While the news of Mark Walter’s sale of the Lakers was a shock at the time, the more time that passes, the clearer it becomes how precarious his situation was.
With a federal investigation applying pressure on him, Walter has been scrambling to find ways to get money. In the present day, that meant selling the Lakers and likely selling his stake in Chelsea as well. Prior to that, though, he was doing all he could to find extra cash, including potentially getting the Lakers and Dodgers out of their contracts with Spectrum.
A recent newsletter from John Ourand included the reporting that Walter spoke to Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum Sports, about exiting the local TV deals for both the Lakers and Dodgers in exchange for a lump sum (h/t Dylan Byers/Twitter).
But since the sale was announced last week, I’ve learned that Walter has been looking to secure cash for months, and even engaged Charter Communications in talks to let the cable company out of the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ local TV deals early for a lump sum payout. Those talks went nowhere. Toward the end of last year, Charter hired the Raine Group to try and sell Spectrum SportsNet, the regional sports network that carries Lakers games. It’s unclear how Kushner and Iger’s purchase of the team will affect that process. Walter, meanwhile, has put his stake in the Premier League club Chelsea “on the table” to further address his liquidity concerns, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. (A representative for Walter’s TWG Global did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
First, this appears to be the first time it’s been reported that Charter Communications is looking to sell Spectrum SportsNet, at least as far as my searches took me. That, in itself, will be an interesting wrinkle for the Lakers to monitor moving forward.
For that reason alone, it’s unlikely Charter would be looking to buy out the contract. Even if they were, it would be clear Walter is looking for funds, so any offer would likely be a lowball.
Still, Spectrum SportsNet’s deal with the Dodgers is a 25-year agreement worth $8.35 billion that will run until 2038. The Lakers, meanwhile, have a 20-year deal worth about $3 billion that will run until 2031.
The combined value of those deals would be more money than he made selling the Lakers, but that’s not how this would have worked if they had agreed to deals. It was never going to make sense for Spectrum to buy out of this deal.
Instead, this feels like some sort of last resort. Ultimately, all this shows is how desperate Walter was and how he turned over every stone to try to find money.
How optimistic are you about the Lakers' new owners?