Page 142 - OVATION Magazine (Issue 1)

With its Downtown L.A. stadium—and on- field stars like Eduard Atuesta and Carlos Vela—LAFC has been quick to attract a dedicated fan base.
every single person and how they came in, what they said, and how they felt,” Penn recalls.
Most significant among those people was Guber, an entertainment-industry mogul and co-owner of both the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers.“The linchpin came from Peter Guber,”Penn says.“Because the original capital investors were from Malaysia andVietnam, we needed to have a significant local presence, and we found the dream partner in Peter.When he said yes, that opened the gate for the rest of them to follow.”
Along with Guber’s money and reputation came his rela- tionships.“Peter had a great relationship with Magic Johnson and brought him into the group, along with Tony Robbins,” Penn says. Guber, however, wasn’t the only one landing big-name partners. Penn’s time at ESPN helped bring in the
athletic power couple of Garciaparra and Hamm, and Berg made the introduction to Will Ferrell.
Today, LAFC’s many other co-owners include Mark Shapiro, co-president of WME | IMG; Rick Welts, president and COO of the Warriors; Chad Hurley, cofounder and former CEO of YouTube; Mike Mahan, CEO of Dick Clark Productions; and Lon Rosen, executive vice president of the Dodgers. “We have sports executives, we have entertainment executives, we have real estate, private equity, technology,
so on and so forth,”says Penn.“For us,the idea was just to come up with a group of people that would send a signal to the marketplace:This will not fail.”
Not only has LAFC not failed, but it’s also been one of the most successful start-up teams in any professional sport. “I’m not sure any team has ever played it smarter than this
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