The LA Dodgers, one of the great historical franchises in baseball and sports in general, filed for bankruptcy last week. This seems to be a last ditch effort by owner Frank McCourt (of which some have suggested didn't have enough money to run the team anyway) to avoid takeover by the MLB. McCourt was really inept at running the team, which shows by his finances. The team owes over 20 million dollar to retired steroid-loving Manny Ramirez (who had short stints with 2 other teams after he left the Dodgers). McCourt is currently going through a long messy divorce, where finances will be split up, leaving McCourt definitely unable to run the team.
Commissioner Bud Selig insisted that a TV deal worth $3 billion would be bad for the team and disallowed it, making it almost impossible for the Dodgers to even meet payroll. How a multi-billion dollar deal is bad for the team is beyond me. Selig insists that McCourt would just use the money for himself, and this is probably true. However, this is obviously a power grab by Selig and the MLB as they have already taken over operations of the team. MLB could still have approved the deal and monitored the situation. Baseball is at an interesting time where historic clubs like the Cubs and Dodgers have not only had money problems in recent years, but have been downright awful. However, it allows teams like the Rangers and Brewers, who have not been historically good, to compete.
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