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of millions of dollars, let alone billions,” said Kasten. “There’s a lot of groups that claim to have money and just don’t.”
    But after a series of conversations, Kasten decided the group’s money was real. And he became sold on Walter after Walter blew him off. A lifelong Cubs fan, Walter had kept his season tickets even though Chicago had been playing abysmal ball for years. On the day the first-ever phone call between Kasten and Walter was scheduled, Walter went to watch the Cubs play. “He sent me an email that said, ‘Hey guys, I have to put the call off for a little while because we’re in extra innings here at Wrigley,’ ” said Kasten. Walter stayed to the end and kept Kasten waiting for half an hour. “So that was great. I was like, ‘I’m gonna do something with Guggenheim.’ ”
    In the end, Walter decided not to bid on the Astros. But while the Houston sale was being processed, Kasten mentioned to Walter thatbecause of the messy McCourt divorce, the Dodgers might be on the market soon. Walter had wanted to buy the Astros, but he was even more interested in the Dodgers. After McCourt filed for bankruptcy and it became clear Major League Baseball was going to force him to sell the team, Kasten called Rosen. He had someone he wanted Magic Johnson to meet, but the famously secretive Kasten wouldn’t tell him who. Rosen and Johnson agreed to the meeting because they trusted Kasten. “We thought if Stan’s bringing someone he must be legit,” said Rosen. And so in November 2011, Mark Walter and Guggenheim president Todd Boehly flew to Los Angeles to meet with Johnson. When Kasten, Walter, and Boehly set off in a car from Guggenheim’s Santa Monica office to Johnson’s Beverly Hills office, Kasten realized he still hadn’t told Johnson whom he was meeting with. “So I called [Rosen] and said, ‘We’re coming in a second, and here’s who they are,’ ” said Kasten.
    The drive from Guggenheim’s L.A. headquarters to Johnson’s office is just over five miles. It took the men two hours. Protesters had taken to the streets in support of the anti–Wall Street Occupy movement, grinding traffic to a halt. “We were like an hour late to the meeting, which couldn’t be filling Lon with confidence,” said Kasten. “It was horrible.”
    Johnson had already met with four prospective groups, but Walter and Boehly made a striking impression on him that day. The Dodgers were unique in that the team’s stadium sat on three hundred acres of undeveloped land owned by the club that overlooked downtown L.A. The Raiders and Rams of the NFL had left the city twenty years earlier, but there had long been talk of luring one or both teams back with a fancy new stadium. Some thought the area surrounding Dodger Stadium would be the perfect location for such a structure. Each of the previous groups that met with Johnson had laid out its ideas for using the Dodgers as a foundation to build a larger sports and real estate empire. Johnson had grown skeptical of the motives of these rich men. So he looked at Walter and asked: “Are you doing this for the investment or are you doing this to win?” Walter didn’t hesitate: “I’m doing this towin,” he said, adding that he hoped to leave the team to his daughter one day. The meeting lasted an hour. As he walked out of the building, Kasten thought it went well. Johnson had one more group to sit down with, but he’d made up his mind. “I felt like I’d just met a guy who was just like Jerry Buss,” Johnson said later, referring to the legendary Lakers’ owner. “He’s so into his family. He has a great passion for winning and doesn’t care if people knew who he was.” Kasten, Walter, and Boehly were just sitting down to dinner at the SoHo House on Sunset Boulevard when Rosen texted Kasten. Magic was in.
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    Days before the 2012 season kicked off, McCourt submitted his list of potential buyers to Major League Baseball. Selig’s