Embattled Los Angeles Sparks owner Mark Walter is looking to sell the franchise and its yet-unopened practice facility for $700 million, according to Bloomberg. Walter bought the Sparks, one of the WNBA's original franchises, for around $10 million in 2014.
If Walter is able to get $700 million for the Sparks, that would smash the record for the most expensive franchise sale in WNBA history, even if you subtract the cost of the practice facility, which was built for $150 million and is expected to open in 2027. Notably, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, who bought the Los Angeles Lakers from Walter earlier this year, are reportedly not interested in the Sparks.
The current record for the most expensive franchise sale was set earlier this year when Tilman Fertitta bought the Connecticut Sun for $300 million with a plan to move the franchise to Houston and revive the Comets in 2027.
Sparks have already undergone massive changes this year
The Sparks went an extremely disappointing 16-28 this season and missed the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. That is not only the longest active playoff drought in franchise history, but the longest active one in the league. Yet another failure led to massive changes across the board.
- Stacy Johns, the previous CEO of Bay FC in the NWSL, was hired as the team's new president in April, just days before the season started.
- General manager Raegan Pebley was fired in July and later replaced by Ariana Andonian, the former general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers' G League affiliate.
- Coach Lynne Roberts was fired immediately after the season ended. She went 37-51 in her two seasons in charge. The organization has not yet hired a replacement.
- Star guard Kelsey Plum was traded ahead of the deadline for Monique Akoa Makani, a 2027 first-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick.
- Star forward Nneka Ogwumike announced her retirement.
Now, Johns and Andonian will brace for an ownership change as they try to reshape the Sparks' coaching staff and roster.
Walter selling off sports teams amid investigations
Earlier this year, Walter sold the Lakers to Kushner and Iger for a record-setting $12.5 billion barely a year after buying them for $10 billion. He has since sold his stake in Chelsea FC to Clearlake Capital, but has insisted that the Los Angeles Dodgers are not for sale. Walter also owns the entire PWHL (Professional Women's Hockey League) and the Cadillac F1 team.
Walter is also the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, an investment and wealth management firm based in New York City. Last year, "federal prosecutors in Manhattan began examining Guggenheim's $362 billion money management arm," Bloomberg reported in July. Regulators are reportedly investigating whether Walter and Guggenheim properly disclosed billions of dollars of loans.
The FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission are collaborating on the investigation, which also involves two of Walter's insurance companies, Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co.
The investigation was opened due to an internal whistleblower complaint, per the Wall Street Journal. Here's more from the WSJ:
"The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now examining how around $16 billion in loans extended to companies tied to Walter or his conglomerate, TWG Global, wound up on the books of insurance companies he owns after passing through a third entity, the people familiar with the matter said. The authorities are trying to determine whether the activity constituted fraud, one of the people said.
"Such related-party transactions must be disclosed to insurance regulators, a rule meant to limit conflicts of interest and protect policyholders. Walter's insurance firms said in recent filings that they had reviewed their transactions after receiving subpoenas and had identified problems with how certain transactions were presented."
In a statement to the WSJ, a TWG spokesperson said that, "Mark Walter and TWG have always acted in good faith, and those who have done business with Mark know him as honest and straightforward. Nothing about these transactions was any different."
Meanwhile, TWG has been trying to raise cash to help pay down some of those loans, Bloomberg reported in August, describing them as "aggressive efforts to reduce the affiliated loans on the balance sheet of its insurers or to restructure some of them."
