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It tells you most everything you need to know about the Dodgers' ownership troubles that I could fall off the face of the earth for two months, and come back to learn that not a whole lot has changed. Of course, that's not true: I've stayed abreast of the happenings, and in touch with folks close to the situation. But still, I definitely haven't spent much time here.
So what's happened? Well, I took the bar, started my new job, passed the bar, and got sworn in (just today, in fact!).
Oh, but you didn't mean me.
The most relevant quote is one that bounced around last week, when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon acknowledged that "[u]ntil it gets out of bankruptcy, the baseball team cannot be sold by this court." That reflects, of course, one of Frank McCourt's chief aims in filing for bankruptcy in the first place: it put an effective freeze on the disposition of the team.
So it appears the Dodgers will head into a third consecutive offseason with the ownership question still hanging over the proud franchise's head.
If October 2009 was about revelations and October 2010 about non-resolutions, what will October 2011 bring? The bankruptcy trial is making slow progress (which is, in many ways, the idea). The divorce litigation won't refocus on the case's most compelling issue until the calendar flips to 2012. The team is somehow thoroughly out of contention despite having viable candidates for both the National League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Awards.
.500 seems a perfectly appropriate record for a team coasting down a hill in neutral on its way to a third winter of paralysis-by-divorce. The club seems neither to be coming nor going, neither contending nor rebuilding. That will all change, of course. Someone, Frank McCourt or otherwise, will get to sell the club's TV rights. At some point, the club will win again, and winning will bring people back to the Stadium. You can't keep a team with the Dodgers' built-in advantages down forever. But, my goodness, can you try.
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Posts
Ten reasons the Phillies will be buyers
25 minutes ago
Can you do some investigative reporting and determine after the season is over the amount of Debt that is included in the Dodger's MLB CBA Debt to EBITDA formula, determine the average amount of EBITDA for 2010 and 2011, and then tell us how much the player payroll must be reduced unless Bud grants a waiver regarding the failure of the Dodgers to meet the Debt to EBITDA formula?
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Josh, congratulations on your Esquire. Numerous future clients will be in good hands. Which reminds me, I still have this little Worker's comp thing on.....
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I have been waiting here with baited breath since late July. No, literally. I haven't left this site since your last post and have atrophied into the arm chair. Your voice has been sorely missed, not being beholden to any Big Brother entity. Pravda has nothing on the U.S. media, believe me.
I have not wavered from my belief that McCourt is now here to stay, without question. I cannot see any circumstance where a federal judge would alter the landscape of bankruptcy law to prevent a legitimate restructuring by preventing a TV auction WITH FRANK MCCOURT AS OWNER. It immediately begins the lubrication of debt remuneration, provides a 45 day window with FOX to negotiate in good faith, and then moves this entire process forward with an eye on the approximately $175 Mil surplus that Bennett claims will be available as well. Why in the name of Zeus would Selig want to thwart such a process by attempting to oust him after Chapter 11 ends? He cannot do so at all during the process, has absolutely no authority to trump Gross, and invites a potentially disastrous lawsuit exposing Baseball's hallowed books, not to mention extends this insanity, not to mention the ACTUAL scandal in Baseball-the New York Mets.
As far as the future of the team for '12, we are not that far away, Josh. This team has played .750 ball since your last post, and seems to have turned a major corner heading into the off-season. At the end of the day, the Dodgers will most likely end up at .500, be close to 3 million in total attendance, and finish in a solid third place. Not bad for the complete smear campaign that the Orwellian MLB front office has funded since the season began.
p.s. I also cannot see Gordon halving the Dodgers to Jamie under any circumstances, especially after all the mishugas.
ReplyDeleteTony, I can't see the judge letting Frank McCourt to mortgage the Dodgers future again, and if so he would be letting Frank back in the same situation 6 years later in bankruptcy court.
ReplyDeleteIf Frank can actually negotiate with Fox and receive a nonfundable $300 mil signing bonus that under no circumstances will be characterized as a prepayment of revenue and therefore not a DEBT under GAAP and therefore not a Debt under the MLB CBA then Frank can actually win this mess. What far too many people are not talking about is that the Family Law court does not always order an in-spouse to immediately pay any amounts due to their spouse regarding the out-spouse's value of community or separate property family business. For instance, Jamie could agree to be a minority owner with a put call that in five years requires Frank to purchase her interest for a set amount or for a prorata value as of that future date. Unfortunately this is not over for Frank. It may just be up to Fox who owns the Dodgers in 2013.
ReplyDeleteWhat Ken said. However, I think the TV auction is going to be precedent setting. Watch out for Univision quietly swooping in with a historic offer. Just a gut feeling.
ReplyDeleteTony and Ken. Are you sure you are not the great Mark Timmons? Do you really think as of now will give Frank $300 for nothing? Didn't Fox give Frank almost all the money to buy the team when he was married to Jaime? Wasn't Jaime an officer of the Dodgers since the McCourts bought the team? Some of these comments on this sight now are just a big joke.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to all the great bloggers who use to blog on this site?
ReplyDeleteI can remember the LA Times stories -- before the divorce mess, financial debacle and other legal entanglements -- that warned readers that Frank McCourt was a lawsuit landmine in his previous life before the Dodgers. Why this didn't get through the thick-headed skulls of MLB is an unbelievable question. To me, it shows that the commissioner and his underlings have no true understanding on how to run baseball. They should have done their homework.
ReplyDeleteMLB seems to do just fine no matter how many bumbles are made. Baseball fans are junkies, and they will keep coming. I am no lawyer, and only modestly successful in business, but this McCourt character stunk it up from the very beginning. His history was transparent for any and all to see, but in the door he comes. Once the rats have nested, it is often extremely difficult to get them out. I feel for all Dodger fans for as long as this guy is in the owner's box, the Dodgers will remain irrelevant.
ReplyDeletethe bloggers are still here, they are just waiting for something different to happen before they respond. McCourt is playing his ace of spades with the TV rights, he holds no other cards. Now either the court grants it or denies it, but until then we are still in a holding pattern
ReplyDeleteI like that name. Thanks, Anon!
ReplyDeleteI have said what you are saying from the beginning. It would be nice if he were going, but he is still there.
He has a couple of more cards to play if the TV deal gets denied.
Peace!
Does his arrogance really have to be added to every website?
ReplyDeleteYou are pathetic. Grow a pair!
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with The Great Mark Timmons work. He knows water, but, everything else in his words suggests he sees things through blue glasses.
ReplyDeleteMLB wants McCourt gone, every Dodger fan from Santa Monica to Brooklyn wants him gone, and S.F. Giants fans are laughing their collective asses off.
If MLB could do something, they would. I fear McCheeseball has them over a barrel.
Wow! Someone has a really limited and unimaginative juvenile vocabulary.
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