Here's the latest on the Dodgers….
- Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has told friends he will not bid for the club, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Estimated to be the third-richest man in America by Forbes Magazine, Ellison's sports connections include an America's Cup-winning yacht team, tennis tournament sponsorships and a failed attempt to buy the NBA's Golden State Warriors in 2010.
- Also from Nightengale, he predicts the Dodgers will be sold for $1.73 billion, roughly $1.3 billion more than Frank McCourt originally paid for the team in 2004.
- The Fox and Time Warner media outlets are both considering bidding for full or partial ownership of the Dodgers, reports Ramona Shelburne for ESPN Los Angeles. A stake in the team would help the winner avoid what is expected to be a "fierce" battle between the two companies for the Dodgers' media rights once their current deal expires after the 2013 season.
- The Dodgers may still have a need for another left-handed reliever, writes Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. Times.
I like the last tid-bit “oh and btw the dodgers might be looking for a reliever”
Bring back Andruw…haha funny
Why waste money on complimentary pieces? We aren’t contenders this year.
McCourt only paid $430,000,000 for the Dodgers?
This is shocking to me as well.
I also find it humorous that he planned to bulldoze Fenway had he bought the Red Sox
Fox NewsCorp had really run the franchise into the ground and they were pretty desperate to sell. They also kept the media rights, so that reduced the buyout price. Also, if you look at what baseball franchises were selling for circa 2004, it’s not far out of line.
If you could make over a billion dollars selling a team…why would you not be selling. I’m just surprised given the general economic state since 2004…how a team could see their value surge quite like that. I can hardly believe the media rights will add that much value to a franchise….but maybe I’m wrong. I suppose it’s “perceived value”
Well, if media contracts are going to become that much of a chunk of a teams value…..MLB can lay Kansas City-Pittsburgh-Milwaukee to rest.
You raise some good points. First, I think MLB may be setting a dangerous precedent with the handling of the Dodgers sale. By filing for bankruptcy, McCourt has successfully altered the normal franchise sale process radically in his favor. So why would any owner who wants out not declare bankruptcy? The evidence suggests that they’d net a whole lot more from the sale if they did.
Second, you are completely right about the built-in problems of small-market teams. Only MLB has allowed this situation to get so totally out of whack. Baseball needs revenue sharing more like the NBA. Getting this done would require leadership from the commissioner, so with the jellyfish back for two more years, those who see this as baseball’s biggest problem have a long wait ahead of us.
I’m not aware of the current split on TV revenue…for example..what the Pirates make from the TV revenue when they are visiting LA.
It also doesn’t make terrible TV sense if too much of the schedule is littered with teams that no one has an interest in watching the Dodgers play. The Dodgers can’t play the Giants…etc 162 times a year.
There has always been economic disparity in the game, but at a certain point the fairness and integrity of the on field product is sabotaged if a handful of teams strangle the baseball economy.
I don’t know the splits but it’s clear from the numbers that not enough revenue is pooled currently. We’ve got about a 5:1 disparity in payrolls between the have and have not teams in baseball. In the NBA it’s still a lot, but more like 2:1. The luxury tax sure isn’t cutting it.
There also needs to be stipulations that revenue sharing is used to increase the onfield product and general competitive state of the teams that are getting the most aid. It makes little sense to have a small market team running profitably..for what it is anyway…and have the wealthy owner of that team basically pocketing the revenue sharing check.
For the good of the game and competition..the money needs to be going to some sort of product development. It doesn’t have to be spent on every high priced free agent….but to international player development….the draft….etc.
Money, clearly isn’t the entire answer behind winning a World Series, but we have way too many teams and paying customers who have little hope that there teams can compete even on even an intermitant basis. Considering that many of these fans have helped fund these new stadiums through their taxes….They should get a voice.
You won’t get many amens around here for that kind of thinking, but I agree with you completely.
Well, it’s kind of like the old argument about legislating morality…..it’s impossible to do. Baseball just needs more baseball people looking out for the future of the game and not just the immediate financial situation…because..ultimately…every team will suffer if teams fail.
It would have been far more fun if the Dodgers had new ownership in place this offseason. Darvish, Pujols, Fielder, Reyes, Buhrle,Wilson, Papelbon, the list of star-studded talent that was out there this season just goes on, and new ownership is going to need/want to make a big splash. The list of names for next season, though still nice, is nowhere near as impressive, and there will be less “positional competition” too.(Fielder or Pujols? Papelbon or Madson or Bell? Wilson or Darvish? Rollins or Reyes?)
Any new owner is going to have some significant work to do in-house before shopping the market, but the cash in-flux, especially if neither brodcast company gets in, could be huge.
Starting pitching pool looks quite good though – Cain, Greinke, Hamels. Of course at least one or more could sign extensions…
Position player pool…bleh.
That 1.73 billion figure is complete BS. It would take a hundred profitable years just to pay off the debt on the team.
That number is sort of made up, but north of $1.5b is hardly out of the question. A new media deal could be worth three times that much, and if they can start filling the stadium again — it could very well pencil out.
Dodger fans better hope neither Fox or Time Warner buy the Dodgers. McCourt will see more money but either one will run the team in the same manner as Fox NewsCorp previously ran the team, looking only for profits and marketability.