How you doing, Dodger fans? Hanging in there? Keep your chin up. I know having your franchise taken over by Major League Baseball and becoming a ward of Bud Selig’s state probably doesn’t seem like something to get excited about, but I’m here to tell you that it might just be the best thing to happen to you since Kirk Gibson limped and fist-pumped his way around the bases.
I know that you have already heard some true horror stories of what kind of long-term damage an MLB stewardship can do to a franchise, but fret not, there isn’t any damage Bud Selig and his minions can do that the McCourts haven’t done already. Yes, yes, MLB’s brief “ownership” of the Montreal Expos ended with the Expos giving away their farm system in an ill-fated trade and killed baseball in Montreal, but that situation couldn’t possibly have been more different than what the Dodgers face right now.
The Expos were taken over by Major League Baseball in part to bail out an owner, but mostly as a bargaining chip in collective bargaining. Selig wanted to threaten the players’ union with contraction and owning the Expos was the best way to do it. Well, that won’t happen here. Bud Selig may have done some dumb things in his reign as commissioner, but contracting one of the marquee teams in baseball isn’t something even he would consider.
A more accurate comparison for the Dodgers’ situation is last year’s league intervention with the Rangers. Like the Dodgers, the Texas franchise was buried under a mountain of debt thanks to the business bunglings of their previous owner. I’m sure that definitely sounds a heck of a lot similar to LA fans, eh?
There is no alterior motives in play for Bud Selig this time, his mission now is quite simply to put an end to the reign of tyranny the McCourts have had over the Dodger franchise since they purchased the team from Fox. Well, that’s not totally true, Selig probably feels some personal responsibility to rid the league of the McCourts since he helped orchestrate the McCourts purchase in the first place. Since then, it has been one embarassment after another for this once proud organization.
LA fans know much of this all too well right now, but for those of you who have been spared the details of the McCourt buffoonery and malfeasance, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane:
- For starters, the McCourts gave their children high-paying, do-nothing positions in the organization so they could feed freely off the team’s very profitable teet.
- They paid six figures for a “psychic” to give the team “V-energy” by way of him watching the games on TV on the East Coast and thinking positive thoughts.
- In 2005, the McCourt slashed team payroll all the way down to $84 million. In their defense, the Dodgers have come all the way back up to $120 million this season, but not before drawing all kind of public criticism for the original 2005 budget cuts.
- Frank McCourt has used the team as his personal piggy bank, borrowing so much money against the team that it only has $300 million in equity left despite being valued at nearly $800 million.
- The team dramatically slashed spending on signing draft picks and scouting international players.
- The McCourts announced that they were getting a divorce right in the middle of a Dodger playoff run in 2009. Great motivation.
- They also allowed Justin Bieber to be used in a billboard promotion for the team. That isn’t corporate malfeasance or anything, but it is pretty embarrassing.
- Frank McCourt tried to take a $200 million advance on the team’s TV deal in order to cover the team’s operating costs. Because, you know, why would they want to have money to spend in the future?
- After Selig rejected the advance, McCourt simply took a $30 million personal loan from Fox so that he could cover the team’s payroll for the next month.
- Oh, and the McCourts are now being investigated by the IRS since they siphoned tens of millions of dollars from the franchise without paying taxes. Maybe they just forgot?
And that doesn’t even begin to cover all of the embarrassing personal details that were divulged during the divorce proceedings for the world to scoff at (and I am sure I forgot plenty of other incriminating evidence as well). And yet for some reason McCourt thinks he is somehow being gravely wronged by Major League Baseball, is proclaiming he is in full compliance, and plans to sue the league. Good idea, Frank, that definitely will make them change their mind about forcing you out as owner. If that doesn’t tell you just how misguided McCourt’s tenure in Los Angeles has been, I don’t know what does.
Make no mistake, this move by Selig isn’t just to “oversee the financial compliance” of the team, it is his first step in finding new ownership for the Dodgers. Frankly, it is amazing they waited this long to intervene. Unfortunately, they may waited too long.
One of the results of the McCourt divorce proceedings is that Frank and his ex-wife Jamie remain in dispute over who actually owns the team, something that came into play mostly because Frank hired incompetent lawyers. Seeing how vindictive the divorce was, it was hard to imagine Jamie amicably accepting a buyout of her share of the team unless it involved putting Frank’s manhood in a vice first. The litigation that was sure to follow, since Frank clearly doesn’t have the personal funds to even begin talking about buying Jamie out, was certain to be ugly, contentious and extremely long.
With all the red tape involved, this oversight of the team could very easily turn into the league actually purchasing the team from the McCourts just to get them to go away. It will cost the league a ton of money, but they’ll recoup it quickly once they spin the club off to what will hopefully be a lengthy list of interested buyers (Mr. Selig, Mark Cuban is on line 2). Heck, MLB’s takeover might even bode well for the Dodgers’ playoff chances. In that aforementioned takeover in Texas, the league somehow saw fit to allow the Rangers to add Cliff Lee, Cristan Guzman, Bengie Molina and Jorge Cantu before the trade deadline despite the team essentially being bankrupt. Texas, of course, went to the World Series. The biggest difference there was that the Rangers already had a new owner lined up and ready to take over once all the legal wrangling got squared away. The Dodgers don’t have that luxury, but the team still generates a great deal of profit, so it isn’t like they can’t afford it, especially now that they no longer have to worry about the McCourts plundering those profits first.
Even if Bud Selig decides to put a financial lockdown on the Dodgers, it will be a small price to pay for the forthcoming freedom the team will soon enjoy. The team had enjoyed decent on-field success under the McCourts, but it was almost in spite of them. Sooner or later, the McCourts’ irresponsible business and personal dealings were going to submarine the franchise, perhaps permanently. In the next year or two, someone new will own the team and this will all seem like a long, sordid bad dream for Dodger fans.
