Dodgers bankruptcy sale set

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Maybe a “For Sale” sign should be erected outside Dodger Stadium.

Team, ballpark, land and television rights available. Price: $1 billion and up.

The process of finding a new owner for the Los Angeles Dodgers began early Wednesday when current boss Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball released a joint statement saying they had agreed to a court-supervised sale of the once-glamorous and now bankrupt franchise.

In the long-term, the deal will allow the Dodgers to move ahead and try to get back to baseball’s elite. But the club’s fans may well have to endure another season adrift as the sale works itself out.

While the sides hope for a quick deal, giving McCourt the money to pay his divorce settlement by April, MLB sales sometimes drag on for six months to 11/2 years. Once bidders are identified, the court is likely to conduct an auction.

“Baseball can choose to have their approval process move like molasses in winter or like Castor oil through a baby,” said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a Chicago-based consulting firm.

The price likely will break the record for a baseball franchise, topping the $845 million paid by the Ricketts family for the Chicago Cubs in 2009.

Investors will be solicited by the Blackstone Group, McCourt’s investment banker. Dallas Mavericks co-owner Mark Cuban and Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle, who lives in California, have been mentioned as possibilities. Asian investors have made inquiries.

Former agent Dennis Gilbert, a friend of Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, hopes to put together a group. Former Dodgers Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser have said they might be interested, as has former general manager Fred Claire.

Claire is aligned with former Oakland Athletics President Andy Dolich and former Dodgers batboy Ben Hwang, who brought in the financial backers. Claire, the Dodgers’ GM from 1987-98, assumes the price will be $800 million to $1 billion and up.