A GUY FROM CEDAR RAPIDS, MARK WALTER, OWNS THE DODGERS … AND THE LAKERS
After turning the Dodgers into a money-making masterpiece, he has bought the Lakers from Jeanie Buss at a $10 billion valuation, meaning he intends to win titles every season in the NBA and MLB
Those of us who attend games at Dodger Stadium are convinced. Sport is the ultimate gold mine if an owner serves the people, spends billions on the greatest players and wins championships as if he owns them. Mark Walter grew up in Iowa, as the son of a worker at a concrete block manufacturing plant. He ventured from Cedar Rapids and opened an office in Chicago, by the name of Guggenheim, and he dreamed of buying the Cubs.
It didn’t happen. Instead, he bought the Los Angeles Dodgers, cut a local broadcast deal for $8.35 billion and threw money at the market — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, almost every other Japanese pitcher available — and won his second World Series in five years last fall. He has a $500 million payroll this season, with luxury taxes included, and going to his ballpark is an exercise in 50,000 fans who buy sushi and Dodger Dogs and scream “Sho-hei!” once a minute.
Wednesday, Walter bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Jeanie Buss, who will maintain 15 percent of the franchise and will serve — for now — as the controlling governor. The valuation of the Lakers is $10 billion, making it by far the highest price paid for a sports team in America. The Boston Celtics were purchased for $6.1 billion. The NFL’s Washington Commanders were sold for $6.05 billion. The new amount is insanity, but then, we made the same comment in the last decade and the decade before. Walter has made a fortune while paying $700 million in deferred amounts to Ohtani. Why not spend more bank and win titles with the Lakers, who have been owned by the Buss family for 46 years and eventually need a change of attitude — though Jeanie will run the team for a few years, while she has allowed performances to fluctuate under basketball boss Rob Pelinka and a slew of head coaches.
Walter lost his seaside mansion in Malibu during the January wildfires. He is one man, sorry to say, who could get away with the loss. He owns Ohtani, LeBron James and the two largest brands in U.S. sports, with apologies to anything in New York or elsewhere. He is one reason why I shell Jerry Reinsdorf, a dirty owner who has mortified Chicago fans dying for decades with the White Sox and Bulls. He wants to own the Sox possibly until he’s 98. The fans there could have had Walter, now the chairman of diversified holding company TWG Global.
Magic Johnson owns part of the Dodgers. Expect to see him around the Lakers more often, after he stopped running the show years ago. He says fans should be “ecstatic.” Pelinka can’t be in charge when Sam Presti is about to deliver an NBA title to Oklahoma City. How about spending loads of money for Presti? And Giannis Antetokounmpo?
“Mark Walter is the best choice and will be the best caretaker of the Laker brand,” Johnson wrote on X. “The proof is in the pudding on what he’s been able to accomplish with the LA Dodgers. Mark has been nothing short of a winner notching 2 World Series and 11 NL West divisional titles in the last 12 years!
“I know my sister Jeanie would have only considered selling the Lakers organization to someone she knows and trusts would carry on the Buss legacy, started by her father Dr. Buss. Now she can comfortably pass the baton to Mark Walter, with whom she has a real friendship and can trust.”
Johnson rambled on. Make him the public-relations guy. “A few things I can tell you about Mark — he is driven by winning, excellence, and doing everything the right way. AND he will put in the resources needed to win!! I can understand why Jeanie sold the team to Mark Walter because they are just alike — they are competitive people, have big hearts, love to give back, and both prefer to be behind the scenes. This makes all the sense in the world. I am so SO happy and excited for @Lakers fans all over the world!!”
The Dodgers have taken advantage of a region that adores them. The Lakers have the same adoration, despite winning once since 2010.
Mark Walter owns both.
He is bigger today than anyone in Iowa, including Caitlin Clark. He is bigger than Chicago, which should mourn. It’s his money.
Watch him spend so much more.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.