Mark Walter buys Lakers for $10 billion

[OldSchool]

Those that don't know he's the lead of the Dodgers ownership group


View: https://x.com/TheAthletic/status/1935450974287720891

 

[TSFH Fan]

Here's why this should matter to some Rams fans.

Mark Walter + Guggenheim Partners is anticipated to add big wins to the Lakers. The Big Wins are anticipated to increase the Lakers already enormous local popularity.

There are people who will whine about the fan support for the Rams in the area. The Lakers and Dodgers have regularly swappped the no. 1 and no. 2 spots as most popular teams in the area. There's a HUGE gap between no. 2 and no. 3. Rising Dodger popularity and exploding Lakers popularity is going to leave even less local fan crumbs to spend on the lesser teams.

Can't imagine the Rams as an afterthought? The Kings had a press conference for their new GM a few weeks back. He talked about how competitive the LA market was for sports teams. He talked about the basketball team, then the baseball team, and then went on his response . . . .

around 8:00

View: https://www.youtube.com/live/mp6CTaafsCw?si=vaWFtf0oX6aBnBs-&t=478

 

[fearsomefour]

LA is a baseball town....always has been.
Dodgers are the top dog....Lakers are second....then USC football
Pro football is well down the list.
That said, the Lakers play in an arena. Its not like they are going to steal 50,000 season ticket holders from the Rams.
The Rams have been working hard and need to continue for probably 20 years to get that home attendance back to a 70% home crowd or so.

 

[den-the-coach]

LA is a baseball town....always has been.

For the present, plus Dodgers get a boost from an international standpoint, but football is king and soon Southern California will showcase that dynamic.

 

[den-the-coach]

As to Mark Walter buying the Lakers.

 

[Tano]

As to Mark Walter buying the Lakers.

Both Buss kids were idiots running the team.

 

[fearsomefour]

For the present, plus Dodgers get a boost from an international standpoint, but football is king and soon Southern California will showcase that dynamic.

Thats going to be a long haul to get to that point.

 

[snackdaddy]

The Rams lost a whole generation of LA fans during their time in St Louis. If you were a teen or young adult in the late 90's who wants to adopt a team as your favorite, are you gonna pick a team that used to be in your city and has been a perennial loser? Or that age the last ten years they were in St Louis? Probably not. Unless you like lovable losers. It'll probably take a whole new generation to get to the point where we don't see opposing fans taking over the stadium.

 

[OldSchool]

The Rams lost a whole generation of LA fans during their time in St Louis. If you were a teen or young adult in the late 90's who wants to adopt a team as your favorite, are you gonna pick a team that used to be in your city and has been a perennial loser? Or that age the last ten years they were in St Louis? Probably not. Unless you like lovable losers. It'll probably take a whole new generation to get to the point where we don't see opposing fans taking over the stadium.

Could say we lost at least 2 generations. The people that were kids that the Rams betrayed and then their kids. It was a disaster moving.

 

[den-the-coach]

Lakers just went from Dialup to Fiber Optic. Thank God Walter is now majority owner and I expect some major changes immediately. I expect Bob Myers to be running the Show very soon.

 

[RamFan503]

The Rams lost a whole generation of LA fans during their time in St Louis. If you were a teen or young adult in the late 90's who wants to adopt a team as your favorite, are you gonna pick a team that used to be in your city and has been a perennial loser? Or that age the last ten years they were in St Louis? Probably not. Unless you like lovable losers. It'll probably take a whole new generation to get to the point where we don't see opposing fans taking over the stadium.

I'm not sure we will ever see a time when at least some visiting teams don't dominate our stadium. For the most part, an LA fan is not going to spend the kind of resources to fly out to Cleveland, Cincy, Philly, etc... for a football game. The LA residents also have multiple entertainment options that include many that don't cost them near as dearly. Meanwhile, fans from almost every other NFL city will continue to plan their vacations around going to LA and all its entertainment options.

I think we'll improve in this area and likely gain fans in other NFL cities. But I'd be surprised if we ever overcome the alure for a few teams' fans to invade SoFi. The LA fans dominated the Coliseum, but this is a new time and the NFL is just WAY too popular to go back to those times.