The Dodger’s are the face for baseball. Well at least I think so. Entering into the National League in 1890 and
winning the pennant, showed this was a special team and the beginning of a long
road of amazing history. Well,
until 2011 when owner Frank McCourt took the team in a different
direction. Not only did he show how
little he actually cared for the fans and the team itself, but also he put them
in a financial crisis that only benefitted him and his family.
The team started spiraling in the wrong direction when the
O’Malley family, after owning the team for 30 years, decided to sell it in
1998. Murdoch’s News Corp jumped right
on the deal, but not to manage the team how it was before, but by trying to
build a network surrounding the team.
After six short years, they succeeded and decided to sell it to make a
lot of money.
In the meantime, Boston native, Frank McCourt was looking
into purchasing the Boston Red Sox.
Unfortunately this wouldn’t work out for him because of his lack of
assets and credibility. He then
saw an opportunity with the Dodgers and jumped right on it. The only problem was he didn’t have the funds
to actually buy the team so he started off on the wrong foot in debt. He had to loan $150m from Bank of America,
$75m from MLB, and $196m from FOX.
With $421 million in debt, Frank had to figure out ways to
pay this off but he wouldn’t be able to do that without benefitting
himself. He was trying to be slick by
trading his Boston parking lots to FOX to forgive some of his debt with them, borrowed
$250m from Dodger Tickets, LLC, to refinance most of the remaining acquisition
debt and cashed in $50m of “rebates” from FOX. So he basically paid for the team with the
team’s money.
So while the team is suffering from this extreme debt, he
used the money that was coming in for his luxurious lifestyle. Not only was he paying himself $5m a year and
his wife $2m a year, but he was paying his children at least $600,000
each. The only problem with that was his
children weren’t even working for the team yet they were on the payroll. On top of that, they spent
more money than they were making, which caused more uproar. They couldn’t spend money on decent players
because they couldn’t afford it so that caused fans to stop coming to
games. McCourt wasn’t worried about it
because he had the money coming in to support his lifestyle. He also had “other businesses” which he
claimed was paying his salary and his lifestyle.
Unfortunately there is so much more to this story that can
be written. Frank McCourt is a selfish
man that is going through a divorce now, which might cost even more money. Plus he wants to make a deal with FOX that
would pay the Dodgers $200m to try to get the team back on track. However, if this deal goes
through, it only leaves an open door for McCourt to use that money for his
personal use.
This story was a big deal because Frank McCourt was taking
one of baseball’s first team’s ever and running it into the ground. The worst part was that he probably didn’t
care as long as he was benefitting from it.
The Commissioner of the MLB needs to deny the deal McCourt wants with
FOX and take the team away from him.
There was a reason he was denied purchasing the Red Sox. It should’ve put up a red flag when he
purchased the Dodgers.
If you want to learn more about this story, check out a couple of these sites!
