The Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner, Mark Walter, just sold the organization to…

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Home World US Markets Technology Employment and Careers Lives and Arts Climate Opinions and Climate HTS MENU SEARCH US businesses in the home world’s technology markets Opinions on the Climate, Jobs, Lives, and the Arts HTS Take part Sign In 2024: A Year to Test Democracy? Subscribe to the Financial Times to stay up to date on the White House race. AVOID 40% Add Athletic to myFT Shohei Ohtani signs a record-breaking $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The player, who was born in Japan, inked a ten-year deal that will make him one of the richest athletes in the world. In a game against his new team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, on June 21, in Anaheim, California, Shohei Ohtani, who was then with the Los Angeles Angels, pitches. · AP Shohei Ohtani signs a $700 million baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on x (opens in a new window), setting a record. Shohei Ohtani signs a $700 million baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Facebook (opens in a new window), setting a new record. Shohei Ohtani joins the Los Angeles Dodgers on a record-breaking $700 million contract on LinkedIn (opens in a new window). Keep your current work saved. Not one. Sara Germano in New York City 68 December 9, 2023 Take a print of this page. Obtain the Editor’s Digest for free. The greatest stories from Roula Khalaf’s FT are selected for this weekly email. The Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a seven hundred million dollar, ten-year contract with Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani. It’s said that this is the largest sports deal ever for one individual. The contract is a huge departure from past football, baseball, and golf records. As live sports continue to be a popular business for investment and television viewing, it’s a reflection of the more extravagant spending by wealthy owners, such as the Guggenheim-led Dodgers consortium. Since Major League Baseball is the only American sport without a set salary ceiling for individual players, Ohtani’s contract dwarfs prior records in the league. Past records include the $90-million, nine-year contract that Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees signed this season and the $427-million, twelve-year contract extension that Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels received in 2019. This deal is bigger than past records in international football, such the $200 million a year that Cristiano Ronaldo supposedly agreed to pay to play for Al Nassr FC in Saudi Arabia for a two-year contract. The champion of this week’s Masters, John Rahm, has chosen to participate in the LIV Golf Tour in Saudi Arabia. The estimated worth of the tour is more than $300 million.

The 29-year-old Ohtani promised to always act in the team’s best interests and to always give it his all to be the best version of himself in a message posted on his Instagram account on Saturday. Furthermore, he conveyed his appreciation to the fans of the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he played for six seasons prior. “He drafted his contract to reflect a real dedication to long-term success on both sides,” Nez Balelo, Ohtani’s agent, said. Born in Oshu, Japan, Ohtani is considered a once-in-a-century talent in baseball. He has received two awards for MLB Most Valuable Player. He kept his earned run average (ERA), a pitching metric that measures the average number of runs scored by opponents per nine innings pitched, low at 3.14 in 2023, leading all batters in the American league with 44 home runs. Earlier this summer, Ohtani created history by being the first player in Major League Baseball to hit two home runs and record ten strikeouts in a single game in sixty years. Angels manager Phil Nevin said at the time, “Every day, we witness things from Ohtani that we have never seen before.”

The World Series was last won by the Dodgers in 2020. Chelsea Football Club has been owned by Todd Boehly since 2012. The Brooklyn franchise began operations in 1883 before moving to Los Angeles in 1958.