Mark Walter’s Sports Empire Keeps Shrinking With Sparks Up for Sale

Mark Walter’s once sprawling sports empire is shrinking—again.Just months after selling his majority stake in the NBA’s Lakers, Walter is trying to find a buyer for the WNBA’s Sparks and its practice facility, according to a report Friday from Bloomberg. He’s pricing the deal at $700 million, according to multiple sources.In August, Walter shocked the sports world by agreeing to sell his share of the NBA’s most-decorated franchise to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner at a $12.5 billion team valuation. He had bought the team less than a year before to go along with the Sparks, which he purchased in 2014. But it quickly became apparent that the billionaire was unwinding his investments as legal troubles loomed. The Wall Street Journal had reported in July that the Guggenheim Partners CEO and his insurance companies were under federal investigation. The issue was whether they had used policyholders’ money to make investments without proper disclosures.Later in August, Walter sold his nearly 13% stake in Premier League soccer club Chelsea to Clearlake Capital, the majority owner; partner Todd Boehly also sold his stake of roughly the same size. Sources told Front Office Sports at the time that Walter and Boehly had been considering selling since before the investigation became public.That sale coincided with an exit from Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, also majority-owned by Clearlake Capital.Despite shedding the Lakers, Chelsea, Strasbourg, and potentially the Sparks, Walter still has more sports investments. The most prominent is the Dodgers.Walter has been chairman and controlling owner of baseball’s super team since Guggenheim Partners purchased it for $2.15 billion in 2012—a deal made with cash from insurance investments. But TWG Global, Walter’s holding company, insisted in late August that the Dodgers would not be sold and denied that Walter was holding a fire sale for his assets—while also maintaining that “there was no wrongdoing” by TWG and Guggenheim.The TWG statement also nixed the idea of offloading Walter’s stake in the Cadillac Formula One team, which began racing this year. The team has earned zero points with just six races left in the season and is in danger of becoming the first team to finish without a point since Haas in 2021. But the statement did not mention the Sparks, the subject of Friday’s sale speculation. Nor did it mention the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which Walter solely owns. TWG did not respond to a request for comment on the PWHL’s future at that time, nor did it immediately respond to an FOS request for comment Friday.Walter purchased the league in 2023 with Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss as co-founders. TWG and King also hold a 49% stake in the Billie Jean King Cup, a women’s tennis tournament majority-owned by the International Tennis Federation.The post Mark Walter’s Sports Empire Keeps Shrinking With Sparks Up for Sale appeared first on Front Office Sports.