LA Dodgers file for bankruptcy
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES
One of baseball’s proudest franchises is in tatters, its future to be decided more in the courtroom than on the field.
The Los Angeles Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court Monday, blaming Major League Baseball for refusing to approve a multibillion-dollar TV deal that owner Frank McCourt was counting on to keep the troubled franchise afloat.
McCourt, upset that baseball commissioner Bud Selig rejected the proposed TV deal last week, hopes a federal judge will approve $150 million in financing to be used for daily operations, which would give him more time to seek a more favorable media contract. A hearing is scheduled today.
“The action taken today by Mr. McCourt does nothing but inflict further harm to this historic franchise,” Selig said in a statement.
The team is bleeding red ink instead of Dodger blue, with former players owed millions. Even Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully is owed more than $150,000 as part of his contract, court documents show.
The filing by a cash-starved McCourt comes just days before he was expected to miss a team payroll on Thursday and possibly be confronted with an MLB takeover.
Legal observers expect MLB to contest McCourt’s request for filing bankruptcy, arguing the dispute should remain within the confines of baseball. Baseball’s constitution allows Selig to take control of a team that seeks Chapter 11 protection.
The Baltimore Orioles in 1993 and the Texas Rangers last year were sold in federal bankruptcy court, though in neither case did MLB seize the team first. In 2009, the Chicago Cubs went into bankruptcy for several weeks as part of the sales process after Tribune Co. agreed to sell the team to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts.
“For somebody who grew up as a Dodger fan since he was 6 in Brooklyn, this makes me very, very sad,” said Bob Daley, the Dodgers’ managing partner when Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. sold the team to McCourt in 2004.