Los Angeles Dodgers owners Mark Walter and Magic Johnson have come under scrutiny following Pablo Torre’s latest investigation. The report details a loan worth hundreds of millions of dollars involving a Walter-owned media company and one of his insurance companies, which was later acquired by Johnson. MLB analysts are now reacting strongly, questioning the favors, wealth, and relationships between the two Dodgers owners behind the transactions.
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“All of a sudden, you essentially gift this insurance company that helps you continue to do a lot of these dealings that you have been doing. [Johnson] is a billionaire,” Tyler Milliken said in a recent podcast with Baseball Is Dead. “It’s scratching one guy’s back and helping each other out, and it kind of reveals what that entire world’s like.”
On a September 4 podcast of Pablo Torre Finds Out, the journalist teamed up with Hunterbrook Media to unravel a web of cross-business investments. Their reporting revealed a $350 million loan made in April 2014. It was EquiTrust that loaned the money to American Media Productions. The critical part of this information is that back in April, EquiTrust was controlled by Walter’s Guggenheim Partners, and AMP was the one having control over SportsNet LA, the Dodgers’ regional sports network.
But the loan was tied to an even bigger piece of the Dodgers’ business. SportsNet LA secured a 25-year, $8.35 billion deal with Time Warner Cable in 2013 that reportedly earns the franchise $330 million annually. The same deal was one of the key parts of Walter buying the Dodgers in the first place.
And the $350 million loan that went to the Walter-controlled company behind SportsNet LA? It was not identified in the filings as a deal between affiliated entities.
“If you go back to when the Dodgers were originally bought, you see Magic Johnson at the very front of it. This guy helps you buy the Dodgers by being this front face,” Milliken added further. “All of a sudden, it’s like, well, how do I scratch your back afterwards? This is the result.”
He believes Johnson’s Los Angeles sports profile helped Walter’s bid for the Dodgers gain credibility. In return, the insurance company Johnson acquired helped transform him from a man “who earned $40 million in his NBA career” into a billionaire.
His argument was based on Torre’s findings, which suggested that the relationship between Johnson and Walter was much more than a simple business connection. Hunterbrook also pointed out that the $350 million loan boosted the NBA legend’s financial standing. Its investigation highlighted how the two owners benefited from one another through their intertwined business dealings.
But another co-host from the podcast raised an even bigger issue. Jared Carrabis said:
“The only reason people really, truly care about this is because it’s attached to sports. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t care. In a lot of ways, we should care to the point that you’re talking about.”
“[But] you attach it to sports, and people, they will use it as a mechanism to grind out their other grievances that already existed.”
The Dodgers have been the focal point ever since the investigation into Mark Walter was reported. He and the organizations under his ownership have denied any wrongdoing, but baseball fans haven’t stopped questioning the Dodgers’ financial superiority. With league owners and the MLBPA yet to reach a new collective bargaining agreement and a lockout looming, the noise surrounding the franchise has only grown louder.
That’s why Carrabis argued that people might not have paid heed to the alleged financial irregularities had the Dodgers not been involved.
While that’s that, the Los Angeles Dodgers have maintained that Walter’s investigation or his selling of the Los Angeles Lakers will not trigger an ownership change for the MLB team. The fans hope that it remains true while the club is pursuing its third World Series championship in a row.
The diehards prayed that the Dodgers would recover from the turmoil soon, but the recent reports from Torre have only amplified the scrutiny against their owners.