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There was “not a chance” the Dodgers would be sold, according to the person who was speaking on behalf of the franchise’s owner.
“Speculation about the sale of the team is rubbish,” the person said. “He has absolutely no intention of selling this team now or ever.”
Those comments weren’t made on Wednesday by Dodgers president Stan Kasten. They were made 17 years ago by former owner Frank McCourt’s lawyer.
In the wake of Mark Walter’s decision to sell his stake in the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, Kasten did what he could to downplay concerns about what this could mean for the Dodgers.
With Walter as its controlling owner, the Dodgers emerged from bankruptcy to become baseball’s most dominant franchise.
“This is a Lakers story, it’s not really a Dodgers story,” Kasten said.
Kasten could have believed what he said. He could have been assured by Walter that nothing would change for the Dodgers. And he could be right. But he also might not be.
Because Walter’s intentions are only part of the equation.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, alongside the Securities and Exchange Commission, is investigating Walter and his companies for failing to properly disclose billions of dollars in loans among related entities, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On the same day the Lakers’ sale was announced, Bloomberg reported that TWG Global was in talks with investors to pay down loans on the books of its insurers. TMG Global is the holding company through which Walter purchased the Lakers.
Could Walter also be forced to sell his stake in the Dodgers? Or switch up how he operates the championship team?
Walter might be convinced that he won’t have to do any of that. He might be certain that he and his company didn’t do anything wrong.
But the reality is that no one can be 100% sure how this will play out – not Walter, not the people investigating him, and certainly not Kasten.
Which is why until Walter is cleared by investigators, the Dodgers and their fans would be entirely justified in being nervous about what this means for the franchise.
As far as they know, anything can happen.
Someone saying what they hope will happen, or even what they think will happen, isn’t the same as someone saying they know what will happen.
McCourt knows something about that.
The day before the Dodgers opened play in the 2009 National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, McCourt and his wife announced they were separating. McCourt’s lawyer, Marshall Grossman, told the Los Angeles Times that his client was the sole owner of the team.
“There should be no change at all with respect to anything the public is used to,” Grossman said.
McCourt believed that. He believed that enough to take on his wife in what was said to be the most expensive divorce trial in California history.
McCourt had what he believed was a legal basis to his claim.
When he and his wife moved from Massachusetts to the community property state of California, they signed a marital property agreement that specified the Dodgers were his separate property rather than community property.
The problem: There were also copies of the agreement in which the Dodgers weren’t listed as separate property.
McCourt’s lawyers argued those were mistakes.
But the judge in the divorce case invalidated the agreement that McCourt claimed provided him with sole control of the Dodgers. McCourt was eventually forced to sell the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management, of which Walter was the controlling partner.
In light of this history, there was nothing Kasten said on Wednesday that could be taken as a guarantee about the franchise’s future.
If anything, the way he carefully worded his answers intensified suspicions about what could happen.
Was the Lakers sale related to the federal investigation?
“I have no reason to think that,” Kasten said.
Would the Dodgers be affected by the investigation?
“I have no reason to think that,” Kasten said.
Asked why Walter sold the Lakers, Kasten speculated that Walter was being “opportunistic.”
Really? Walter spent recent months restructuring the Lakers’ front office just to flip the team?
Here’s what Kasten said that was important: He didn’t have any knowledge of the investigation into Walter and his companies.
In other words, he didn’t have answers to the questions that really mattered.
There’s a chance no one does – and no one will until the probe into Walter is finished.
Until then, the Dodgers will have a cloud of uncertainty hanging over their heads. Uncomfortable times could be ahead.
English (US)