Lakers Set to Become $62 Billion Franchise After New Owners Joshua Kushner & Bob Iger’s Latest Plan

Jeanie Buss took her own siblings to court to block the sale of the Buss family's remaining stake in the Lakers. She argued that the team's value was still "continuously skyrocketing" and shouldn't be sold off prematurely.

New reporting suggests she may have been more right than she realised. According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the incoming Lakers ownership group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger is telling prospective investors that the franchise could be worth at least $30 billion within 10 years, and under more favorable conditions, as much as $62 billion.

The projection was laid out in a presentation prepared by Kushner's Thrive Capital. It comes just weeks after the group agreed to purchase the team from Mark Walter for a record $12.5 billion, already the largest sale price for any professional sports franchise in history.

The presentation assumes the Lakers' television and streaming rights roughly double in value over the next decade. Thrive's presentation reportedly bets those fees double again once the current agreements expire.

Combined with steadily rising ticket prices, international growth initiatives, and what the presentation describes as more aggressive sponsorship deals, the group projects the Lakers' annual revenue climbing from roughly $681 million this year to approximately $1.6 billion by 2037.

Forbes valued the franchise at roughly $3 billion in 2016. A decade later, it sold for more than four times that amount. Multiple outlets have noted that even the more conservative $30 billion target would place the Lakers above the most recent Sportico valuations of franchises including the Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs combined.

Kushner still needs to divest his minority stake in the Miami Heat before the NBA will approve the deal under its cross-ownership rules. The Buss family fight over the trust's remaining 17.8% stake is still working through the courts, with Jeanie Buss actively contesting the sale rather than signing off on it.

Jeanie Buss filed a five-claim petition in the LA Superior Court. She accused her siblings and co-trustees Janie and Joey Buss of "brazenly, knowingly and intentionally" violating the 2017 court order and the terms of the trust their late father established.

NBA rules require a controlling owner to hold at least 15% equity in a franchise. Her siblings - Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse - attempt to sell the family's 17.8% stake to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, will see her fall below that threshold and lose her governorship seat.

Pitching investors on a decade-long growth while the ownership issues haven't even ended adds a layer of uncertainty the Kushner-Iger group's projections don't fully account for.