Fox seeks delay in Dodgers bankruptcy hearing By RANDALL CHASE, AP Business Writer 25 minutes ago DOVER, Del. (AP)—Attorneys for Fox Sports are asking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to delay consideration of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ plan to sell media rights to future games. Fox’s request to delay a Nov. 30 hearing on the media rights motion is the latest salvo in its battle with the Dodgers. Fox says the planned media rights sale violates an existing contract giving Fox television rights through 2013 and priority in negotiating a contract for games starting in 2014. The Dodgers are refusing to postpone the Nov. 30 hearing, accusing Fox of trying to interfere with efforts to sell the team and its assets so that it can emerge from bankruptcy. Fox attorneys, meanwhile, say they will file a motion by the end of the month to have the bankruptcy case dismissed.
this would seem more than a little ominous. fox has got to feel that either they are in trouble here or they just want to fuck up franks ability to live up to his divorce obligations. amazing. if anything goes wrong in this maze of litigation and agreements it would seem fall apart for spank. my guess is the later and fox is just firing a preemptive strike to leave no doubt in how the media rights are dealt with.
Yeah the whole thing is a giant clusterfuck with all parties out not only for themselves but to fuck with all other parties. Like Jamie OR Frank deserves to be made whole for looting the Dodger coffers? Bullshit. And for once you can't blame Fox as it seems that every scenario has them paying more and sooner than their contract stipulates. Fucking McCrooks!
blackstone is spanks investment banker so its not going to be impartial. even though it should be seeing as spank created this whole mess intentionally. i think this fox lawsuit threat is going to end the media rights speculation.
Not sure we will like the way they clean it up. They like to take a piece of the action for themselves.
He probably thinks he can isolate them and hold on until after the exclusivity deadline and that the rest of the assets will cover the creditors after MLB is forced to buy the team on April 1, since no one else will without the rights. I'd bet that's his play now.
Cuban on Dodgers http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000056418&startTime=0&endTime=135 He said the books will be available to him in a couple weeks.He says he would partner up with people and he will get good baseball people. Good video. Take a look. fwiw http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1118-mccourt-dodgers-sale-20111118,0,6726030.story
i like conspiracy theories so here is one frank agrees to sell the team hires blackstone to to act as the middleman creates bidding war this gives him time time he needs to work towards the tv deal he can claim he is doing it for the dodgers not for him the team is for sale, right? or is it? who is in charge of approving the buyers? bud selig so bud will most likely pick some duds he always picks some duds im sure he expects frank and blackstone to challenge to let guys like larry ellison and mark cuban in the game if pushed selig probably knows that he could no longer keep these guys he dislikes out he cant control them but there is so much media attention on the dodgers that bud could not get away with it not again not after cuban has been vetted so many times by the mlb selig would have to divulge a justifiable reason why mark cuban cannot bid on the dodgers but that wont ever be a problem what if mccourt simply accepts the first group of buyers that selig proposes? that first group will have to be chumps selig will be putting them out there as cannon fodder like all generals in a war he would never expect mccourt to accept them without challenge bud selig is expecting mccourt to demand guys with big pockets bid on the team after all the assumption is that mccourt is trying to get the most money out of this deal... right? what if its all a ruse? what if after mccourt accepts the bidders that selig approved its found out that those peoples bids were simply not high enough to cover all of the debt and expenses on the dodgers balance sheet? what happens then? does the team go back to mccourt? well you guys would not want that, bud selig would not want that, so that would most likely cause more problems and more litigation so maybe thats not the plan... maybe the plan is for blackstone to take over all dodgers assets and put them through their meat grinder to create an investment scheme that creates wealth for investors off of the value of the dodgers as a team and organization and maybe thats all bullshit? the bullshit they will feed to the judge in order to allow them to buy the team but the real reason, the hidden agenda behind it all and why frank mccourt would even agree to this? at the end of it all frank mccourt ends up with controlling interest in the investment entity created by blackstone he basically gets paid in stock options which could be all legally set up to effectively return control of the team to him after a set amount of time blackstone would only be buying it in order to spin off its real estate and other holdings and creating new financial services to squeeze more money out of the teams value effectively keeping its value or even raising its value while at the same time generating tremendous amount of new income from selling off certain assets for instance chavez ravine and all the while frank mccourt can legally own a percentage of the dodgers investment just like any other person in business with blackstone what that percentage is doesnt even have to be disclosed as i believe blackstone does not disclose its business dealings or even much of its profits oh and that is why he wants to make that tv deal now he nows that he will eventually control the team again is there any proof to this... no is this the kind of thing blackstone has done in the past frequently... very much yes
Yup proof no but history yes. The problem is no one trusts Frank and his history is to scorch and burn and come out ahead. Will he this time? lets hope not. The one thing I do feel better about is knowing there has been discussion by Cuban partnering with others. I suggested that some time ago and folks didn't think that likely but if he is saying it that is a good thing. There was a good article talking about perspective buyers and why they would be buying the team. Some might have been more interested in the real estate, some the team, some the media rights, some to own a baseball team for the prestige and some to make money. Cuban is a sports team man and he might be willing to partner with others more interested in developing other aspects of the organization. I could see the final ownership being Cuban, other folks, McCourt and Blackstone. Frank could keep the property around the stadium and still have that affiliated with the Dodgers.
And the price ticket in debt for Franks management of the team? http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2011/11/17/dodgers-debt-hits-555-million/ Dodgers Owe $555 Million, Most Indebted Team In Baseball History
What if Time Warner bids on the team? What does Fox do then? What about Cuban and Time Warner bidding together on the team with an inevitable media network. Is Fox worried? Can you imagine if Fox wins and the new owner needs to negotiate with them under the current window. I can see Fox and Warner negotiating now. Hmm now if time Warner bids does Fox need to bid thus a deep pocket bidding war?
Unfortunately this is starting to play out as feared. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgers/2011/11/dodgers-fox-lawsuit-underscores-its-desperation.html