Scene Report: Team61 just bought Korean entertainment into MLB ownership
Chan Ho Park's Team61 is putting $70 million into the Athletics with Suga, Ken Jeong, and Daniel Dae Kim in the consortium, the first Korean-led stake in an MLB club as the franchise builds toward Las Vegas in 2028.
Anika Rao
Entertainment people usually enter baseball through the Jumbotron. Team61 just entered through the ownership docs.
Chan Ho Park's investment consortium is putting $70 million into the Athletics, with $55 million already in and $15 million still waiting on MLB approval. The group includes BTS's Suga plus actors Ken Jeong and Daniel Dae Kim. Park, the first South Korean-born MLB player, becomes the first Korean to buy a stake in a major league club, and he will serve as a senior adviser to majority owner John Fisher on player development and Asia strategy. Korean reporting around the Seoul announcement puts Team61's eventual stake near 3 percent once the full check clears.
The name is the receipt. Park wore No. 61 for his entire major league career after flipping the 16 he wanted as a Dodgers rookie. The consortium is built around that number, and the timing is built around Las Vegas. The Athletics are raising capital toward a roughly $2 billion Strip ballpark and a 2028 relocation, after seasons at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. Team61 lands in the same week as a Harbinger Sports Partners minority stake tied to Mark Cuban, another entertainment-adjacent check written into a stadium story.
Suga already telegraphed the bet. At Allegiant Stadium on May 28, during BTS's Vegas run, he wore an Athletics jersey with his name and No. 9 on the back. That looked like merch theater at the time. The Seoul press conference made it capital. Jeong showed up in an Athletics jersey too, cracked that he had crashed the stage, and framed the moment as another cultural milestone after Crazy Rich Asians and KPop Demon Hunters, this time in sports equity.
Our read: the diaspora soft-power story people keep asking for is not another ceremonial first pitch. It is who gets to sit in the ownership room when a franchise rebuilds itself as a Vegas entertainment venue. Park is not claiming control. He said as much in Seoul. The useful part is the job description: scouting, pitcher development, Korean partnerships, and a pipeline that treats Asia as a business strategy instead of a road-trip novelty. If the Strip stadium is going to sell year-round shows and baseball, Team61 is betting Korean capital and Korean American fame can help fill both.
