Bankruptcy and the Dodgers

Sunday, November 25, 2012
Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy and Baseball

The historic and prominent Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. After a tumultuous divorce, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, Frank McCourt, had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy. McCourt and his wife of thirty years, Jamie McCourt, have decided to split and unfortunately for Frank, he can no longer afford to keep the team. Frank desperately struggled to keep the dodgers but after an unsuccessful agreement with the fox television network over broadcast rights, there was not enough cash to keep up with the team’s various expenses. Ultimately, Major League baseball interceded full control of the organization in the spring of 2011 in order to make sure nothing would happen with the franchise.
On October 14, 2009, the McCourts would be separating after nearly 30 years of marriage. Many Dodger fans worried about the impact of the divorce on team considering it was made public right before playoffs. Jamie was fired from her position as Dodgers CEO on Thursday, October 22, 2009, the day after the Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs, therefore ending the reign of the self-proclaimed "First Female CEO of a Baseball Team." She officially filed for divorce shortly thereafter.[1]
Furthermore, on December 7, 2010, the divorce court judge invalidated the post-nuptial marital property agreement that Frank had claimed provided him with sole ownership of the Dodgers. In the wake of this decision, Frank McCourt's lawyers said that Frank would use other legal avenues to establish his sole ownership of the Dodgers, while Jamie McCourt's lawyers said that Jamie would be confirmed as the co-owner of the team as community property of their marriage. On June 17, 2011, Frank & Jamie reached an agreement on a settlement of their divorce. The settlement was dependent upon Major League Baseball approving a 17-year television contract...