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

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US Businesses, Home World, Climate Opinion, Jobs, Careers, Lives, and the Arts HTSI MENU LOOKUP Domestic Global US Enterprises Technology Sectors Opinions on Climate Change Jobs and Careers Lives and the Arts HTSI Participate Sign In 2024: A year to test the limits of democracy? Get a Financial Times subscription to stay up to date on the White House race. PRESERVE 40% SportsIncorporate into myFT Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers sign a record-breaking $700 million contract. After agreeing to a ten-year contract, the famous athlete from Japan will rise to the status of one of the richest athletes globally. Shohei Ohtani, who was playing for the Los Angeles Angels at the time, tosses during a game on June 21, Anaheim, California, against his new team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. © AP Shohei Ohtani signs a record-breaking $700 million baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on x (opens in a new window). Shohei Ohtani inks a record-breaking $700 million baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Facebook (opens in a new window). Shohei Ohtani inks a record-breaking $700 million baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers on LinkedIn (opens in a new window). Save the work you’re doing now. 0% Sara Germano in New York Nine December 2023, 68 Print this page. Receive the Editor’s Digest at no cost. Roula Khalaf, the editor of The Financial Times, selects her best stories for this weekly newsletter. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the rising Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani have reached an agreement on a seven hundred million dollar, ten-year contract. According to reports, this is the largest individual sports contract ever. In football, baseball, and golf, the contract breaks existing records by a wide margin. It is a reflection of the more lavish expenditure by affluent owners, such as the Dodgers consortium managed by Guggenheim, given that live sports will always remain a popular sector for both television viewing and investment. Because Major League Baseball does not have a set salary ceiling for individual players, it is unique among US sports. Ohtani’s deal exceeds past records in this regard. 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 Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout acquired in 2019 are two examples of prior records. The deal breaks previous records in international football, like the $200 million a year that Cristiano Ronaldo allegedly agreed to pay to play for Al Nassr FC in Saudi Arabia for a two-year contract. The winner of the Masters, John Rahm, made the decision to participate in the LIV Golf Tour in Saudi Arabia this week. It is estimated that the tour is worth more than $300 million.

“To all Dodgers fans, I commit to always do what’s best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself,” Ohtani, 29, wrote in a message posted on his Instagram account on Saturday. He also gave thanks to the fans of the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he played for the previous six seasons. Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, said, “He constructed his contract to represent a sincere commitment from both sides to long-term success.” Baseball player Ohtani, who was born in Oshu, Japan, is said to have a once-in-a-century talent. He has received two MLB Most Valuable Player awards. He topped all American League batters in 2023 with 44 home runs while maintaining a 3.14 earned run average (ERA), a pitching metric that measures the average number of runs scored by opponents per nine innings pitched. Earlier this summer, Ohtani created baseball history by being the first player to blast two home runs and strike out ten opponents in a single game in Major League Baseball in sixty years. At the time, Angels manager Phil Nevin said, “Every day, we witness things from Ohtani that we have never seen before.”

2020 marked the Dodgers’ last World Series victory. Chelsea FC’s owner, Todd Boehly, has held the team since 2012. The brand began in Brooklyn in 1883 and moved to Los Angeles in 1958.