NATIONAL LEAGUE
The Los Angeles Dodgers and owner Frank McCourt announced a deal on Tuesday to sell the team for a record US$2 billion to Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC, a group that includes former basketball great Magic Johnson as one of its partners.
As part of the deal, which could help the club emerge from bankruptcy, McCourt and certain affiliates of the buyers also plan to form a joint venture to acquire Dodger Stadium and the surrounding Chavez Ravine property for US$150 million, the team and Guggenheim Baseball said in a statement.
The announcement came hours after MLB owners, according to sources, had approved three bidders for an auction of the team that was expected to start yesterday morning in New York and produce a record bid of about US$1.5 billion for the famed franchise.
One of those three finalists, the sources said, was the Guggenheim group.
However, the deal announced on Tuesday might not end protracted wrangling over control of the storied franchise, said sports industry consultant Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based firm SportsCorps, which is not involved in the deal.
“This was a pre-emptive bid to keep out bidders who may be better capitalized,” Ganis said. “That means the auction may have been breached and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or more bidders object.”
In addition to Johnson, the purchasing group includes Mark Walter, CEO of investment bank Guggenheim Capital, as its controlling partner, along with former Hollywood studio executive Peter Guber, former Washington Nationals team president Stan Kasten and Guggenheim Partners president Todd Boehly, the Dodgers said.
“I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise and intend to build on the fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section of our wonderful community of Los Angeles,” Johnson, 52, said in a statement.
The former Los Angeles Lakers star runs Magic Johnston Enterprises, which controls a chain of movie theaters and other properties around the Los Angeles area.
The US$2 billion price tag would mark the largest sum ever made for a major league US sport franchise.
The prospective sale price had ranged from US$1.2 billion to US$1.6 billion and future television rights for the club have been estimated to be worth as much as US$3 billion and are considered the team’s most valuable asset.
“This agreement with Guggenheim reflects both the strength and future potential of the Los Angeles Dodgers and assures that the Dodgers will have new ownership with deep local roots, which bodes well for the Dodgers, its fans and the Los Angeles community,” McCourt said.
The sale process began in November last year, when MLB and McCourt ended litigation and agreed to a sale of the team supervised by the bankruptcy court that has overseen it since June.
The sale was being conducted by Blackstone Group and McCourt. MLB was vetting bidders during the process.
The Dodgers landed on the auction block after McCourt was forced to place the team under bankruptcy protection last year.
McCourt had been expected to choose from three bidders, with the final bid seen about US$1.5 billion, two sources with knowledge of the bidding said on Monday.
The other finalists were a partnership that included hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen and biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong and a group headed by the NFL’s St Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
News Corp’s Fox sports unit and Time Warner Cable are also headed toward what could be a multibillion-dollar showdown over the rights to telecast the franchise’s games.
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