Todd Boehly: Can he mimic Dodger title revamp at Chelsea

Todd Boehly, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Eldridge, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference on May 2, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP)

For Todd Boehly, the billionaire US businessman heading the consortium buying Chelsea in a 4.25 million-pound ($5.2 million) deal, ownership of a Premier League club is a long-sought move.

The 46-year-old from Virginia, who grew up a fan of Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, was a key member of the ownership group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt in 2012 for $2 billion — then a record for a North American sports team acquisition

In the decade since Guggenheim Baseball Management — the investment group that also includes Mark Walter and Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson — took over a Dodgers team in disarray, the club have become perennial contenders, making the playoffs the past nine seasons.

They reached the World Series three times in four years, coming away empty in 2017 and 2018 before winning the title in 2020.

The turnaround, along with the revitalization of Dodger Stadium, was fueled by a multi-million-dollar media deal and, under Boehly and his co-investors, the Dodgers have eclipsed the New York Yankees as the biggest-spending club in MLB.

Chelsea’s new owner Todd Boehly watches during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge in London on May 7, 2022. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

“There is only one Dodgers,” Boehly said at the time. “It’s not, ‘Oh well, if you don’t get this one, you can go get that one.'”

Steering the Dodgers out of their post-McCourt malaise hasn’t been Boehly’s only dive into turbulent waters.

In October, he became