Posted by Perry Bernstein on March 29, 2012 - 3:59am
The last twenty-four hours the media has been reporting that the “Magic Johnson” led group is purchasing the Los Angeles Dodgers out of bankruptcy for $2 BILLION. This is a shocking amount of money for a professional baseball team, nearly three times more than the previous highest price ever paid for a baseball team, which was the $845 million price tag for the Chicago Cubs in 2009. So how are the new owners going to pay for this more than likely, they probably aren’t, you are – the fans.
You’ll pay by the team ownership probably cutting salaries and raising ticket prices, but what interests me about the purchase of the Dodgers are the reports that Magic Johnson or “his group” is purchasing the Dodgers. Really? I am a huge Magic Johnson fan. I cannot think of a classier athlete nor a business man who has done more for the community of Los Angeles than Magic. He is a truly a role model who has handled adversity in the classiest way possible; however, what concerns me is that Magic is reportedly only a minority owner in the Dodgers franchise, and that the controlling owner is actually Chicago businessman Mark Walter, the CEO of financial services and investment firm Guggenheim. Guggen-what? In common parlance of the current era, Walter is a “Wall Street fat cat”, or maybe more geographically correct, a “Lake Michigan fat cat”. Walter lives in Chicago and he's actually supposedly a Cubs season ticket holder. He’s an outsider somewhat reminiscent of the last time the Dodgers were sold, which was to Boston transplant Frank McCourt.
The team will officially be owned by an entity called Guggenheim Baseball Partners. Other owners in the business include veteran Atlanta Braves baseball executive Stan Kasten and movie executive Peter Guber. Magic doesn’t own the Dodgers folks, a rich financier and his business affiliates from Chicago own the Dodgers. So why bring Magic into the fold, I’m sure Guggenheim and Mark Walter could dig up the money to buy the Dodgers themselves if they wanted to? It’s good for what’s called “public relations” kids. People would scream bloody murder if the Dodgers were being sold again to another outsider. So what do you do, you team up with an L.A. icon and put together a deal. Well played gentlemen; Mark Walter will have the last say on how the Dodgers are ran, not our beloved Magic.
It’s being reported that the majority of the funding came from the Guggenheim investment firm as well. Again, really? Guggenheim put up over a billion dollars to buy the Dodgers? I don’t know for sure, and I don’t think the rest of the public does just yet either, but I'm very interested to see how much bank debt was used on the deal.
You know it’s funny, the L.A. Times headline read “Magic Johnson-Led Group is Picked as Dodgers’ Next Owner” and the Chicago Tribune’s headline read “Chicago Financial Executive Leads Group That is Acquiring Los Angeles Dodgers”. Both papers are owned by the Tribune Company. Stay tuned, and to quote Elmer Fudd, “be very, very careful”. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
You’ll pay by the team ownership probably cutting salaries and raising ticket prices, but what interests me about the purchase of the Dodgers are the reports that Magic Johnson or “his group” is purchasing the Dodgers. Really? I am a huge Magic Johnson fan. I cannot think of a classier athlete nor a business man who has done more for the community of Los Angeles than Magic. He is a truly a role model who has handled adversity in the classiest way possible; however, what concerns me is that Magic is reportedly only a minority owner in the Dodgers franchise, and that the controlling owner is actually Chicago businessman Mark Walter, the CEO of financial services and investment firm Guggenheim. Guggen-what? In common parlance of the current era, Walter is a “Wall Street fat cat”, or maybe more geographically correct, a “Lake Michigan fat cat”. Walter lives in Chicago and he's actually supposedly a Cubs season ticket holder. He’s an outsider somewhat reminiscent of the last time the Dodgers were sold, which was to Boston transplant Frank McCourt.
The team will officially be owned by an entity called Guggenheim Baseball Partners. Other owners in the business include veteran Atlanta Braves baseball executive Stan Kasten and movie executive Peter Guber. Magic doesn’t own the Dodgers folks, a rich financier and his business affiliates from Chicago own the Dodgers. So why bring Magic into the fold, I’m sure Guggenheim and Mark Walter could dig up the money to buy the Dodgers themselves if they wanted to? It’s good for what’s called “public relations” kids. People would scream bloody murder if the Dodgers were being sold again to another outsider. So what do you do, you team up with an L.A. icon and put together a deal. Well played gentlemen; Mark Walter will have the last say on how the Dodgers are ran, not our beloved Magic.
It’s being reported that the majority of the funding came from the Guggenheim investment firm as well. Again, really? Guggenheim put up over a billion dollars to buy the Dodgers? I don’t know for sure, and I don’t think the rest of the public does just yet either, but I'm very interested to see how much bank debt was used on the deal.
You know it’s funny, the L.A. Times headline read “Magic Johnson-Led Group is Picked as Dodgers’ Next Owner” and the Chicago Tribune’s headline read “Chicago Financial Executive Leads Group That is Acquiring Los Angeles Dodgers”. Both papers are owned by the Tribune Company. Stay tuned, and to quote Elmer Fudd, “be very, very careful”. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
