Circular Financing

Mark Walter bought the Lakers for $10 billion and sold them fourteen months later for $12.5. That's a 20% return - which sounds enormous until you consider that nobody sells the Lakers after a year unless something has gone badly wrong. Chris Branch, author of The Athletic's The Pulse, joins to pull on the thread: life insurance money funding franchise purchases, a UAE sovereign wealth fund in the holding company, a Kushner and a former Disney CEO waiting on the other side. Neither of them can prove anything. Both of them can tell something is rotten.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) - Welcome and Guest Intro

(00:45) - Why the Lakers Sale Matters

(03:12) - Mark Walter’s Rise and Red Flags

(04:58) - Insurance Money and Shady Ownership

(07:24) - Sports Franchise Valuation Boom

(10:42) - Streaming Deals and Bubble Fears

(11:50) - Fans Priced Out and Losing Connection

(14:35) - What Happens Next for Walter

(18:17) - NBA Expansion Vegas vs Europe