Dodgers Owner Mark Walter Is Seeking Buyer for WNBA's Sparks at $700 Million, Bloomberg Reports

Mark Walter is looking to sell the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, Bloomberg reported Friday, Oct. 23, citing anonymous sources familiar with the process. The asking price is reportedly more than $700 million. That would cover the team and its new $150 million practice facility, which is still on track to be ready ahead of the 2027 season. Sportico has valued the Sparks alone at $400 million.

TWG Global, Walter's holding company, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

A portfolio getting smaller

The Sparks would be the latest piece to go. In August, Walter sold his majority stake in the NBA's Lakers to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation. He had agreed to buy the team from the Buss family only about 14 months earlier.

Later that month he sold his roughly 13% stake in Chelsea FC to Clearlake Capital, the club's majority owner. Todd Boehly sold a stake of about the same size. Walter also exited Strasbourg, the Ligue 1 club majority-owned by Clearlake.

Sources told Front Office Sports that Walter and Boehly had been weighing a Chelsea sale before the investigation became public.

What remains: the Dodgers, a stake in the Cadillac Formula One team, and the Professional Women's Hockey League, which Walter owns outright. The Cadillac team, in its first season, has no points with six races left.

The federal investigation

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, and his insurance companies were under federal investigation. At issue is whether policyholders' money was used for investments without proper disclosure.

The Justice Department and the SEC are pursuing the matter in parallel. It centers on the insurers' failure to disclose that more than $20 billion of loans on their books went to Walter's other businesses. The insurers disclosed a subpoena in a regulatory filing on June 26. The NY Post reported that the probe traces to a whistleblower complaint and that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan is involved.

No charges against Walter or his companies have been announced.

TWG's position is that there was no wrongdoing by TWG or Guggenheim. In late August the company also denied that Walter was running a fire sale of his assets.

Loans after the subpoenas

According to a Bloomberg News review of business records and a person with knowledge of the activity, Walter's insurers stopped lending to him in February after the subpoenas arrived. Within weeks, loans began coming from Amistad Financial Group, a holding company where Magic Johnson is a board member and minority shareholder.

Amistad lent about $1.26 billion to Walter's companies between March and June, and another $1.06 billion went to intermediaries that routinely pass loans along to Walter. That totals $2.31 billion.

A person familiar with Amistad's operations said Walter holds a single-digit voting stake in the firm. The person said he does not control it, take part in its management, or sit on its board.

Johnson is not on Amistad's three-person executive committee. It is unclear whether he knew of or was involved in the lending decisions. Some Amistad insurance units are led by Eric Holoman, Johnson's former business manager. Representatives for TWG and Johnson did not respond to messages seeking comment. It is also unclear whether Amistad executives knew of the investigation when the loans were made.

Bloomberg reports that Walter is now working to reduce what he owes his own insurers, including Delaware Life Insurance Co.

The Dodgers and the PWHL

Baseball's role is the most direct line from the probe to the sport. Walter has been the Dodgers' controlling owner since Guggenheim bought the club for $2.15 billion in 2012.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB is watching the situation. "As always when we have an investigation, external law enforcement, whatever, we monitor that and that's where we are right now," he told reporters.

Dodgers president Stan Kasten said this summer that the club is not for sale. "There's no process that has been started to sell it, period," Kasten said.

After the Dodgers' National League Championship Series loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, baseball operations president Andrew Friedman said Walter's focus was on the offseason. "How do we put ourselves in the best position to win in '27?" Friedman said Wednesday.

The PWHL told The Hockey News in August there is "absolutely no expected change to ownership." A league spokesperson confirmed Friday that this remains its position. This year the league took its first outside investment, from Kilmer Sports Ventures and the Ilitch Companies. Kilmer's stake was reportedly $100 million. No figure has been reported for Ilitch.

What comes next

Information on Amistad's lending after June 30 is not due to be disclosed until next month. That filing should show how much more borrowing Walter's network did after the subpoenas, and from whom.

No buyer has been named for the Sparks.