Dodgers, Lakers tandem clearly has rest of sports world terrified (especially 1 city)

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter made a move heard throughout the sporting landscape by entering into agreement with the Buss family to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $10 million, making it the biggest deal in the history of North American Professional sports.

And while the move offered great news for the future of Los Angeles’ sports dominance, it also showed the rest of the sports world how much work they need to do if they want to keep up with that sports dominance.

Dodgers, Lakers tandem clearly has rest of sports world terrified (especially 1 city)

The city impacted the most by Walter’s ownership is clearly Chicago, since that’s where Walter and his family live. And, as pointed out by The Athletic’s Jon Greenberg, it’s a city that could use some competent ownership.

Both the Bulls and White Sox are owned by the notoriously cheap Jerry Reinsdorf (though there's finally an out clause for the Pale Hose), whereas the Bears haven’t had much success under the ownership of the McCaskey family. 

While the Cubs have been one of the best teams in baseball this year, it’s only come after years of the Ricketts family running them like a small-market team. 

Meanwhile, every Los Angeles team has been willing to spend to win, as evidenced by the Dodgers’ record-breaking Shohei Ohtani contract and the Lakers blockbuster trade for Luka Dončić.

Walter also is the primary owner of the Cadillac Formula One team, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, and is part of a holding company that owns the Premier League’ Chelsea and Ligue 1’s RC Strasbourg. 

Could there be a chance that this trade could mean that more mega-deals are on the way? Both teams having the same ownership group means that both teams will be pulling from the same funds, and the Dodgers’ ownership group under Walter has already proven that they’ll spend money as needed. 

Los Angeles sports are different from sports in small markets. While it would be foolish to expect the Dodgers or Lakers to win the championship every year, their fan bases are less susceptible to rebuilds (or even retoolings) than other markets throughout the country. 

The Lakers famously were mired in an uncompetitive muck for most of the 2010s after Kobe Bryant retired, and even made some purely financial decisions after they won a championship in the bubble in 2020.

Under Walter’s ownership, that could become a thing of the past.

The Dodgers and Lakers have quickly become the class of their respective sports, and Walters’ purchase of the Lakers shouldn’t do anything to stop that. In fact, it should only make it better; much to the disdain of the rest of the sporting world.