When Mark Walter purchased the Los Angeles Lakers from the Buss family last year, his first big change was bringing in his L.A. Dodgers employee and Magic Johnson’s former agent Lon Rosen as president and chief business officer.
Now that Walter is selling the team to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner though, it was unclear what would happen to Rosen and some other employees that were recently brought in. Typically, new owners like to bring in their own people to run different departments. But according to Dan Woike of The Athletic, Rosen has remained heavily involved with the organization despite the expected ownership change:
In the time since Bob Iger and Josh Kushner agreed to purchase control of the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation, not much has changed fundamentally inside the Lakers’ walls. Rosen, according to sources, is still heavily involved in meetings.
Walter still owns the Dodgers, so many expected him to bring Rosen back over to that organization instead of remaining involved with the Lakers. Once the sale to Iger and Kushner is finalized, it’s possible that still happens, but for now, Rosen is continuing on with his role running the Lakers’ business operations in addition to his responsibilities with the Dodgers.
The Lakers still have plans of expanding their front office, but given all of the current ownership drama, those hirings will likely come at a later time once everything is settled. For now, it appears to be business as usual for the organization.
Lon Rosen on Lakers’ partnership with BMO
Since Rosen took over, the Lakers have announced a handful of new partnerships and sponsors. One of those is BMO, who is now the official bank of the organization.
“Over decades, the Lakers have built passionate, generational fandom that starts in Los Angeles and extends everywhere, giving brands access to a star-studded platform of championships and glamour,” Rosen said in a statement. “Today, we are proud to extend that access to BMO with an extensive, high-value partnership that names BMO the exclusive official bank of the Los Angeles Lakers. Importantly, this landmark partnership signals a paradigm shift for how the Lakers will partner with brands moving forward, building and curating impactful programs to engage fans and serve shared businesses.”
Rosen did a great job of expanding the Dodgers’ brand in recent years and now appears to be doing the same thing with the Lakers, who unquestionably already had one of the biggest brands in all of sports.
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