When Lon Rosen was in his role as executive president and chief marketing officer of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he ‘only dreamed’ of having the reach that the Los Angeles Lakers have.
Fourteen years and three World Series championships later, Rosen is returning to the Lakers — the same organization where he started his three-decade career as an intern — as their new president of business operations. The first piece of new owner Mark Walter’s front office overhaul is officially in place.
‘Let’s face it,’ he told reporters. ‘I’m very fortunate to be involved with two very iconic global brands.’
Rosen spoke with a small handful of beat reporters on Tuesday night in a wide-ranging, 20-minute conversation. These are the biggest takeaways:
Rob Pelinka will remain in current role
At the forefront of that overhaul will be the president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka, who has previously told reporters that he and Governor Jeanie Buss will lead the team’s front office expansion this summer. Among those at his side will be Dodgers executives Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi in advisory roles.
“I just run the business side, Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “He’s talked about it and I can talk about it. Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, they have involvement helping Rob a bit. It gives you a deeper bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it is unique. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that’s really how we look at it.
‘Look, I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe (Bryant). I met him many, many years ago.”
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday morning that the Lakers are hiring former Virginia head coach Tony Bennett as an NBA draft advisor under Pelinka.
Magic Johnson’s involvement
Aside from Rosen’s ties to Walter, he’s also a longtime business partner of Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson. When Rosen left the Lakers in 1987 to start his sports marketing company, Johnson was his first client. Before Rosen joined the Dodgers front office after Guggenheim Baseball Management — led by Walter and with Johnson as a minority partner — bought the team for $2.15 billion in 2012, Rosen worked for Magic Johnson Enterprises.
Johnson was the Lakers’ president of basketball operations from 2017-19. He was the emcee at Pat Riley’s statue unveiling on Sunday, but he won’t, however, be with the franchise in an official role.
‘Earvin is one of the most unique individuals I’ve known in my life, and he’s one of my closest friends,’ Rosen said. ‘Earvin’s involved with all types of things. He owns football teams, baseball teams, soccer teams, insurance companies, a lot of things. He’s always gonna have some type of involvement with all the teams, but he is not gonna have a day-to-day involvement. It’s gonna be no different since he left the Lakers.
‘Obviously he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not gonna be, ‘Hey Rob go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not gonna have day-to-day involvement at all.”
Ticket prices increasing
One hot-button issue that has been at the forefront of Lakers fans’ minds is the upcoming spike in ticket prices for next season. NBA Twitter personality Rob Perez posted last Friday that his season tickets were increasing by 14% in his section, not including a 3% admin fee for season ticket holders who don’t pay in full upfront.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that one longtime Lakers season ticket holder’s seats in the 300 level were spiking from $6,192 to $9,035, a 45% jump.
‘Well, we hope they renew,’ Rosen told reporters. ‘And obviously it reflects on what the market is now and the demand for tickets. You can look at how tickets sell and what the prices are. You look at primary and secondary market and you can see where their demand is.”
The Lakers’ future at Crypto.com Arena
Rosen was also asked about the state of Crypto.com Arena, now in its 27th year after first opening in 1999. There were previously rumors of the Lakers exploring the possibility of leaving the arena and returning to the Forum back in 2019, but that was before the Clippers built Intuit Dome across the street.
Rosen reaffirmed Tuesday that the Lakers aren’t going anywhere.
‘I think it’s a great building,’ he said. ‘It’s very functional. I guess the fans like it, because they come here and they sell it out, and they enjoy the environment, they eat the food, they park their cars. So, it’s a very efficient building.’
Expanding the Lakers’ global brand
It’s safe to say that the Dodgers reached Rosen’s dream of having the global footprint of the Lakers during his run there. Now, he has a chance to take it even further in his return to the franchise that he started with as an intern.
It’s something he told reporters the team will put ‘quite a bit of focus on.’
‘With the Dodgers, we signed Shohei Ohtani, and the world sort of flipped on itself on a business model,’ Rosen said. ‘I think there’s a huge growth potential for the Lakers internationally, and it’s something that they’ve started to do. … Having Luka Doncic doesn’t hurt at all. I mean, he’s one of the most popular players in the world and we want to jump on his shoulders and see what we can reach out there.’