For the second time in the last two weeks, Dodgers president Stan Kasten went out of his way to try and calm the choppy waters surrounding his franchise on Friday.
“I wanted to make sure everyone understood one thing very clearly: The Dodgers are not being sold,” Kasten told reporters before Friday night’s game at Dodger Stadium, in a press availability that had been scheduled by the team earlier in the afternoon.
“They’re not gonna be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell it, period,” Kasten continued. “We are planning only to win. That is what we are always doing. And we are still continuing to do that.”
Kasten’s comments came amid continued speculation over the Dodgers’ ownership situation, following chairman Mark Walter’s shock sale of the Lakers last week and growing reporting around a federal investigation into various companies within Walter’s business empire.
“I just wanted this to be clear, because this question keeps coming up,” Kasten said, before reiterating that the Lakers’ sale was “one of those one-of-a-kind things that really has nothing to do with what has happened with us.”
Kasten also went on to defend Walter’s track record as the Dodgers’ owner, and said his confidence in such declarations came from his conversations with Walter directly.
“This comes from Mark,” Kasten said. “He’s gung-ho about continuing to try to win.”
Kasten first addressed reporters the day after the Lakers’ $12.5 billion sale last week, saying then that the transaction had no impact on the Dodgers ownership situation –– Walter’s Guggenheim Baseball Management group has owned the team since 2012 –– and was not expected to alter its operations or financial resources, either.
In the days since, of course, new developments have raised more questions about Walter and his status with the Dodgers.
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This week, there were reports that Walter and fellow Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly were planning to sell their shares in Chelsea Football Club; that Walter had previously engaged Charter Communications in talks to let the cable company out of its $8 billion television contract with the team for a lump-sum payout now; and that various Dodgers-related businesses, including Dodgers Tickets LLC and the holding company through which the club’s SportsNet LA television channel is owned, had received loans from some of the Walter-owned insurance companies currently being probed by federal investigators.
Kasten declined to address those reports specifically on Friday, other than to claim that some of the reporting surrounding Walter had been “mischaracterized” publicly.
He then reiterated that Walter is not exploring a sale of the Dodgers, nor the other sports properties he has ownership in (a portfolio that includes the WNBA’s Sparks, TWG Motorsports and all of the Professional Women’s Hockey League).
“One thing we are all certain about: The sports portfolio is going to remain intact,” Kasten said. “It’s important to Mark. And I can’t tell you how important the Dodgers are. The Lakers thing, the Lakers were important to him too, but it was kind of an extraordinary opportunity, which he took.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
