Magic Johnson favorite to become new Dodgers owner?

Published: 31^st Jan 12 5:52 pm

by Kris Hughes
Network Manager

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Magic Johnson favorite to become new Dodgers owner?

Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

The ownership race for the much-maligned Los Angeles Dodgers has been highly speculated upon since Major League Baseball essentially forced the McCourt family to relinquish control of the struggling franchise.

Several ownership groups– eight in particular– have emerged as favorites to become the next owners of the legendary franchise, but one reportedly is rising to the top: the group headed by Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, former Washington Nationals president Stan Kasten, and perhaps, LA billionaire surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong.

While Soon-Shiong has not yet confirmed that he will join the Johnson-Kasten group, signs point toward the likelihood that he will join the team that is believed to be the strongest in the baseball community, and by most accounts this is the Johnson-Kasten group.

If Patrick Soon-Shion does join Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, they, in effect, have the best of all worlds. They certainly have the “sports cred” in having one of Los Angeles’ most-beloved and well-liked athletes of all time, the money (in Soon-Shiong), and the baseball expertise in Kasten, who has been a part of professional baseball in some capacity since 1986 when he started in the game working directly with Ted Turner and the Atlanta Braves.

Regardless of who emerges as the new Dodgers owners, the team will be better off going forward than they were under the self-serving and directionless leadership of the McCourt family who all but destroyed the financial picture of one of baseball’s original brands.

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