5:17pm: Major League Baseball is skeptical of the offer, writes Shaikin, as it suspects McCourt may be using the offer as a ploy to stir negotiations with other suitors or to persuade a bankruptcy judge to keep McCourt in charge of the team.
"There are questions within the sports industry about whether this is a genuine offer," said one industry consultant who works extensively with MLB and other professional sports leagues.
2:11pm: Frank McCourt's financial troubles have been well-documented, but the Dodgers owner could sell his team for more than any MLB franchise in history. McCourt has been offered $1.2 billion to sell the Dodgers, according to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times. Los Angeles Marathon founder Bill Burke headed the bid, which includes funding from Chinese and American investors.
Both Burke and a spokesman for McCourt declined to comment to Shaikin. McCourt has discussed the sale of a partial share of the Dodgers with at least two others groups, Shaikin reports. Burke's group is offering a cash payment for the team plus all related real estate and media rights. The bid would expire in 21 days with the goal of closing a sale within 90 days, according to Shaikin.
The Cubs sold for $845MM two years ago and that remains the record sale price for an MLB franchise.
Dayum.
Lol
Took the word right out of my mouth. Now imagine what they’d be worth if McCourt hadn’t had his grubby hands all over the franchise…
SOLD!
Offer accepted and sale approved in 3…. 2….. 1……
Although I wouldn’t say this is out of nowhere, it kind of reminds me of a hostile takeover in the business world. It’ll be near impossible for him to say no considering his standing among MLB owners, and although I know nothing of the offering group, it seems like a lot to pay for an organization in this alleged state of disrepair
supposedly they’re about to have a bidding war over rights to Dodgers games, which could factor into the price.
MLB won’t allow the Astros to be sold because of “war profiteering” charges, do you really think they will allow the Chinese government to buy the a MLB team? Overall the MLB owners are a pretty conservative group, I doubt they want the Chinese government involved.
Chinese Owners….Hmm could the Dodgers try to put a foothold into the chinese market.
technically an american owner who does a majority of his business in China, but lets be honest who doesnt these days? If the MLB turns to down becuase a majority of the money is coming from China they need to look into every single owner because i bet about 60% of the owners of teams have at least 40% of their money coming from over seas…I mean come on the potential new owner of the Stors is a war profiteer
There is a huge difference between “money coming from China” and having
‘state-owned investment institutions of the People’s Republic of China’ as business partners.
Just one more thing China can own, a Historic Baseball club…..
Chinese people like Bill Burke are taking over this country… Wait, what?
No, the Chinese people can be mentioned in the article that you didn’t read.
I did read the article. Then I made a joke you didn’t get. Some people are awfully panicked about an American-led ownership group that includes some Chinese funding. In another decade it would be panic-worthy that the Mariners are under Japanese ownership.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -> The Shanghai Dodgers of LA
It wouldn’t be Shanghai, it would be The Peking Dodgers of LA…. and of course they would change “Dodger Blue” to “Chinese Red”
Seems like a huge overpay. Pisses me off that it also rewards the McCourt’s despite their putrid ownership.
I doubt he’s going to sell. If he does, Jaime will get half of that money.
Absolutely, and the publicity of this offer is only going to create more headaches for McCourt and his lawyers. Jaime no doubt just doubled the “go away” price her and her lawyers are looking for.
who cars? That’s 600m to Frank. What a deal!!
I wonder how much the Yankees and Red Sox are worth, im saying $15 billion each because they know how to win.
Yeah it’s called spending a ton of money.
Money that they can afford to spend. I’m sure that Dodgers fans would be happy to be in the same group as the Yanks, Red Sox, and Phillies.
They should be. They are a hugely popular team in a big market. The Dodgers are one of those sports teams that should ALWAYS be good, like the Yankees, Red Sox, Lakers, Celtics, Cowboys, etc. There’s no excuse for being bad with the advantages they have.
I don’t know if they should always be good, but being that they’re in LA, there’s no excuse for them not being able to spend like a big market team. It’s pathetic.
Wait you said cowboys didn’t they just go 6-10
Football is a bad example because of the hard cap.
And basketball’s a bad example because of the fact one player can make or break a team.
All told, baseball’s the only sport where you can really apply the “large markets should usually succeed” theory.
The Celtics and Lakers were both absolutely terribad for a very long stretch of time (I’m reasonably sure the Lakers were awful for a while before Kobe and the Celtics were mediocre to bad for a decade and a half after Bird got old and their young players kept dropping dead). Basketball’s structured in a way where one bad draft can completely kill your team for a while and with their top pick being entirely predicated upon luck some teams, even in big markets, can be awful for extended periods of time.
Record sale? Good for baseball. Getting rid of the McCourts? GREAT for baseball. Please let this happen.
Rewind << button x 8 years or so "Get rid of FOX? Hell yeah, count me in on this!" Let's scrutinize the "group" verrrry carefully eh.
While that’s a fair point in general, the McCourts have set the bar so low it’s nearly impossible to be worse. For instance, you wouldn’t want the Wilpons as owners, but they aren’t as bad a situation to be stuck with as McCourt. The only advantage of McCourt is that he’s more likely to be forced to sell.
At least Wilpon lost his money by trying to invest and it was just a bad situation. McCourt did this to himself by living a lifestyle they couldn’t afford. There is a reason MLB is helping the Mets and not the Dodgers…
The “Chinese investors” are really Chinese state-owned enterprises, which are run by Communist Party officials. There is no separation between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government. They are the same thing.
As much as I can’t stand the McCourts, I have to say “hell no”. I don’t trust my neighbor. I sure as hell don’t trust the Chinese Communist Party.
I loved you in Red Dawn.
If you have any information about how China is going to take over America by owning the Dodgers please let us know. I know taking over America was tried by the Canadians but that hasn’t worked out so well for them.
A lot of different countries have assets in American, and America owns plenty of stuff in other countries as well.
Besides, China would no more own the Dodgers than the US owns the Dodgers .
You see, that’s the genius of it. It’s all about the stadium. The Chinese take over the team and establish a secret military barracks underneath. The next step is to buy the Angels and establish another base. Then the Padres, then the A’s, and finally the Giants. It’s about taking over California and it all starts with buying the Dodgers.
I can see that happening no one would notice anyway no one hoes to dodger stadium anyway
I don’t know about any “hoes” in Dodger Stadium, but they’ll easily draw 3 million a year with McCourt gone.
I didnt means hoes I ment goes sorry
Thats a lot of hoes.
you realize the Dodgers had one of the highest attendance marks of the decade? People aren’t going to games in a revolt against McCourt, and because the team is losing this year. Before that, they had sellouts almost nightly
Arte Moreno served in the Vietnam War. If anything, the Angels will be the checkpoint keeping our would-be Chinese overlords from advancing out of Chavez Ravine. We’ll probably see a wall built around the area starting somewhere in Long Beach circling all the way around to Santa Barbara with guard towers and everything.
Crazy times we live in.
/cartman_voice
What are pwans to invade America again? I forgot, haha
/end cartman_voice
In the 1970s, the Chinese government issued a pamphlet declaring that baseball would “help build the (Communist)
party” by promoting “the diligent study of Marxism, Leninism and Mao
Zedong Thought.”
Can you name some prominent companies in China that are owned by Americans?
Good luck with that.
You can take all of the money you want and try to buy a big company in China. They won’t take your money.
Meanwhile consider how many prominent companies are here in America but wholly owned by Chinese nationals. The list would go on and on and on.
“Can you name some prominent companies in China that are owned by Americans?”
Blizzard China, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, a company operated out of Santa Barbara, California.
you do realize they arereally not communist…yes they are not democratic but they are not true communists, closer to socialists and they have one of the best economies in the world right now(again not communist state of mind)
Fascist is more apt a description of their type of government.
State capitalism, FTW!!!!!!
Take it and run McCourt! Specifically run in front of a truck or into a wood chipper. Either one.
Wood chipper would be funnier to watch
You should watch Fargo… wood chipper scene not so funny.
If its McCourt then it’s going to be funny
Normal reaction? I think not.
What do you mean?
Psychopathic murderer.
Oh ok then
Is the divorce finalized? If I’m McCourt, I’m waiting until that’s done, then sell. Ain’t no ho gettin’ 600 million from me lol
Easy-E? Is that you?
EaZy-E is alive?!?!?!? Hooray!
You realize the reason he has to sell the team is so that she can get half of his net worth. She’ll get hers regardless.
no, but the divorce is gonna force him to most likely give 1/2 of whatever he gets for the team to jaime anyways. should take this and go hide
I’m not entirely sure that’s how it works. I’m acquainted with an individual currently going through a divorce and I’m of the understanding (And this may just be different state to state) that any assetts accrued after the seperation or when the divorce papers are served (I forget which) aren’t counted in proceedings. I’m not 100% certain of this, so take it with a grain of salt, but there you go.
As a Giants fan, I love the Dodgers the way they are! Screw that “don’t you want it to be a fair fight?” rhetoric. I will step on my enemy’s throat each and every time. Some other team will rise to the challenge (2010 Padres, 2011 Diamondbacks). And it all goes in cycles. It will be my team’s time to hurt again sooner than I’d like.
As a baseball fan, this would be tremendous. It gets rid of a headache owner and establishes a new precedent for the valuation of a big market franchise.
As a person, I hate to see Frank McCourt rewarded in any way.
I liked everything about your post except “As a Giants fan” and “they way they are” This is what makes rivalries awesome.
Exactly! I don’t feel any enmity toward Dodger fans. It’s not their fault, they were just raised wrong.
You could make the same argument for racists and Republicans. Just because they were raised that way doesn’t mean they’re not wrong.
It’ll be funny if it’s McCourt
McCourt, just take the money and go hide somewhere… like Libya
Isn’t Jamie claiming SHE is the owner? That the Dodgers aren’t Frank’s to sell? She’d have to sign, or the court would have to hold a hearing and extinguish her interest in 21 days. That won’t happen, and even if it did such an order would be appealable.
So Jamie just refuses to sign unless Frank meets her extortionate demands, right? No deal then, true?
that is what the court has said. the team is both of theirs. THerefore, yes, she has to sign off. But why wouldnt she? This will more or less resolve the situation and get her 600 MILLION dollars, plus whatever else Frank owes her. If the offer is legit, it will probably be the best offer they get
and jamie mccourt has just become the hottest woman on the planet…
To all the SF fans. Enjoy it and your 1 WS ring (while in SF) while you can. Because once we get this owner situation rectified (and we will) you be back at the bottom of the heep.
That’s ridiculous.
Frank can’t turn this down….
Frank to Judge: Please reduce my payments to wife, I’m broke.
Judge: Didn’t you turn down 1.2B offer?
McCourt: well played sir.
Judge: TV rights sale declined.
Then Frank would sell the team cause he HAS too, which would lower the value by say 200-400M.
Even Mark Cuba backed off, saying it could take up to 20 years to get the Dodgers turned around. Maybe the Chinese government could do it quicker, but it might mean “”Dodger Blue becoming “Chinese Red”, and “Dodger Dog” could take on a whole new meaning entirely.
20 years? What a load of bull. With an infusion of cash you could have this team in the playoffs next year. Bring in a world class front office and the farm system could be tops in 5 years. Smart people + tons of money + aggressive Latin development = strong farm system in no time.
You can dramatically accelerate a return to respectability by simply spending your money wisely. Pretty sure you can hand 20% of the commentors on this site a payroll of $200m and they could assemble a 95 win team. And if the team is really worth $1.2B then they should be able to sustain a payroll in that range.
Point is the Dodgers could be respectable NEXT year. Case in point – look at the Angels. They went from being laughed at to the class of West Coast teams over night because the owner cut the price of beer and kept ticket prices low. Combine that with putting a winning product on the field and now they draw more than the Dodgers. If you would have said that the Angels would outdraw the Dodgers 10 years ago you would have been laughed at. Now Moreno is the only one doing the laughing.
Yeah, all it takes is cash. First the $1.2B to buy the team, and then $800M to pay off all of the debt. So that is 2 billion dollars paid and you have to meet payroll after that.
BTW there is no way the Dodgers are worth $1.2B.. although they may have that much in debt.
Bankruptcy court ensures the $800M debt will be covered by the $1.2B or whatever the team sells for.
If the offer is legit, this is win-win for everyone. McCourt deserves to get market price, he does not deserve to hold onto the team. He could not anticipate the divorce, but things happen and it is time for everyone to cut their losses and move on.
Once the sale is done, we can let the McCourts fight each over about the split, while we enjoy moving on and hopefully an enhanced payroll for a star left fielder and corner infielders.
Imagine Prince Fielder, Jose Reyes and Aramis Ramirez! OK, maybe not quite that much, but at least we are dreaming again!!!!!
The downward spiral of America continues.
The Chinese own us financially.
Their military is catching up to ours.
They kicked our butts, literally, on a basketball court.
And now they will own a MLB franchise.
Pray for our children.
We still get to eat with forks.
Yeah. …forks made in china.
they are pointing and laughing at us. …and “we” won’t do anything about it, because “we” need our walmarts and dollar stores.
I like how the military situation is followed by basketball.
♫one of these things, doesn’t belong♪
That is offensive.
There is a whole lot of paranoia, ignorance, and offensive rhetoric on this thread. It is embarrassing.
Not to mention stupid. Really, really stupid.
it probably just make more sense to just leave the fact that a portion of it is chinese investors out of the story..
Realistically it doesn’t have much to do with the point of the article. its 1.2 billion offer for the dodgers, that should be the focus.
A russian billionaire bought the nets..did people panic and think the cold war was starting up again?
Right, or the Mariners being under Japanese ownership.
Actually it’s nothing like either of those situations. The fact is superpowers today are no longer military powers but economic powers and China is the economic superpower.
This deal I don’t mind, but the fact is Cassandra speaking and no one wants to listen.
There was a period of great economic fear about Japan too. I’m not saying economic worry about China is unfounded, but it’s pretty silly to worry about it as it pertains to baseball ownership. And there’s some xenophobia and racism on this thread that’s pretty damn ugly.
Was, past tense.
Xenophobia, racism, misplaced fear… well we’d need a much longer conversation and preferably with a bottle of expensive whiskey.
I’ve got a good collection of whiskey. Gotta support something America still makes well. But while things are pretty bleak relating to China, fear causes people to forget that other powers have ups and downs too.
Pffft. Ireland makes it better. Though I do love some bourbon.
I hope Kim Ng hits you with her car.
What did he say?
He said he didn’t want his team run by a bunch of (ethnic slur that rhymes with the first syllable of Youkilis).
Man, now I’m even more confused. The first syllable of Youkilis is “You.” The K, which I’m reasonably sure you’re including, is the start of the second syllable.
Fine, it rhymes with Youkilis’ nickname. Now are you actually confused or just being obtuse for the sake of it?
I’m gonna go with obtuse.
wow. just wow.
Sell the team you Boston piece of garage and take your ugly fried skinned wife with you.
He’s not married…. but nice try.
he can’t sell that piece of his garage, his fried skinned wife owns it.
Who on earth would make an offer that large without doing due diligence? I think this is a ploy, nothing more.