The Buss family has agreed to sale the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter, who is also the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Walter was part of the group that purchased the Dodgers in 2012 and that franchise has seen great success since, including two World Series Championships.
Like the Lakers, the Dodgers have been staples of the Los Angeles area for decades as they came to town in 1958. The Lakers came just two years later in 1960. Both franchises are often linked with Lakers Night at Dodger Stadium and Dodgers Night at Crypto.com Arena being annual occurrences and players from each team often appearing at games to support.
And now with Walter set to take over, there is a belief that there could be even more synergy between the Lakers and Dodgers moving forward, via Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal:
“I think you may see a lot of Dodger tie-in at Crypto as the [Dodger and Laker] seasons only have two small windows of overlap in spring and fall,” a source said. “Let’s see what Walter does with players and team staff … and does he create synergy between the Dodgers and Lakers.”
There will be a lot of eyes on Walter and the things he does to improve the Lakers as he takes over as owner. Of course, it is known that he will be keeping on Jeanie Buss as Governor for the foreseeable future so a massive shakeup of personnel in the front office and the business side isn’t expected. But there is still a ton of things Walter can impact, especially off the court with the money he can infuse into different departments of the franchise.
Synergy between the Lakers and Dodgers should be expected as both franchises are extremely popular. Dodgers stars regularly get massive cheers inside Crypto.com Arena as are Lakers stars at Dodger Stadium, so the ties between the two teams are already there and it is a no-brainer to build on that.
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts explains why Mark Walter will be good for Lakers
With Mark Walter having been the owner of the Dodgers for so long now, that franchise is very well aware of the positive effects he can have. And Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is very excited about what he will bring to the Lakers.
“I think it’s a very exciting day for the Lakers, for the city of Los Angeles,” Roberts said. “Speaking as a Dodger employee, he’s very competitive and he’s going to do everything he can to produce a championship-caliber team every single year and make sure the city feels proud about the Lakers and the legacy they’ve already built with the Buss family.”
