Frank McCourt wins big

[AdironRider]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/group-...130804251.html

As an avid baseball fan this story has intrigued me for years. This guy buys the team 8 years ago for 450 mil or so, goes through a massive divorce leaving most thinking the guy is going bankrupt, comes out squeaky clean and 1.5 billion richer. Holy shit.

[iceman]

Wonder how much the ex gets of that. Doesn't really matter, dude's made a fuckton of money since he bought a parking lot in Southie all those years ago. Lot of money in parking, obviously. Not quite as much as in baseball, though, I guess.

[warthog]

Crazy- he is a parking lot king. The Glazers(Buccaneers/ Man U. owners) made their money in trailer parks.

Arty should have a lot of nice things to say about this.

Edit- holy shit- he still owns a piece of the parking lot. Stick to what you know I guess.

[AdironRider]

Wonder how much the ex gets of that. Doesn't really matter, dude's made a fuckton of money since he bought a parking lot in Southie all those years ago. Lot of money in parking, obviously. Not quite as much as in baseball, though, I guess.

Wife got 130 million, baseball got their loan back as well. Rest is McCourt's.

I just find it interesting he sold the junk show he created for 25-30% more than any other sports team ever, and basically tripled his investment while simultaneously trying to run it into the ground. Astounding!

[jfost]

that is how the 1% rolls...

[irul&ublo]

Wife got 130 million, baseball got their loan back as well. Rest is McCourt's.

I just find it interesting he sold the junk show he created for 25-30% more than any other sports team ever, and basically tripled his investment while simultaneously trying to run it into the ground. Astounding!

Unlike the NFL, MLB teams own their own local TV rights. That, plus the real estate, is why the price is so high.

[Benny Profane]

Not so fast, genius. This was bankruptcy court, after all. Dude bought the team with leverage, and pumped the thing dry until Selig rode him out of town. The parking lots may be all he has.

[Hugh Conway]

Edit- holy shit- he still owns a piece of the parking lot. Stick to what you know I guess.

funny you mentioned the glazers because they and mccourt live to suck money out of their franchise for lifestyle while other owners (thinking of other EPL teams like Chelsea or Man City) have owners pouring never ending amounts of money in.

[warthog]

funny you mentioned the glazers because they and mccourt live to suck money out of their franchise for lifestyle while other owners (thinking of other EPL teams like Chelsea or Man City) have owners pouring never ending amounts of money in.

Agreed, but with their looks, how much of a lifestyle can it be?

[AdironRider]

Not so fast, genius. This was bankruptcy court, after all. Dude bought the team with leverage, and pumped the thing dry until Selig rode him out of town. The parking lots may be all he has.

You dont know what you are talking about.

Even with the wife settlement, and paying off MLB, he leveraged the Dodgers for at most 550 million. THat still leaves him with a net of 1.2 billion, depending on the debt transfer with the sale. Thats a worst case scenario. Guy bought the team for 450 million, and still gets a slice of the parking lots.

[Benny Profane]

You dont know what you are talking about.

Even with the wife settlement, and paying off MLB, he leveraged the Dodgers for at most 550 million. THat still leaves him with a net of 1.2 billion, depending on the debt transfer with the sale. Thats a worst case scenario. Guy bought the team for 450 million, and still gets a slice of the parking lots.

You his accountant? Got the bankruptcy papers in front of you?

Did he pay all cash for the team?

[Hugh Conway]

Agreed, but with their looks, how much of a lifestyle can it be?

the fat ugly douchebag named Dominique Strauss Kahn seemed to go to some killer orgies. Best line of the trial being "how can you tell a prostitute if they aren't wearing any clothes"

[AdironRider]

You his accountant? Got the bankruptcy papers in front of you?

Did he pay all cash for the team?

His financial woes have been widely reported. Quit being a jackass and a do a 30 second google search.

[warthog]

the fat ugly douchebag named Dominique Strauss Kahn seemed to go to some killer orgies. Best line of the trial being "how can you tell a prostitute if they aren't wearing any clothes"

My Bro in law worked for him at the IMF. When I asked him about the allegations, he just said, in his VERY French way, " It is all true".
DSK would have probably been his boss a 2nd time if he hadn't been caught.

Edit, and I have always imagined the Glazers to be Eunuchs. It just helps me sleep better at night.

[Benny Profane]

His financial woes have been widely reported. Quit being a jackass and a do a 30 second google search.

Really. I guess you believe everything you read in the papers.

[Arty50]

Arty should have a lot of nice things to say about this.

Edit- holy shit- he still owns a piece of the parking lot. Stick to what you know I guess.

$2B and they didn't get full ownership of the land/parking lots. Fucking suckers. The Torre, Garvey/Hershiser, and O'Malley groups all dropped out because of this. The three remaining bidders were all fucking stupid. They should have held out too. Knowing McCourt, I'm betting they'll regret this eventually.

Also, he's definitely walking away with a ton of cash from this. He'll leverage that somehow too. They guy lives on debt. If I recall correctly, most of his parking lots were heavily leveraged before he even bought the team. I have no problem with businesses carrying debt, but this guy supposedly looooooves debt. Not a surprise when you have a stylist on retainer for $100k a year just so you can get weekly haircuts. Someone should tell him that a barber can give him that shitty haircut for $10 a pop. That's only $520 a year. But hey, to each their own I guess.

There's another aspect to the land issue that no one's mentioning. The Dodgers have been top 3 in MLB attendance since just about forever. Their total attendance over the life of the stadium has been ridiculous. Even though they haven't won a World Series since 88 and had an 8 year playoff drought, mostly during the hated Fox ownership period, they were still pulling top 3 attendance. Attendance has NEVER cratered like it did last year. The only reason for this was because of McCourt. People were straight up boycotting his ownership of the team. And a decent amount of those people are not going to be happy that he's keeping partial ownership of the land and that their parking fees will go to him in part. This is part of the reason whey the main contenders dropped out of the bidding. First and foremost, they wanted no part of doing business with him. Secondarily though, they knew it would still keep some fans away. Attendance pays the bills, so why would you agree to a deal that could impact attendance? Stupid.

[Benny Profane]

$2B and they didn't get full ownership of the land/parking lots. Fucking suckers. The Torre, Garvey/Hershiser, and O'Malley groups all dropped out because of this. The three remaining bidders were all fucking stupid. They should have held out too. Knowing McCourt, I'm betting they'll regret this eventually.

Also, he's definitely walking away with a ton of cash from this. He'll leverage that somehow too. They guy lives on debt. If I recall correctly, most of his parking lots were heavily leveraged before he even bought the team. I have no problem with businesses carrying debt, but this guy supposedly looooooves debt. Not a surprise when you have a stylist on retainer for $100k a year just so you can get weekly haircuts. Someone should tell him that a barber can give him that shitty haircut for $10 a pop. That's only $520 a year. But hey, to each their own I guess.

There's another aspect to the land issue that no one's mentioning. The Dodgers have been top 3 in MLB attendance since just about forever. Their total attendance over the life of the stadium has been ridiculous. Even though they haven't won a World Series since 88 and had an 8 year playoff drought, mostly during the hated Fox ownership period, they were still pulling top 3 attendance. Attendance has NEVER cratered like it did last year. The only reason for this was because of McCourt. People were straight up boycotting his ownership of the team. And a decent amount of those people are not going to be happy that he's keeping partial ownership of the land and that their parking fees will go to him in part. This is part of the reason whey the main contenders dropped out of the bidding. First and foremost, they wanted no part of doing business with him. Secondarily though, they knew it would still keep some fans away. Attendance pays the bills, so why would you agree to a deal that could impact attendance? Stupid.

I don't know. I'll bet the contract they sign with Fox will go much further paying the bills than attendance. Seat prices hit a ceiling with this recession. Re: Yankees. Either way, this is just another sports deal that depends on inflationary revenue that just won't be there in the future. Re: Pujols and Fielder. All of these guys live on leverage, and they think they can somehow profit with 200 million dollar first baseman out there almost past their prime. Remember that the next time your cable bill goes up. Even if you hate baseball. You'll pay for it.

[Arty50]

The tv deal will be huge. That said, it's not a panacea, especially considering the shape McCourt left the franchise in. This article just popped up on ESPN and makes a lot of great points as to why this was a silly deal:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/s...makes-no-sense

The Angels and Rangers got huge tv deals recently, but in those cases the extra money is gravy. In the Dodgers case, they have a huge debt load already and still need to make large investments in the stadium and other stuff.

The article also points out exactly what I stated above, fans are going to be pissed that McCourt still owns part of the land. Also, McCourt is not a good person to be in business with.

[warthog]

Unbelievable that people like this are "successful". He is a snake, and people still partner up with them. Serves them right if they get bit. Is Magic's name that much of a draw?

I can tell you this. If the old owners of the Rays still got a chunk of the parking fees, ESPN would be able to pan to even more empty seats. People here still hate those crooks, and they weren't half the scumbags that McCourt seems to be.

[iceman]

What the fuck is Benny going off about this time?

[GiBo]

This is very, very bad news for the Giants. We have two of the best pitchers in the game and they are NOT under long term contracts. Stay away Magic and the rest of you rich Hollywood motherfuckers!!!

[Arty50]

This is semi-good news:

Los Angeles Dodgers fans and players are thrilled that Magic Johnson is part of the group that bought the team, but many are wondering how Frank McCourt could remain connected to the franchise that he was forced to sell.

The Johnson group, largely funded by Guggenheim Capital chief executive officer Mark Walter, agreed to purchase the Dodgers, Dodger Stadium and a 50 percent stake in the parking lots surrounding the ballpark from McCourt for $2.15 billion.

Sources with knowledge of the agreement told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Tony Jackson that the group will purchase half the Dodger Stadium parking lots, which were deemed to have a total value of $300 million, with McCourt keeping the other half.

Walter said he understood the concerns, but insisted that McCourt will only have an "economic interest" in the land and not any control or influence over it.

"Frank's not involved in the team, baseball, any of that," Walter said. "What Frank does have is an economic interest in land, but we control the parking and all the fan experience and that's of the utmost importance to us."

Also, I'm really, really stoked to have Kasten running the team. I fucking hate the Braves, but 14 straight division championships is pretty hard to argue with. We have a really good base of young talent right now (Kemp, Kershaw, Ethier, Gordon, Jansen, etc.) and could be in for a similar run if we can fill in the cracks.

Oh and adding someone like Lincecum would make me feel really dirty, but somehow I think I'd get over it eventually...