MLB To Take Over Dodgers' Financial Operations

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Yeah she's trying to suck every penny/nickel/dime out of him.

The wife Jamie is the brains of the two.  She's a succesful lawyer in her own right.  He made his money on real estate, and she was able to find levers to allow them to pick up title cheap. 

They acquired a series of warehouses and parking lots along Boston harbor across from the airport. It was adjacent to Boston's financial district and was on the route for the extension of I-90 (Mass Pike) out the airport.  The properties right on the water were owned by a restauraneur, Anthony Athanas, who lost them to the Pritzker family (I think the are the people behind Hyatt).  Add in a convention center, the Big Dig, and a gorgeous federal courthouse, and those parking lots and warehouse became worth a mint.  They cut a few deals (threats to sue, other tactics) to consolidate into a single footprint. 

The McCourts bid on the Red Sox and were going to build a new ballpark on their property (that I think was part of the consideration for the team).   It looked like funny money in comparison to Henry / Werner -Ottem / Lucchino, who also had NY Times money, so the McCourts were not let into the club at the time, but when Fox wanted out of the Dodgers fast and real estate looked like a gold mine, all of a sudden their money looked good. 

Jamie actually might be more able to get financial backing to buy out Frank, but Frank says hell no.  Frank locked her out, and between being not too bright and poor cash flow, has been bleeding the team.

[blue911]

The wife Jamie is the brains of the two.  She's a succesful lawyer in her own right.  He made his money on real estate, and she was able to find levers to allow them to pick up title cheap. 

They acquired a series of warehouses and parking lots along Boston harbor across from the airport. It was adjacent to Boston's financial district and was on the route for the extension of I-90 (Mass Pike) out the airport.  The properties right on the water were owned by a restauraneur, Anthony Athanas, who lost them to the Pritzker family (I think the are the people behind Hyatt).  Add in a convention center, the Big Dig, and a gorgeous federal courthouse, and those parking lots and warehouse became worth a mint.  They cut a few deals (threats to sue, other tactics) to consolidate into a single footprint. 

The McCourts bid on the Red Sox and were going to build a new ballpark on their property (that I think was part of the consideration for the team).   It looked like funny money in comparison to Henry / Werner -Ottem / Lucchino, who also had NY Times money, so the McCourts were not let into the club at the time, but when Fox wanted out of the Dodgers fast and real estate looked like a gold mine, all of a sudden their money looked good. 

Jamie actually might be more able to get financial backing to buy out Frank, but Frank says hell no.  Frank locked her out, and between being not too bright and poor cash flow, has been bleeding the team.

Her pop owned Luskin's.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I wonder if MLB will give the Dodgers the same treatment they gave the Expos and Nats.  I hope not for the sake of their fans.

On the other hand, if MLB screwed us over so badly, why shouldn't they screw them over?  Maybe that's a bit vindictive, but MLB set this franchise back ten years and aided in the rebuilding and restocking of pretty much all the other teams - why should it be any different for another team?

I think when they acquired the Expos (to allow Loria to pick up the Marlins so Henry could buy the Red Sox), the hope was they would be able to eliminate the team.  Thus, the short term dealing (the Colon trade) and allowing Loria to take whatever scouting / front office pieces with him he wanted.  I don't think that is the intent with the Dodgers.  The unforgiveable thing they did with Expos in my mind was not so much the Colon trade (which was just stupid short term thinking) but the failure to allow the team to offer arb to its free agents like Vladi.

By the way, if any Nats fan hates the Red Sox because of the Henry - Loria deal in 2002, I think he or she would be jusitified.  I suppose Loria would have found a way to get cheap with this team and destroy it, but the whole 3 franchise manuever is enough to say the Red Sox helped stick a knife in.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Her pop owned Luskin's.

I think that's right.  So instead of the Lerners, maybe they would own this team if they did not own the Dodgers.

[tomterp]

I think when they acquired the Expos (to allow Loria to pick up the Marlins so Henry could buy the Red Sox), the hope was they would be able to eliminate the team.  

Time for a flashback:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=13657

Marooning Montreal
by Derek Zumsteg

While looking toward the future with our comprehensive slate of current content, we'd also like to recognize our rich past by drawing upon our extensive online archive of work dating back to 1997. In an effort to highlight the best of what's gone before, we'll be bringing you a weekly blast from BP's past, introducing or re-introducing you to some of the most informative and entertaining authors who have passed through our virtual halls. If you have fond recollections of a BP piece that you'd like to nominate for re-exposure to a wider audience, send us your suggestion.

As Bud Selig seizes control of the Dodgers, revisit Derek's reaction to the news of an earlier MLB takeover, which originally ran as a "Daily Prospectus" column on December 27, 2001.

In the spirit of holiday cheer, Bud Selig has suggested that MLB may operate the Expos for the 2002 season while the franchise awaits contraction. His comments ran in the Chicago Tribune on December 23rd.

Now, this whole problem has come about because Jeff Loria--the New Yorker who bought the Expos after the last ownership group imploded--failed to salvage Montreal as a market or get a new park built, and now wants to buy the Florida Marlins, another team rumored to be a contraction candidate. The Marlins, of course, are themselves screwed by their lease, through which former owner Wayne Huizenga sucks all stadium-related revenue directly into his pocket. If Loria thought Montreal was inhospitable, he wasn't paying attention to the post-1997 deception campaign engineered in Miami by Huizenga.

Loria's exit puts the Expos in limbo. They will immediately become the worst-run franchise in all of baseball, because they'll have no clear direction. Previously, they could at least say their purpose was to field a .400 team as cheaply as possible while receiving revenue-sharing payments and turning a tidy profit. That's a stupid plan for running a team, but it's a plan.

MLB won't want to run the Expos like that, because the whole reason for eliminating the team is to stop that sort of mooching. At the same time, however, making the team viable might eliminate the need to contract it: if the 2002 Expos worked hard, especially in trying to get as many games on the air in as many languages as possible, they could well draw more fans and start repairing the damage seven years of neglect and profiteering have done in the community. Baseball certainly doesn't want that. Being in charge of marketing the 2002 Expos would be a thankless task at best: "Voyez l'Expos: Pour aucune raison!"

We don't even know if there'll be revenue sharing in the 2002 season and beyond, because revenue sharing has always been tied to salary caps and the luxury tax, but it's a safe assumption that some sort of arrangement will be made. If it includes a salary floor, the owners aren't going to want to compete against a short-lived franchise for worthwhile free agents. What we'd see as reimbursement for the revenue sharing the Expos might receive would be for the Expos to take on the bloated contracts the richest teams want to dump, i.e., if the Orioles pay the Expos $2 million in revenue sharing, then the Expos will pick up Tony Batista when Thrift waives him to make room for some Ryan Minor play-alike. The Expos could well be a sinkhole in 2002, paying big-name veterans who suck it up on the field, and baseball will play it off as a last gasp for the franchise, a final test to show that Montreal can't even support baseball when given a team with a real payroll paid out to "name" players.

It's also possible that this kind of sophisticated end-game strategy hasn't occurred to baseball. Instead, they'll appoint a skeleton crew to keep the team limping to season's end, fearful of making any trades that risk their being accused of holding a fire sale, trying not to compete and upset the other owners, but at the same time not wanting to tank too badly and become a laughingstock.

And what of the Expos' minor leaguers? Why should MLB care if they're coached, or well-fed, if they stay at a Red Roof Inn or if they're stacked like cordwood at the Off-Interstate Stick-Up Shack? It doesn't matter to Selig if the Expos give Brad Wilkerson regular playing time to see if he can play, or if they play Geoff Blum in left field every game. For players like Wilkerson, a lost year of development time and the opportunity to show their talent could well be setbacks too big to overcome, and cost them the ability to make a living if the Expos do indeed go away.

You may disagree with me and believe that baseball can't be viable in Montreal. Perhaps too much harm has been done. But for baseball to run a team out for 2002 without support, purpose, or future instead of seriously considering other options--selling the team to a reasonably intelligent owner, arranging a move to Washington, D.C. or elsewhere--is an unconscionable and brazen breach of every fan's support of baseball. It's a betrayal of the contract baseball has with the country in which they're allowed a legal monopoly in exchange for upholding the social and community obligations for which Selig and the hard-line owners obviously care little.

Selig is not only a liar and perjurer (in Congress, no less), he is also a coward. If this plan is going to end baseball in Montreal, just end it now. If it's a solution to a problem, solve the problem now. If it's all designed to pick a fight with the Players Association, hey, put up your fists. You want new stadiums? Build them.

This wishy-washy sniveling, combined with hints that if a new buyer got the Twins a new stadium they'd drop off the retraction list, is reprehensible, stupid, and has the potential to alienate fans of baseball like no bungle yet conceived.

[mimontero88]

Well, this really puts our ownership in perspective.

[spidernat]

Yeah she's trying to suck every penny/nickel/dime out of him.

There's a lesson in never mix sports with hoes (unless you're UMD )!

[houston-nat]

never mix sports with hoes (unless you're UMD )!

Or unless you're AnnieSavoy.

Oh, snap, a double entendre.

[spidernat]

By the way, if any Nats fan hates the Red Sox because of the Henry - Loria deal in 2002, I think he or she would be jusitified.

I would say some people have come to hate the Red Sox because some of their fans believe them to be the center of the universe.   

[spidernat]

I wonder if MLB will give the Dodgers the same treatment they gave the Expos and Nats.  I hope not for the sake of their fans.

I'd say there is a bit of a difference between the Dodgers and the Expos so I highly doubt that would ever happen.

[hammondsnats]

I would say some people have come to hate the Red Sox because some of their fans believe them to be the center of the universe.   

this and some of the players are complete dbags.  there's plenty of reasons to hate the red sawx.

[blue911]

I'd say there is a bit of a difference between the Dodgers and the Expos so I highly doubt that would ever happen.

The Dodgers aren't in bankruptcy, have a moderate payroll ($550M over the past 5 seasons) for their attendance (3.5M + every season) and yet need to borrow money. There's something very wrong with that picture. 

[mimontero88]

The Dodgers aren't in bankruptcy, have a moderate payroll ($550M over the past 5 seasons) for their attendance (3.5M + every season) and yet need to borrow money. There's something very wrong with that picture. 

Leave it to the wifey to ruin everything =|

[JCA-CrystalCity]

There's a lesson in never mix sports with hoes (unless you're UMD )!

Leave it to the wifey to ruin everything =|

Frank McCourt is the one syphoning cash out of the franchise, buying the team ononly $9MM out of pocket, and somehow it's Jamie's fault? 

[mimontero88]

Frank McCourt is the one syphoning cash out of the franchise, buying the team ononly $9MM out of pocket, and somehow it's Jamie's fault?  

Pssh... feminists 

[ProudNationalsFan]

Thats the last thing I want to see happen, the Dodgers or the Mets get booted.

[spidernat]

Thats the last thing I want to see happen, the Dodgers or the Mets get booted.

+1

[DPMOmaha]

I think they should contract the Mets and move the Rays there.

[Kevrock]

Contract the Mets and move the Dodgers back to Brooklyn.

[spidernat]

Contract the Mets and move the Dodgers back to Brooklyn.

  That's awesome!

[HalfSmokes]

Frank McCourt is the one syphoning cash out of the franchise, buying the team ononly $9MM out of pocket, and somehow it's Jamie's fault? 

well if not for public filing in the divorce, they might have kept the team's financial situation private for a few more years

[RobDibblesGhost]

According to ESPN: "Former Braves and Nationals executive Stan Kasten is a candidate to be Selig's point man in charge of the Dodgers"

[HalfSmokes]

According to ESPN: "Former Braves and Nationals executive Stan Kasten is a candidate to be Selig's point man in charge of the Dodgers"

and Giants fans rejoice

[MarquisDeSade]

and Giants fans rejoice

And Dodgers fans cry a little more.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

According to ESPN: "Former Braves and Nationals executive Stan Kasten is a candidate to be Selig's point man in charge of the Dodgers"

Boswell endorses the move