Who’s Todd Boehly? Sports’ big spender
Dodgers co-owner who helped buy team for $2 billion at center of $3-billion deal for Chelsea soccer club.
The record-breaking sale of Premier League soccer club Chelsea FC has a direct connection to the Dodgers.
A group led by Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly reached a deal to acquire Chelsea for $3.1 billion, the highest sale price for a sports team. Here’s what you need to know about Boehly.
Why is Todd Boehly buying Chelsea FC?
Chelsea has been up for sale since March, when its Russian oligarch owner Roman Abramovich was ordered to sell the Londonbased club by the Premier League.
The decision came after Abramovich, who had been Chelsea’s owner for 19 years, was sanctioned by the British government for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Boehly quickly emerged as one of Chelsea’s top suitors. Boehly, who reportedly tried to buy the team in 2019, beat out other American bidders, including the coowners of the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Chelsea is one of the most popular soccer teams in Europe, with five Premier League championships and two UEFA Champions League titles.
What’s Boehly’s role with the Dodgers?
Boehly is one of the key members of the ownership group that bought the Dodgers from Frank McCourt for $2 billion in 2012. He has no hands-on role within the organization.
A Virginia native who grew up a fan of the Baltimore Orioles and went to college at William & Mary, he was at the time president of Guggenheim Partners, a Chicago-based financial services firm. Mark Walter, the Dodgers’ principal owner (who also reportedly joined Boehly’s bid for Chelsea), was the company’s chief executive.
Together, they provided significant financial backing to a Dodgers ownership group that also included Magic Johnson and several other businessmen.
Walter and Boehly each put up $100 million personally to buy the team, while $1.213 billion came from Guggenheim Partners insurance companies controlled by Walter.
“There is only one Dodgers,” Boehly said after the purchase of the team. “It’s not, ‘Oh well, if you don’t get this one, you can go get that one.’ ”
Though their ownership hasn’t been free of controversy, the Dodgers have been one of the most successful — and highestspending — franchises in baseball since the sale a decade ago.
Does he have any other ties to L.A.?
In addition to his ownership of the Dodgers, Boehly also holds ownership stakes in the Lakers and Sparks.
He left Guggenheim Partners in 2015 and cofounded a holding company called Eldridge Industries, of which he is now the chairman and chief executive. He is also chairman of Security Benefit, which has a commercial partnership with the Dodgers, and MRC Entertainment, a Beverly Hillsbased media company under Eldridge’s umbrella that owns Billboard, Rolling Stone, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Dick Clark Productions, among other properties.
Last October, Boehly became the interim chief executive of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the organization that hands out the Golden Globe Awards. At the time, the organization was dealing with controversy resulting from a Times investigation that revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity within its ranks.