Owning a professional sports team is among the best investments for a billionaire to make, and members of the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group have been busy pursuing new teams to acquire.
Most recently, Dodgers part-owner Alan Smolinisky is part of a group trying to purchase the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers’ ownership, the Paul G. Allen Trust, has stated their team isn’t for sale, but that has not stopped Smolinisky’s group from pursuing them.
Smolinisky joined Nike founder Phil Knight in pursuit of the team and the two have submitted a written offer of greater than $2 billion, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Nike founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Alan Smolinisky have delivered a written offer of more than $2 billion to purchase Portland Trail Blazers and are in serious talks to acquire the team, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Knight and Smolinisky have been engaged in discussions with the Paul Allen Trust that’s overseeing the franchise and those talks are planned to continue, sources said.
The Trail Blazers are currently the 13th-most valuable club in the NBA, with an estimated value of $2.05 billion, per Forbes.
On May 1, 2012, Frank McCourt officially sold the Dodgers to Guggenheim Baseball Management for a then-record $2 billion, and that price has since been broken as the value of professional sports teams continues to rise.
Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen set the MLB record by purchasing the New York Mets for $2.4 billion in 2020.
Along with Robert L. Plummer, Smolinisky joined the Dodgers ownership group in 2019.
Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly part of group to purchase Chelsea Football Club
A little over a month has passed since the consortium led by Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly engaged in exclusive talks to purchase the Chelsea Football Club, and this week the sale was made official.
The consortium also includes founder of the Wyss Foundation Hansjörg Wyss, fellow Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter, and British property developer Jonathan Goldstein. The group reached an agreement in May to buy Chelsea for $5.33 billion and received all necessary approvals from The Government of the United Kingdom, Premier League, and other authorities.
Under the terms of the agreement, Boehly who is the current CEO of Eldridge and Clearlake Capital Group, will share joint control and governance of the team, plus serve as chairman of the holding company.
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