Mark Walter Offered a Stake in His WNBA Team. Billie Jean King Wanted More

When Dodgers and Lakers owner Mark Walter offered Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss the chance to buy a stake in the WNBA’s Sparks, the tennis legend didn’t hesitate to push for more.

“Why not the Dodgers?” King asked, according to Kloss, who is CEO of Billie Jean King Enterprises (and also King’s wife).

“I almost fell off my chair,” Kloss told Front Office Sports in a recent episode of Portfolio Players.

King and Kloss have been trailblazers in the growth of women’s sports. King won 39 Grand Slam titles across singles and doubles tournaments, and her 1973 defeat of former men’s No. 1 Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” came just a year after Title IX mandated equal funding for women’s and men’s athletics in schools. Kloss won two doubles Grand Slam titles and achieved a world No. 1 ranking in doubles, and also got as high as No. 19 in singles. 

King and Kloss were so instrumental in co-founding the Professional Women’s Hockey League that the PWHL MVP trophy is named for King and the Playoff MVP trophy is named for Kloss.

But King is adamant that female athletes and investors should not be put in a box.

“Billie goes crazy because she’s like, ‘Why would I want half the market?’” Kloss said. “She’s always thought that. Everyone should be able to get a piece of the entire market.”

Walter offered a stake in the Sparks, but his broader portfolio included the Dodgers—and now the Lakers. Kloss said that after King challenged him, he quickly agreed and offered them the opportunity to invest in the Dodgers. (Representatives for Walter did not respond to a request for comment on the anecdote.)

There are lessons to be learned from the situation, including that it’s “important to ask for what you want and need,” Kloss said.

“Getting involved with the Dodgers literally changed our lives,” Kloss told FOS, because now they get to sit at the table with the “big boys.” 

There’s another lesson: the importance of taking advantage of opportunities and building relationships. The only reason King and Kloss became connected to Walter was that at a charity fundraiser for tennis in Chicago, Kloss was “randomly” seated next to the billionaire. She piqued Walter’s interest, in part, because her name tag didn’t even have her name on it; it just said ‘Billie Jean’s guest.”

“You have to show up, you have to be alert,” Kloss said. “We tell every athlete, learn the business and build relationships. Those relationships are going to serve you in the rest of your life. And your playing career is pretty short.”

From that chance seating at a charity fundraiser to becoming part of one of the most storied franchises in all of sports, Kloss and King continue to rewrite the playbook for women becoming team owners.

“Women shouldn’t only get half the marketplace,” Kloss said. “We can have the cake, and the icing, and the cherry.”