Posted on 11/01/2011 10:21:07 PM PDT by Nachum
Frank McCourt agreed Tuesday to sell the Dodgers, abruptly surrendering the team after fighting to retain it over two years and in two courts.
McCourt and Major League Baseball have agreed to seek approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for an auction of the Dodgers. The sale is expected to include the team, Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots, a package bought by McCourt for $421 million in 2004 and likely to sell for two to three times as much now.
The league hopes a new Dodgers owner can be in place by opening day.
The new owner would be the third since Peter O'Malley sold the team to News Corp. in 1998. The Dodgers had remained in the O'Malley family since its patriarch, Walter, moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.
Photos: The Dodgers and the McCourts
The sale agreement caps what might be the most tumultuous season in club history, which started with a fan nearly beaten to death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot and ended with the league charging McCourt with "looting" $189 million in team revenue for personal use. The Dodgers called that allegation "inflammatory" and unsupportable.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
(Grew up on Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax).
But not Mark Cuban.
The Dodgers should never have left Brooklyn.
What’s this talk about leaving Chavez Ravine for a new ballpark in downtown LA?
I didn’t even know there was a downtown LA, and I lived there for a few years.
Sell to his lawn boy for $5.00
That’d be cool.
It’s not like “owners” actually own anything, maybe the MLB should just buy all the teams since they make all the decisions anyway.
It’s a great stadium. I used to attend at least a few games per year in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, back when the Dodgers were still the best entertainment deal in town ($10 - $15 for great seats), and the crowds were far better behaved.
It’s now the 3rd oldest stadium in baseball after Fenway and Wrigley. Amazing how time has flown.
FINALLY he has decided to do the right thing for once and sell the team. Maybe now the Dodgers can bring in some much needed talent.
I wanna buy the Dodgers!
Maybe Fred Wilpon will sell the Mets and buy the Dodgers. He bleeds Dodger blue.
He recently got sole possession of the Dodgers after the divorce settlement. He wisely didn’t want to split the profit from the sale with his ex-wife.
The real value is the land. There has long been talk of putting a football stadium in Chavez Ravine. You buy the Dodger’s, you buy yourself front-runner status at bringing a new NFL team to Los Angeles.
I know the city wants this next to Staples Center, but Chavez Ravine would be almost as good, and better because it would be 100% private.
There won’t be much profit. He will still owe his wife. But the sale is rumored to fetch $1.3 billion.
It amazes me. The O’Malley’s were more or less forced to sell it because they were afraid of the tax liability if they gave it to the kids. If they only knew how much it would appreciate in 15 years! They sold it for $300 million to Rupert Murdoch/Fox. Now if anyone could have afforded to keep the team it would be Murdoch. But he didn’t care about the team at all, he wanted the broadcast money and the local affiliate control. Ultimately it was a failed franchise and he sold it for about 50% profit to McCourt because Murdoch needed cash for his $6 billion satellite deal.
Now McCourt ran it to the ground, owes $500M on it, owes his wife another $500M (or whatever he owes), can’t pay the day to day operations of the team, and will probably end up paying $10 million or more to the kid who was nearly beaten to death by gang bangers (for whom the LA Dodgers means more than just baseball, not quite sure why) for wearing San Fran Giants memorabilia in the parking lot yet he will end up getting more than anyone ever got for a losing, out of focus team.
MLB is doing all it can to force McCourt out, but if they took the team (which they really want to do) it would be bad precedent and scare the other owners. So they facilitate the buy out with so much money nobody can complain.
It IS a great stadium. I walked around it once when the Dodgers were out of town. Got down to the lower level and the clubhouse door was wide open. Wish I’d gone in and had a peek.
Red Sox fans “dodged” a bullet: He was one of the suitors for the Red Sox before the Henry/Werner/Lucchino/NYTimes, etc.
group wound up getting them. I understand LA refers to him as “The Boston Parking Lot Guy”
(supp. he had owned some land on Boston waterfront and was
going to put up a new stadium there if he got team. He may have since sold off that land.)
“(Grew up on Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax).”
1959-1965 Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Junior Gilliam, Roy Campanella, Johnny Podres, Wally Moon, Carl Furillo, Peewee Reese, Larry Sherry, Charlie Neal, Johnny Roseboro, Norm Larker, Frank Howard, Tommy Davis, Maury Wills,Ron Fairly, Claude Osteen, Willie Davis, Lou Johnson, Wes Parker, Ron Perranoski, Vin Scully, Walter Alston, Buzzy Bavasi.
Saw games at the Coliseum; homers over the LF net “Moon shots”.
Few pitchers in the game dominated like Koufax at his best.
My brother was a boy with three sisters and a baby brother who couldn't quite play then, but everyday he got us out there in the yard, the street the schoolyard and we played ball. We were the Dodgers and some of us were the enemy... the Giants.
I have vivid memories of the knots in my arm and the goose-eggs on my noggin from the errant pitches and hits. But I love my brother Tom for pushing us girls to play with him. Only one of us took up sports, but for the rest of us it was a truly amazing experience to remember and it bound us together as siblings.
Must say I had a crush on Frank Howard when I was 8 years old... ; ~ )
Gone but not forgotten...
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