Clock Is Ticking for McCourt

Two days and counting until he has to make payroll – he needs $40 million by Thursday.

 

He’s not going to make it. He has said he will, but everyone else knows he won’t.

 

See Dodgers: The Changeup for complete coverage of the team's front-office upheaval.

 

When McCourt bought the Dodgers back in 2004, among his first words were, “Welcome to a new era of Dodger baseball.”

 

That era is now called bankruptcy.

 

Despite saying he would make payroll by Thursday, he will not.

 

McCourt filed for bankruptcy to keep Major League Baseball from seizing the team.

 

Call it a fit of greed and egomania – or desperation.

 

Robert Rasmussen, dean of USC’s Gould School of Law isn’t optimistic.  

 

“There’s always a chance we’ll go on a winning streak, fans fill the stadium, Bud Selig has a change of heart, you sign the contract," Rasmussen said. "There’s a chance, but it’s a small one. t’s the bottom the ninth, I think, for McCourt. f I were a betting man I’d bet against it.”

 

Here’s a snapshot of what McCourt owes:

-Manny Ramirez $20 million

-Andrew Jones $11 million

-Chicago White Sox $3.5 million

-Levy Restaurants $588,000

-Continental Airlines $339,000

-Bank of American $316,000

-KABC Radio $273,000

-City of LA for a tax audit $240,000

-Vin Scully $152,000

 

Mc Court’s plan: yet another loan, this time for $150 million. And he’s going to auction off the television rights deal to the highest bidder.

 

Meaning he just threw Fox under the bus and will make them re-bid against Time-Warner.

 

That leads back to the question: How much of that money will be used for the team, and how much for personal debt?

 

That is what Major League Baseball is going to ask today in bankruptcy court.

 

McCourt argues that all of this is necessary and in the best interest of the Dodgers.

 

That is not true.

 

This is in the best interest of Frank McCourt.

 

Fans—the paying customers—don’t want to be in business with him any more.