When news broke that the Los Angeles Dodgers were having financial difficulties, Frank McCourt said that people shouldn’t worry. He had a television deal in place with FOX that was going to fix everything.
MLB Rejects Dodgers, FOX Television Rights Deal
When MLB seized financial control of the Dodgers after there were whispers that the team couldn’t make their monthly payroll, McCourt said it wouldn’t have been a issue if baseball would approve that pesky FOX deal.
McCourt just reached a settlement with his wife Jamie McCourt that had Frank buying her interest of the Dodgers out using the money from the FOX deal.
Small problem, though: there isn’t going to be a FOX deal. Bud Selig and Major League Baseball moved to reject the proposed deal between the Dodgers and FOX, leaving McCourt without a lot of options. The decision makes it almost inevitable that the team will have to be sold. From Tim Brown of Yahoo!:
Selig words: It is my conclusion that this proposed transaction with FOX would not be in the best interests of the ... Dodgers franchise.Though MLB hasn’t given a reason for the decision, it’s believed that the deal was below market, which a) would have set a bad precedent for the other 29 teams, and b) might have lowered the value of the franchise.
I picture Frank McCourt acting like Ray Liotta in “Goodfellas” after Lorraine Bracco flushed his nest egg down the toilet.
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