WNBA Sparks co-Owner Mark Walter said that he and his partners bought the team because they "can afford to take the long view ... which he described as a 'project' with 'a lot of social value,'" according to Melissa Harris of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Walter on Friday "sat courtside" during the Sparks-Sky game and later gave an interview from his downtown Chicago office. Walter said he wants to "bring this whole league up and the team and its visibility." He added, "That's going to take some investment. If you didn't do that, they could break even next year. ... I'd rather lose money and build it into a much, much better sport and franchise and league than trying to make a certain amount of money next year. It's like anything else. Once that starts rolling, I have a lot of confidence in the quality of that sport and the players and the games." Walter, who also is co-Owner of the Dodgers, said, "We're definitely going to take our (Dodgers) sponsors and talk to them a lot about how they ought to be looking at the Sparks. And not just for money. They ought to be doing this because it's the right thing to do." Walter: "We like to invest thinking in terms of I'll call it verticals. And verticals change. You might think energy's a good time. You might think real estate is a good time. Content, we think, is valuable. Whether that will become overpriced or not overpriced, I don't know. But it's valuable. That is a strategy" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/8).
