The Walt Disney Company to Bid on Dodgers?
The Walt Disney Company could be about to launch a bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to a new report in the Los Angeles Times.
The newspaper says the family of the late Roy Disney, nephew of Walt, have joined forces with investment banker Stanley Gold to purchase the team for what could be as much as $1.6 billion.
That’s the figure being asked for by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who needs funds due to financial problems brought on by his publicly messy and very costly divorce from Jamie McCourt – indeed, the split is estimated to be the most expensive in Californian history.
A source close to the Diney and Gold bid leaked news of the plans to the Times, claiming that it would be Roy Disney’s family who would own the Dodgers, rather than the Walt Disney Company. The mole stated:
“They would guard the Dodger name the way they guard the Disney name.”
Disney has dabbled in baseball before – the company owned the 2002 World Series-winning Anaheim Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels) from 1996 to 2003. When Disney sold up, it signaled the beginning of the end of Disney’s involvement in professional sports.
Gold also has a past with Disney – he served on the Disney board twice, and was an ally of Roy Disney when chief executive Michael Eisner was squeezed out of the company in 2005.
Disney are far from the only party said to be interested in the Dodgers, but they’re probably the most intriguing. What do you Dodgers fans make of this news?
