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Mark Walter and Stan Kasten pose for a photo after the Dodgers won Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos via Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten re-emphasized that his MLB team remains unaffected by controlling owner Mark Walter’s pending federal investigation, reported loan debts and sudden sale of the Los Angeles Lakers, echoing his comments from 10 days ago that this is “a Lakers story, not a Dodgers story.”
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“The Dodgers are not being sold,” Kasten said Friday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. “They’re not gonna be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell it, period. We are planning only to win.”
Kasten said he was speaking off Walter’s own stated direction, claiming during his 12-minute session with the media that his trust in Walter is “very, very high” and that the Dodgers “are very stable, well-managed and (have) very solid ownership.”
This comes even as Walter finds himself at the center of perhaps the biggest story in sports. Kasten has dismissed any speculation that this “Lakers story” will, eventually, become a “Dodgers story.”
“Sometimes it’s gotten silly, OK? It’s gotten silly,” Kasten said. “That’s when I think we should probably be saying more, but we have to observe the process.”
Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Partners and founder of TWG Global, and his insurance companies are reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Athletic reported this week that two of those companies, Delaware Life Insurance Company and its affiliate, Clear Spring Life and Annuity, are shuffling billions of dollars in investments as investigators look into whether those investments were improperly reported as being with unaffiliated businesses.
The Lakers and Dodgers represented the splashiest purchases in Walter’s diverse sports portfolio, and Bob Iger and Josh Kushner purchased the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation less than 12 months after Walker and TWG Global bought the team. Again, Kasten claimed it was an isolated event, even if reports paint a different picture.
“The Lakers thing was what we lawyers call sui generis,” Kasten said. “It was just one of those one-of-a-kind things that really has nothing to do with what’s happening with us or the other teams.”
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TWG Global issued a statement to Racer on Friday morning saying that “it is not considering a sale of the Cadillac team or any other part of TWG Motorsport.” Kasten said Friday that another investment, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), is not for sale.
That doesn’t mean the Lakers sale was made in a vacuum. Walter and fellow Dodgers owner Todd Boehly are also reportedly looking to offload their shares of the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club. John Ourand of Puck reported this week that Walter sought to cash out of the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ incredibly favorable television deal with Charter Communications early.
Kasten dismissed the latter two reports as being “mischaracterized,” saying that “those things don’t go together for a bunch of reasons I’m not going to get into today.”
Kasten said that Walter’s reported sudden need for cash is not expected to interfere with the daily operations of the Dodgers. Between their payroll and luxury tax payments, the back-to-back World Series champions have more than half a billion dollars (a projected $517.7 million, per Cot’s Contracts) committed to their 2026 roster alone.
“The Dodgers stand on their own pretty well,” Kasten said.
Kasten claimed that “nothing involving the Dodgers is part of the investigation.” The Athletic reported that one of Walter’s recently reclassified dealings was a $4.1 million loan to Dodger Tickets LLC, a subsidiary tied to the Dodgers that’s involved in ticketing and other business operations. Kasten was listed as CEO of Dodger Tickets LLC on an April 2025 business filing with California’s Secretary of State.
That loan has been nearly paid off, according to Tuesday’s filing.
“Guys, there’s so much about finance, right?” Kasten said when asked about Dodger Tickets LLC. “I’m out there with my Ivy League degree; I don’t understand all of it. I promise you, you don’t understand how all of that works. But these things happen routinely with all businesses, right? Money comes in, money goes out. Debt is taken. Debt can be an advantage in many cases. Let’s not have a finance class here because I’m unqualified to teach it.”
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Walter has not commented since selling the Lakers. Even if he did, it remains unclear how concrete his plans are to retain his crown jewel Dodgers, who have won three World Series titles since he and Guggenheim Baseball Management bought the club for $2.15 billion in 2012.
Asked more directly if it was premature to claim the Dodgers would not be sold, Kasten doubled down.
“I can tell you from the guy running the team, knowing how the business runs and what it can support in terms of revenues and expenses — the Dodgers aren’t going anywhere,” Kasten said. “I feel that very strongly, and Mark feels even stronger than I do.
“It’s important to Mark. I can’t tell you how important the Dodgers are to Mark.”
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