LA Dodgers to be sold for $2 billion to Magic Johnson consortium

Former Nationals president Stan Kasten made an emphatic official foray back into baseball late Tuesday night, reaching an agreement as part of an ownership group that includes basketball legend Magic Johnson to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2 billion, the Dodgers announced.

Kasten joined the Nationals in 2006 and served as team president, a conduit between ownership and all internal and external parties, until he stepped down at the end of the 2010 season. Kasten maintained a small ownership stake in the Nationals until March 2011, when he sold his shares in order to take on a new venture.

The Kasten-Johnson partnership will help extricate the Dodgers, one of baseball’s most revered franchises, from the mess created by previous owner Frank McCourt’s divorce and financial misadventures. The $2 billion price tag is record for the value of a North American franchise, a price offset by the value of the property surrounding Dodger Stadium and the revenue from an ensuing television contract.

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