LOS ANGELES - The Lakers are getting a new owner. And in Los Angeles, he’s already a familiar name.
Thirteen years after buying the Dodgers and transforming the team into a juggernaut in Major League Baseball, billionaire businessman Mark Walter is in line to become the new majority owner of the Lakers.
Suddenly, the once-anonymous Chicago-based investment manager is about to have both of the Southland’s most prominent professional sports teams in his portfolio.
For Lakers fans, Walter’s arrival will mark a massive shift following decades of family ownership by the Buss family. But they won’t have to look far to find examples of how Walter has operated another iconic Los Angeles sports brand.
“He’s really committed to the city of Los Angeles in various ways,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday, after news of Walter’s impending purchase of the Lakers first emerged. “He’s going to do everything he can to produce a championship-caliber team every single year and make sure the city feels proud of the Lakers and the legacy that they’ve already built with the Buss family.”
As Walter’s ownership of the Lakers prepares to begin, here are four things to know about his stewardship of the Dodgers over the last decade-plus.
Money is (almost) no object
When Walter’s Guggenheim Baseball group bought the Dodgers in 2012, the once-proud franchise was mired in embarrassment and mediocrity.
Under Frank McCourt’s ownership, the team was in bankruptcy. It hadn’t fielded a top-10 MLB payroll in three years and had won the National League West only three times since the turn of the century. The team seemed miles away from ending what was already a decades-long World Series drought.
But then came Guggenheim - injecting huge sums of cash, followed by a swift return to contention.
Since 2013, the Dodgers have exceeded MLB’s luxury tax threshold (the closest thing the sport has to a soft salary cap) eight times and led the league in spending seven times.
They’ve repeatedly splurged on star talent - from lucrative extensions for Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier and Kenley Jansen to blockbuster acquisitions of Adrián González, Hanley Ramírez and Zack Greinke. More recently, they’ve landed transformative stars like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani.
In that span, they haven’t missed the playoffs once, have won their division in 11 of the last 12 seasons and have reached the World Series four times - finally breaking through with championships in 2020 and 2024.
“He wants to win,” Roberts said of Walter. “He feels that the fans, the city deserves that.”
Walter’s Guggenheim group has also made major investments beyond the roster. They’ve developed one of the most renowned farm systems in the sport, built a robust analytics department and made multiple renovations to Dodger Stadium - including upgrades to fan areas and the players’ clubhouse.
There have been moments of financial restraint, most notably in 2018 and 2019 when the team stayed under the luxury tax - to the chagrin of some fans.
But in the past two offseasons, the Dodgers have spared almost no expense, becoming the first team in MLB history this year to top a $400 million luxury tax payroll.
“The commitment from our ownership group from the minute I got here has been incredible,” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “It has always been, ‘Hey, let’s push. Let’s go. Let’s get better.’”
Business is booming
For all the money the Dodgers have spent, they’ve had little trouble boosting revenue in return.
Shortly after Walter’s Guggenheim group bought the team, it struck a groundbreaking 25-year, $8.35 billion television deal with Time Warner Cable. That led to the launch of a Dodgers-exclusive SportsNet LA cable channel - although many fans couldn’t access it through their providers until the 2020 season.
In recent years, the team has expanded its brand internationally, an effort supercharged by the $700 million signing of Ohtani in December 2023.
For years leading up to Ohtani’s free agency, the Dodgers had targeted the Japanese baseball market. They saw signing Ohtani, along with other Japanese stars like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, as a pathway to becoming Japan’s most popular MLB team.
That vision came to life this season when the Dodgers opened in Tokyo in front of sellout crowds almost entirely draped in Dodger blue.
According to Sportico, which valued the Dodgers at $7.73 billion in 2024, the team was also estimated to have topped $1 billion in revenue that season. Ohtani’s arrival fueled a wave of Asian sponsorships, surging merchandise sales and even the creation of a team-run fan club based in Japan.
Stability in leadership
When Walter’s Guggenheim group entered the picture, the Dodgers didn’t make sweeping leadership changes immediately.
Stan Kasten was appointed team president, but then-general manager Ned Colletti and manager Don Mattingly remained in place through the 2014 season.
Changes eventually came. Friedman - then considered one of baseball’s most promising executives - was hired ahead of the 2015 season. Roberts replaced Mattingly a year later.
Since then, the Dodgers’ leadership has remained largely consistent.
Rather than react hastily during down periods, Walter has favored patience when it comes to personnel.
Roberts’ 10-year tenure as manager exemplifies that stability. At several points - including after early playoff exits in 2019 and in the three years following the 2020 title - fans called for his dismissal.
But the Dodgers stayed the course. Roberts led the team to last year’s championship while navigating a slew of pitching injuries. He is now the highest-paid manager in MLB by annual salary and remains under contract for four more seasons.
A hands-off approach
Aside from the financial backing, the defining trait of Walter’s ownership may be his hands-off leadership style.
Walter is seen around the team in person only a handful of times each season. He delegates most day-to-day operations - both on the baseball and business sides - to Kasten, Friedman and their lieutenants, including chief marketing officer Lon Rosen and general manager Brandon Gomes.
Roberts praised that approach on Wednesday.
“I think a good owner in my eyes is a person that lets the people that he hires do their jobs,” Roberts said. “(Walter) does a great job of letting Stan and Andrew and Gomer, all those guys, Lon, do their jobs, right? But also kind of holding us all accountable and also providing resources when we need it.”
Even under this structure, the team has faced its share of controversy - from the signing and suspension of Trevor Bauer in 2021 to the decision to rescind, then reinstate, a Pride Night community award in 2023 after public backlash.
Most recently, the Dodgers faced criticism for a delayed response to immigration raids affecting Los Angeles, though the team was expected to announce support measures for immigrant communities on Thursday.
In all those cases, Walter remained publicly silent. He has rarely made himself available to the media since buying the team, avoiding direct comment on the club’s operations or controversies.