Tennis legend Billie Jean King and her partner Ilana Kloss have joined the owner group of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This was announced by the team on Thursday.
King said that key owner and chairman Mark Walter and the entire organization had proven to be leaders in sports on and off the pitch. King and Guggenheim Partners share a “commitment to equality and inclusion, including the LGBTQ community, and we hope to further expand the team’s efforts in these areas together in the future.
Walter, in turn, said he was proud to welcome two groundbreaking athletes, social representatives and businesswomen.
King, Walter and CEO Stan Kasten will hold a press conference on Friday at Dodger Stadium. King and Kloss will also become partners in the WNBA team Los Angeles Sparks.
In 2014, King and Kloss founded the Billie Jean King Initiative, which looks after diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
King was a fan of the Dodgers from childhood while her brother, Randy Moffitt, pitched twelve years for arch-rival San Francisco Giants.
Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called King a “true American pioneer” and said: “We are excited that the two are joining the National Pastime”.
Guggenheim Baseball Management bought the Dodgers in 2012, with the main owners alongside Walter being the president of the Los Angeles Lakers, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Peter Guber, the owner of the Golden Cities of Warriors, Kasten, and Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.