After a two year long court battle, Dodgers and Dodgers Stadium owner Frank McCourt has agreed to sell off the team and its related bits, according to a joint statement from McCourt and Major League Baseball issued late Tuesday night .
The news came at 8:30 pm PST, roughly, which is 11:30 pm on the East Coast. In its entirety, the statement read:
“The Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball announced that they have agreed today to a court-supervised process to sell the team and its attendant media rights in a manner designed to realize maximum value for the Dodgers and their owner, Frank McCourt. The Blackstone Group LP will manage the sale process.”
The decision caps off a tumultuous two years for the team and marks the third time it will change hands since it was sold to News Corp by owner Peter O’Malley in 1998, whose family had moved the team from Brooklyn back in 1958. When buzz began that a settlement was imminent, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw commented to press about the impending resolution. He said:
“That’s positive… Whatever happens, it’s definitely great to have it all resolved.”
The Los Angeles Times notes that the sale includes the team itself, Dodger Stadium and its parking lots, all purchased for $421 million in 2004 by McCourt. It’s estimated that the entire package will now fetch two to three times that price, but the paper also speculates that factoring in all McCourt’s financial considerations, the final sale price may need to come in at around $1 billion. MLB hopes to have a new owner in place by the start of next season.
