Sunday was the deadline to submit opening bids for the Los Angeles Dodgers Franchise. In the past month, owner Frank McCourt has come to a number of seemingly clandestine secrets with Bud Selig and Major League Baseball to help facilitate a speedy sale of the team.
According to Steven Church at Bloomberg, the deal struck between Selig and McCourt not only bolsters the potential selling price of the team, it also leads to a possible increase in bidders that may have close personal ties to the MLB commissioner.
Church hypothesizes that this sort of bargaining between Selig, when all indications were that McCourt had little goodwill left to bargain with, could set a precedent for future dealings and future team sales. Many details surrounding McCourt's recent bankruptcy tend to suggest that he was using the Dodgers franchise as a sort of personal slush fund for himself and his family. Now he stands to pocket upwards of $1 billion as a result of his shifty team ownership.
Selig and MLB insist that the deals struck with McCourt are viewed as a "one-time deal," but they should be very worried about other current and future team owners who may look for an easy out and a quick profit later on.
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