Toronto Fest Lands World Preem Of Godfrey Reggio’s … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
UPDATE: Apple CEO Challenged For Moving “Crown … 
ESPN Layoffs Could Reach 400 As Part Of Latest Disney Cuts 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Up … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
‘The Great Gatsby’ Starts With $5.4M … 
Last week, Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt agreed to a plan for a divorce settlement that would have given Frank McCourt sole ownership of the franchise — if Major League Baseball approved a lucrative TV deal that McCourt struck with Fox. That multiyear deal worth $3 billion (and, more importantly, $385 million upfront) would help McCourt shore up the Dodgers, who right now are being controlled by the league during all of this divorce mess. Well, baseball commissioner Bud Selig always seemed reluctant to OK the Fox contract, and today Selig made it official by rejecting the deal, saying in part that “the transaction is structured to facilitate the further diversion of Dodgers assets for the personal needs of Mr. McCourt.” Ouch. Under terms of the divorce plan, it means the Dodgers are one step closer to being sold off — the assets would be split 50-50 between Frank and Jamie — unless Frank can find some other way to get a massive amount of money together to play his players’ monthly salaries and restore the league’s faith in him as an owner. Here’s Selig’s statement:
“Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I have informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today in a detailed letter that I cannot approve the club’s proposed transaction with FOX. This decision was reached after a full and careful consideration of the terms of the proposed transaction and the club’s current circumstances. It is my conclusion that this proposed transaction with FOX would not be in the best interests of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise, the game of Baseball and the millions of loyal fans of this historic club.
“Mr. McCourt has been provided with an expansive analysis of my reasons for rejecting this proposed transaction. Critically, the transaction is structured to facilitate the further diversion of Dodgers assets for the personal needs of Mr. McCourt. Given the magnitude of the transaction, such a diversion of assets would have the effect of mortgaging the future of the franchise to the long-term detriment of the club and its fans.
“As I have said before, we owe it to the legion of loyal Dodger fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future. This transaction would not accomplish these goals.”
Loading ...
Now it is really going to get interesting……!
JZ
Go Angels!
Not usually one to have an opinion on anything sport’s-related, but I’ll make an exception here:
The Dodger’s were Frank’s little piggy bank and his inability to make payroll after a long financial mess due to a super lavish lifestyle came as a shock to no one who knew him.
Baseball is doing the only thing baseball CAN do and Frank’s ego and Frank’s lifestyle are the only ones to blame.
Maybe Jeff Zucker will buy the team and replace all of the players with 40 cloned Jay Lenos!!! LOL!!!
Jack, you don’t LOL your OWN comments. Trust me. This applies in particular to jokes that aren’t funny.
This sentence really isn’t the right interpretation:
“That multiyear deal worth $3 billion (and, more importantly, $385 million upfront) would help McCourt shore up the Dodgers, who right now are being controlled by the league during all of this divorce mess.”
MLB valued it at $1.7B. Part of it is cash, part of it is McCourt’s valuing a minority interest in Prime Ticket (which isn’t cash). So if it is closer to $1B cash, over 20 years, that’s $50M/year. McCourt was getting an advance of $385M, which is almost 8 years of the deal (again, in terms of cash). So just like McCourt pulled $$$ from the latter part of 2011 forward to make his most recent payroll (and, I heard, he had to give his vendors significant discounts to pay early)… he is clearly mortgaging the future for upfront cash. Much of that $385M would go to him, Jamie, and “general indebtedness,” which means it would have limited benefit to the team. Starting at the end of June, McCourt’s payroll jumps from $10M to $30M because he has a big payment to Manny Ramirez, who is no longer an active player. McCourt has made many deferred comp deals, so that is going to be a bigger weight on the team going forward with no benefit to current team. He has mortgaged the future of the Dodgers and it is a good thing that MLB is stopping that from going further.
Finally someone else is saying what I have been thinking all along. If McCourt needs so much of the money up front just to “keep the lights on”, he is just setting things up for the cupboard to be bear toward the end of the contract. Agreeing to this deal (beyond so much else that would have been wrong with it) might have ended the “will they make payroll” talk today, but it would ensure that the questions would come up again, only with no magic bullet solution then.
“Manny Ramirez”
Don’t even mention that name. Talk about another mess.
ROOTING4 THE BEST 4THE McCOURTS #BELIEVING THE DODGERS BEST CHANCE OF BEING STRONGER THAN EVER IS2 GO W/ A WELL FINANCED WEALTHY OWNER LIKE PETER GUBER THAT HAS A PASSION4 EXCELLENCE&WINNING THAT IS INFECTIOUS & THE TRACK RECORD IN SPORTS FRANCHISE OWNERSHIP TO BACK IT UP
might consider rethinking my position if I am on the same side as this post.
Luckily I can barely understand it.
Shhh. Geez, what are you on?
Joe Blaze, Hollywood’s Village Idiot for 15 years strong and counting ladies and gentlemen
When is Selig going to apologize to the LA fans for approving McCourt’s purchase of the Dodgers to begin with? And with allegedly only $9M in cash & hundreds of millions in leverage! While he’s doing the right thing here rejecting the FOX deal, he’s responsible for this mess in the first place.
Agreed. This is going to get ugly.
My prediction is that MLB will move to take over the Dodgers, but McCourt will inform them that the stadium, parking lots, surrounding land and concessions have been split off into separate legal entities which are no longer part of the team’s assets. He’ll argue that MLB can’t touch those assets.
Ouch!
Ugly is only the beginning
Never liked Fox when they owned it, nor the McCourt’s to begin with, crap+crap= doesn’t equal world series appearance’s. This is the first of many pro teams to change hands, how do you let somebody buy a team with leveraged money to begin with. MLB is partially to blame for this sideshow.
Selig is scum and as low as it gets. Turned an eye with Fehr to the drug problem, then was shocked (SHOCKED I tell you) when the extent was revealed. Now, he egregiously gets involved and scuffles a legit deal in order to force an ownership change. The problem is that the Dodgers aren’t the only one in straights and the Mets are worse off. Additionally, Selig knew the finances of he McCourts upon purchase. It’s revisionism of the worst sort to say MLB is only now realizing McCourts’ money’s problems.
And I hate the Dodgers.
The Mets are not worst off? The Mets have a new wealthy minority owner who infused 200 million dollars of cash into the team.Frank McCort’s Dodgers on the otherhand are heavily leverage and are on the verge of not paying their players.Besides, Frank McCort and his Gold digger wife were bleeding the dodgers dry to live like billionaires, if Selig allows Frank The Tank and Jamie Bimbot to get this Tv Deal it will only hurt the franchised in the long run.If the opportunity presents itself to fix a previous mistake, it best to take it and Selig is well within his right to do so.
If it is going to get ugly…it is going to be incredibly costly for Frank McCourt to mount such a strong legal team. Unfortunately for McCourt, the government/courts will probably not interfere/over rule MLB because it is not subject to antitrust law.
I pity the lawyer who would consider taking on this suit for a percentage only…as it might be a while before there is enough cash to get paid. McCourt cannot meet monthly Dodger payrolls without Fox…and, I doubt there is much left to steal from the Dodgers with MLB sitting on the team.
McCourt can only continue to spend money he doesn’t have trying to slay the dragon…which in this case…is the good guy.
Selig made the only real move he could. Future media rights should belong to the new owners and not to lame duck Frank. Jamie knows that. 3B is a joke…5B+ is more of a real number
Bud, Please let Mark Cuban buy the team.
He and his wife were using the team as their personal bank account to fund their lavish lifestyles, but I blame Professor Kelp for allowing these numbskulls the chance to buy this franchise, on borrowedn money. Team needs to be sold to investors who know how to run the team and will not utilize itn for their own personal gains. The mcCourts need to be run out of town.
That 200 million has reduced the Mets debt load from 650 million to 450 million. Their payroll for next year is already jacked.
The problem is this: as much as you may loathe McCourt, he’s not any worse than he worst of them yet Selig is making his personal which oversteps his bounds. Like it or not, McCourts basic defense is this: my troubles aren’t the worst in MLB and you knew my situation when you sold me the team. And unfortunately he has a valid point.