According to information from ESPN, the Buss family is concluding the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter for $ 10 billion, which would be a record for an American sports franchise.
Never yet a franchise of the five major American sports (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS) had been sold for $ 10 billion. But the Los Angeles Lakers, the famous Californian basketball team, will enter the story very soon, being sold for this sum by the Buss family to Mark Walter.
This was revealed on Wednesday evening the always well informed Shams Charania ofEspn. The Buss family will keep a minority part of just over 15% and Jeanie Buss (63), who had become the owner when her father died in 2013, despite a legal battle with her five brothers and sisters, will continue to lead the franchise for at least several years.
Mark Walter (65) is a businessman who has invested enormously in sport, whether in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise (which he bought from the president of OM Frank McCourt), the future F1 Cadillac stable, the female basketball team of the Los Angeles Sparks, and more generally in the WNBA. He also has 12.7% Blueco, the company holding the Chelsea and Strasbourg football teams. The Los Angeles Lakers have belonged to the Buss family since 1979, when Jerry Buss had bought them from Jack Kent Cooke for $ 67.5 million. A beautiful rocking!
Lakers more expensive than Celtics
Magic Johnson, former Lakers legend, both a trading partner of Mark Walter and close to Jeanie Buss, was delighted with this sale: “Mark Walter is the best choice and will be the best goalkeeper of the Lakers brand. The proof is what he did with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I can tell you two things about Mark: he is motivated by victory, excellence and he does everything correctly. And it will put the necessary resources to win! I understand why Jeanie sold the team to Mark Walter because they are alike: they are competitive, have a big heart, like to give back and prefer to stay behind the scenes. It is completely logical. »»
To date, it was the Boston Celtics, large rivals of the Lakers (18 champion titles, a record, against 17 for the Lakers), which held the sales record, after being sold for $ 6.1 billion last March.
