The various prospective bidders for the Los Angeles Dodgers began meeting with Major League Baseball's ownership committee on Monday, and the candidates appear to be whittled down to either five or six groups according to reports. The group of Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, and the group of Steve Cohen and Arn Tellem are supposedly the favorites.
The Johnson and Kasten group have submitted the highest bid at $1.6 billion per Mike Ozanian of Forbes. The group of Cohen and Tellem are believed to have submitted a bid of $1.4 billion, but has more cash in the deal, which could appeal to Frank McCourt, who has final say in this rather unusual process.
In a normal MLB team sale, the team would field bids and MLB would have final say, with the highest bidder not always winning. Under a deal between McCourt and MLB that was approved by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, MLB gets to pre-approve from the list of bidders for the Dodgers, but McCourt has the final call, which shows just how badly commissioner Bud Selig wanted McCourt out of Dodgers ownership.
But McCourt might not necessarily be out, in a sense. Yes, he has to sell the team by April 30 per court order, at which time he is to pay ex-wife Jamie McCourt $131 million per their divorce settlement. But reportedly none of the remaining bids on the table include the parking lots at Dodger Stadium, meaning McCourt will continue to make money from the Dodgers based on current long term lease contracts signed between different entities currently under the McCourt ownership umbrella.
To discuss the Dodgers sale regarding various ownership groups, check out True Blue LA.