtown Pizzeria
Did you know LA's big megaevent era begins this weekend? The NBA All-Star Game is Sunday at Intuit Dome and there are events and brand activations all over LA, including these bus shelter wraps. (I don't hate them! Love the lighted signage, actually!)
Send me any megaevent megabranding near you!
If it feels like the All-Star Game impacts end up being a little more widespread than we all expected, I wouldn't be surprised. I actually thought it was strange that all these LA-based events were not explicitly mentioned in LA Mayor Karen Bass's State of the Megaevents address; like, at the very least she could have name-checked the NBA Crossover event when she talked about the handful of very tiny events the convention center has now booked through 2037. She did end up attending some related NBA events this week, but Bass seemed to infer that LA's golden megaevent era would commence with our next megaevent, the Women’s U.S. Open that begins June 4 at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades — conveniently, the week after the June primary. 🔥
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Going all in
Casey Wasserman's Epstein fallout became a full-on crash out. On Saturday I published a list of local officials and organizations calling for the LA28 chair to step down. On Sunday evening, The Wrap's Sharon Waxman reported that a group of Wasserman music agents delivered Wasserman an ultimatum: "sell them the music business and leave or they will leave the agency." On Monday evening, Chappell Roan, arguably one of the world's biggest stars, announced she was no longer represented by Wasserman. Billboard began updating a list of all departing Wasserman clients. Then, the first athlete, soccer star Abby Wambach, exited. Replacements were being floated for chair, reported Deadline, including LA28 board member Kevin McCarthy, who Politico described as "the former House Speaker and Trump ally who is also close with LA Democratic mayor Karen Bass." (Is... this what she meant when she said it was up to the board? Is she making phone calls?)
On Wednesday, LA28 held an emergency meeting where — unsurprisingly — the board hand-picked by Casey Wasserman backed Casey Wasserman. Meanwhile, LA City Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla, who had previously called on Wasserman to resign, introduced a resolution calling for more transparency from the LA28 board. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez also asked: "Casey Wasserman is attempting to deflect and avoid answering the real question at hand: what was his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker?" Then: a huuuuuge Friday night news drop: Wasserman is putting his entire agency up for sale to "devote my full attention to delivering Los Angeles an Olympic Games in 2028 that is worthy of this outstanding city." To review: the LA28 board refused to take action — but his clients and agents forced him out of his own company. Now we're stuck with him. I still think there's a key shift underway: powerful people no longer want their name associated with Wasserman's name — and despite the board vote, that seems like the real liability here for LA28. I've also been updating last week's story, which remains the most accurate list of officials and organizations calling for him to resign, as well as my thread. This isn't over! 🦋
Airbnb says LA needs more Airbnbs in 2028 (because of course that's what they're going to say). A new report out by Deloitte warns of a dramatic short-term rental shortage during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But one thing the report never mentions is that both Airbnb and Deloitte are both global partners of the IOC! (One of two experts quoted in the report is VICA president Stuart Waldman... who is on the LA28 organizing committee. This isn't disclosed either!) Deloitte did a similar study for the World Cup, where — surprise! — Airbnb is a global FIFA partner, making the same argument. Airbnb is trying to claim the city would have more money if it just loosened LA's short-term rental policies, says Noah Suarez-Sikes, an organizer with Better Neighbors LA. "If we actually enforced our existing laws," he tells me, "we’d have much more money than if we deregulated short-term rentals like Airbnb is trying to do." 🦋
The city was partially closed this week.I don't really see a lot of reporting reminding everyone about this, but residents of Los Angeles should know that, as part of our broke-ass city budget negotiations, many LA city workers are being forced to take five unpaid holidays this year: Monday, February 9, 2026; Friday, March 27, 2026; Monday, April 6, 2026; Friday, May 22, 2026; and Monday, June 22, 2026. This is also highly relevant to the SAJE report I just wrote about — which is also the topic of the next Torched Talks! We know city workers are spending time on upcoming megaevents — although we don't know how much — and now they're getting less time to get everything done. I wonder which tasks they'll be told to prioritize! 🦋
📔 Here's a six-week course that "examines the 2026 World Cup as a lens for understanding the political, cultural, and economic power of global football"
I've been looking at the old renderings from the bid (when we were supposed to host the 2024 games) and can't get over how bad these are. We've yet to see any updated visions for what 2028 is supposed to look like aside from the venues themselves. Something tells me we're not getting Deborah Sussman-level greatness.
What Torched subscribers are reading
Of course the Trump administration is going to try to profit off our upcoming megaevents: The American Prospectgot the pitch deck for Freedom 250, "a new dark-money vehicle within the National Park Foundation" that's selling access to the president for America 250
LAist reports on a congressional hearing raising questions about ICE's role at the World Cup. LA's host committee chair Kathryn Schloessman said the question was "above my pay grade"
If you missed my UCLA talk, you can watch it here! I talked about our slapdash convention center expansion that's literally standing in the way of fixing our sidewalks, and why it's a metaphor for how LA's failure to properly plan for megaevents is starting to hold the city back. And yes, I opened up with a disclaimer saying by the end of the talk Casey Wasserman might no longer be chair of LA28 (spoiler: he still was). Thanks to Juan Matute for the invitation. If you want me to come speak to your students, it's my absolute favorite thing to do.
Alissa Walker
Alissa Walker
