WEDNESDAY, 7:40am: The Dodgers sold for $2.15 billion, the world record price for a sports franchise, Bill Shaikin of the LA Times reports (Twitter links). The Cubs had set the previous record for an MLB team with a sale price of $845MM. The new deal allows the incoming ownership group to control parking lots for games, but Frank McCourt and the new group will jointly pursue any development of the lots.
TUESDAY, 11:48pm: The Magic/Kasten/Guggenheim Partners group will in fact control the Dodger Stadium parking lots, reports Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). There was no auction between the three bidding groups; McCourt struck a deal with Walter after the owners vote today.
10:01pm: The Dodgers have reached an agreement to be sold to the bidding group led by Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten, and Guggenheim Partners according to MLB.com's Ken Gurnick. Dennis Berman of The Wall Street Journal reports (on Twitter) that they will pay $2 billion for the team, by far the most ever paid for a North American sports franchise. The Dodgers have confirmed the sale.
"I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise and intend to build on the fantastic foundation as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section in our wonderful community of Los Angeles," said Johnson in a statement.
“This transaction underscores the Debtors’ objective to maximize the value of their estate and to emerge from Chapter 11 under a successful Plan of Reorganization, under which all creditors are paid in full," said the team in a statement.
Former owner Frank McCourt purchased the Dodgers from NewsCorp for $430MM in 2004. He will form a joint venture with Guggenheim Partners to acquire the Chavez Ravine property for an additional $150MM according to ESPN's Molly Knight (Twitter links), indicating that the Dodger Stadium parking lots were not included in the sale. McCourt's debt has been estimated at $1.1 billion, so he'll still turn a significant profit with the sale.
The Dodgers are getting the best of both worlds with the new ownership group. Magic brings unmatched local starpower while Kasten provides decades of baseball experience. He has previously served as the president of the Braves and Nationals. Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, will become controlling owner of the team according to Knight (on Twitter).
The Johnson/Kasten group was competing with Stan Kroenke and a group led by Steve Cohen and Patrick Soon-Shiong. All three bidders were approved by the other MLB owners just today.
oh snap!
And there was much rejoicing..
*yaaaaaaaaay*
Monty Python works on so many levels.
Yessssssssssss
Now they need some magic on the field
Parking lots included?
apparently
“the Dodger Stadium parking lots were not included in the sale.”
”
The new deal allows the incoming ownership group to control parking lots for games.”
woohoo! it’s about time! and i think it’s also even more awesome since magic johnson is not just a legend, but an LA legend at that. absolutely awesome, congrats magic and kasten
Finally.
Just what the Dodgers needed to start winning again; a little bit of Magic…
$2 billion according to WSJ.
Wow, that’s a ton. Where is he getting the money from?
Sure hope not from Benard Madoff.
Tickets?
2 billion? When Yankees are supposedly worth 1.8? What the….
The Yankees don’t own the land. That’s a big part of the Dodger’s wealth.
If the Yankees were sold it would be for well over 2 billion.
When you’re buying a company, you don’t pay for necessarily what it’s worth. In most cases, for corporations in business, you would sell it for 25-35% more, based on growth potential and other factors.
yayy..no more McCheese!
parking lots have to be included for for 2B!
And people wonder why the Angels made the splash with Pujols… Magic will put the Dodgers back on the map, if they can afford 2B for the team, they aught to be able to sign some players!
“Mr. McCourt and certain affiliates of the purchasers will also be forming a joint venture, which will acquire the Chavez Ravine property for an additional $150 million.”
Magic, say it isn’t so???
That’s what we need, a sportsminded Los Angelian running our team
Angeleno imported from East Lansing, but not being picky 😀
Beats a crook imported from Boston
Just curious how much in debt CA and especially LA county is as compared to Boston and the state of MA.? So much for “crooks” imported from Boston…
He was talking about McCourt… It has nothing to do with state budgets dude.
Damn.. the comment I wanted to put needs to be approved..
There go my hopes for contraction.
…and a finish above 3rd place.
after this year
Nah, S.I. has Gi**ts picked to win West this year which is totally laughable; their SP is off the charts good 1-4 but with their offensive offense, I don’t see them taking DBacks or Dodgers (even in their present state). To Clarify, I was alluding to Hummbaby’s team’s hopes…
ah i gotcha. yeah i don’t see the giants winning the west this year either, especially if bauer/skaggs perform up to expectations and push for a spot midyear. a lot needs to go right for the dodgers to come in second though.
Dodgers weren’t better than a Giants team that led the league in DL stints. How are they magically going to be better than a healthy Giants?
This isn’t a serious response but you set yourself up for it–
Q. “How are they magically going to be better than a healthy Giants?”
A. MAGIC Johnson.
ooooh clap clap clap clap clap
+1000
NL West will come down to Giants / D-backs. Dodgers will be battling for 3rd at best again, but 4th/5th is more realistic.
We’ll see how this holds up AFTER this year
Time to rebuild that depleted farm system, get our scouts back in the DR, PR, HK, and everything else in between. Good riddance to the 2nd worst owner in LA next to Donald Sterling.
I am so happy
All this good info rolling out, but don’t forget the architect Stan Kasten; God he made Ted Turner look good…..
Great article in Fortune magazine this month about local cable tv contracts with baseball teams driving the franchise values way up. Dodgers sale price big proof of that…
Man…if only MLB had taken my third party, out of state, post-dated check for $2.1 billion, I could be owner of the Dodgers instead of Magic. I was robbed!!
I hope Coletti’s fired before opening day.That would be the icing on the cake.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson stated, “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 in our wonderful community of Los Angeles.”
The fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt? If Magic truly believes that, the only place he’s driving the Dodgers is into the ditch. Thank god this is just PR/BS.
Depends on what he’s talking about I guess. The farm isn’t particularly strong, but he’s got Kemp locked up (though the contract scares me) and still has control over Ethier, Billingsley and Kershaw. Unless you count Kemp, there’s really no eye-popping contracts weighing the team down. ($9MM for Manny is sigh-inducing but $9MM isn’t going to sink a franchise like the Dodgers.)
I’m not necessarily suggesting it is wise to extend any or all of them (nor am I suggesting it’s not) but that’s not a bad place to build from. I’m sure Theo and Jed would have loved two ace-quality starting pitchers and a potential superstar waiting on the roster when they took over the Cubs.
Besides which, I’m sure it was mostly just being nice to somebody you’re doing business with before you shuffle him out the door.
Frankenjamie may have messed up totally with the divorce but that was just the last two years. Before that they gave us four postseason appearances. How many did we get in the 15 years before that? So I give them that much credit. Now back to being the world-class team we can be and should have been for the last 25 years!
in 20 years this has the potential to be as good of a buy as when Steinbrenner bought the yankees.
With the right front office and on field talent, Dodgers can be a massive money maker.
was a good return for mccourt too. 8 years and quadrupled the value of franchise.
Right? I mean I’d love to get my hands on a proud franchise, drive it into the ground, and then pocket a few hundred million on my way out the door. I must be doing something wrong.
That seems like a stretch to me. Per Maddon’s book on the purchase of the Yankees, “Steinbrenner’s personal outlay was said to be $168,000”.
All in all the group paid 8.8m for the Yankees, forty years later they are worth around 220-times more then they paid for the team. While I don’t question that this will be a profitable move for all involved with the Dodgers, it’s beyond reason to think they will make out like Steinbrenner & Co. did. In 20 years if the Dodgers are worth around 170 Billion, I guess you’ll be right.
well as long as you don’t factor inflation I guess anythings possible
I hope my house appreciates at those rates in the next twenty years.
I really hope it works out. Sounds like a lot of fans are happy. I was an NBA fan back when, and i liked Magic. I hope he turns this team around. I also hope the Dodgers become “The Team” in California for MLB. Forget the Angels.
McCourt has $1.1 Billion in debts including the $131 million owed to his wife. so, he’s going to clear around $900 million plus receive the parking lot revenue. Jamie McCourt needs to sue her divorce attorney
what about the money he used to buy the club?
It was borrowed money, he didn’t use any of his own money, he used parking lots in Boston (worth about 150 million at the time) and the Dodgers as collateral (lost the lots in Boston when he defaulted on the loan). Still owes about 600 million, so will make about 1.4 billion less taxes (300 million?) and the 131 million he settled with for his wife over the divorce. I think he has some personal back taxes as well (200 million).
Still walks away with close to a billion in cash (call it it 3/4 billion to be conservative) plus the additional 150 million sale of the parking lots, so close to a billion in total.
Yeah it’d be capital gains tax on that so it’d be 15% of whatever profit he made.
Finally… MLB just isn’t the same with the Dodgers as a laughing stock.
First order of Business?
Sign Kemp and Kershaw to Long term deals.
pretttttyyy sure they already signed Kemp to an 8 year extension.
first 14 year contract ever
like lunchbox said…kemp signed during the offseason, do you mean ethier?
I am so happy right now, so so happy. And if Bill Shaikin’s report that the group will control the parking lots too, even sweeter! Great day to be a Dodgers fan.
Great news. Congratulations Dodgers fans!
Nice. The Dodgers are going to be back as one of the premiere teams in a couple years when they finally have some money to spend. Now all we need is Cuban to own a baseball team. He will do more right then he will wrong. Wish MLB would let the man but a team!
How long before Kasten is on radio stations inviting Angels and Giants fans to come to Dodger Stadium and organizing ticket packages that include bus trips for them?