A unit formed by Wall Street powerhouse Guggenheim Partners is about to be hit with a $1 billion beanball. The new owners of the L.A. Dodgers are being forced to rework their pending $7 billion, 25-year media rights deal with Time Warner Cable, three sources close to the situation say. The new deal could end up seeing the unit, Guggenheim Baseball Management, fork over $130 million a year to Major League Baseball under its revenue-sharing agreement, these sources say.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ record $7 billion-plus media-rights deal with Time Warner Cable has hit a major-league snag. Guggenheim Partners and other owners of the team could lose as much as $1 billion of Time Warner Cable’s cash to Major League Baseball’s revenue-sharing plan because of the way the deal is structured, sources said.
Time Warner Cable Inc. has struck a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers to broadcast the Major League Baseball team’s games, two people familiar with the matter said. An announcement of the agreement is imminent, although no deal has been signed, said the people, who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t yet public. The games will be carried on a new regional sports network developed by Guggenheim Partners, which bought the Dodgers for $2.15 billion last year.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are leaning toward moving its television broadcasts from Fox Sports to Time Warner Cable starting in 2014, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it. The Dodgers have not made a final decision, the people said.
The Dodgers and Fox would launch a new regional sports network under the tentative deal, which Dick Clark Productions may manage. Major League Baseball is still negotiating for its cut of the entire $6.1 billion package.
After negotiating exclusively with Fox Sports on a new TV deal to keep the team on its Prime Ticket network, the Dodgers have taken a meeting with Time Warner Cable, which wants the team on its SportsNet and Deportes channels.
Exclusives
Fox Sports is close to clinching the exclusive TV rights for the Los Angeles Dodgers by paying between $6 billion and $7 billion over 25 years to put the team on its regional sports network in Southern California and, of course, its national Fox Broadcasting Co.
Fox Sports and the Los Angeles Dodgers began preliminary talks in May on a multi-billion dollar cable TV deal, a person familiar with the talks said, the latest in a string of rich cable TV contracts for teams in the largest U.S. TV markets.
In a court filing Thursday, the team says Fox Sports will be assured that the rival cable company will be in no way involved in the purchase of the team. The sale is expected to be approved today. Fox, TWC and perhaps CBS are expected to bid for a contract that could be worth up to $5 billion — if, that is, the new owners opt not to launch a team-owned regional sports network.
The record-setting $2.15 billion sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers to a group led by former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson and financier Mark Walter dropped the jaws of even the most bullish sports-industry veterans. But the Dodgers’ new owners have a rich opportunity to either launch a regional sports network or to hold an auction for rights to televise games.
The price would shatter the mark for a sports franchise. The deal, revealed about five hours after Major League Baseball owners approved three finalists for an intended auction, is one of several steps toward a sale of the team by the end of April. It is subject to approval in federal bankruptcy court.
As bidding for the Los Angeles Dodgers enters its final innings, News Corp’s Fox sports unit and Time Warner Cable are headed toward what could be a multi-billion dollar showdown over the rights to telecast the franchise’s baseball games.
News Corp.’s Fox unit on Tuesday signed a nondisclosure agreement with bankers handling the sale of the storied baseball franchise, the Wall Street Journal reports today, citing people with knowledge of the process. The move formally makes News Corp. a potential bidder for the Los Angeles team, and it is the latest indication that the company, which owned the Dodgers from 1998 to 2004, plans to do whatever it can to hang onto the team’s valuable media rights. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
Fox Sports has settled its legal battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the troubled baseball team agreeing to end its bid to sell lucrative television rights in advance of a proposed sale. In return, Fox won’t object to a separate deal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court between Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball that will almost certainly lead to the team being sold before an April 30 deadline.
The wild card in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ sweepstakes was played Wednesday, when Time Warner Cable confirmed its interest in pursuing a bid for the team. Of all the parties that might like to buy the team — a distinguished group that includes Magic Johnson, Peter O’Malley, Mark Cuban, Joe Torre and Dennis Gilbert — the party with the most urgent need to buy the team might be Time Warner Cable.
A federal judge grants an emergency stay of a bankruptcy court’s ruling, which could affect Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s ability to sell TV rights.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross ruled on Thursday that the Los Angeles Dodgers can sell their television rights months before the team’s contract with Fox Sports expires — a significant win for the team in its ongoing legal saga.
Fox Sports says the team need not pursue bankruptcy because creditors can be repaid when the team is sold. The Dodgers call the move ‘an act of utter desperation.’
Dodgers attorneys filed a complaint Wednesday in Delaware bankruptcy court saying Fox attorneys violated the automatic halt to litigation against a debtor in bankruptcy by sending a letter to the Dodgers’ financial adviser.
Major League Baseball and embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have agreed to a unique structure for the auction of one of the game’s most-storied franchises. Under a deal hammered out during two weeks of intense negotiations last month, MLB won’t oppose McCourt and his advisers’ efforts to solicit separate bids for the team and the future media rights to its games, according to people familiar with the talks.
A deal between Major League Baseball and embattled Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to auction the storied franchise to the highest bidder sets up what will likely be a record sale for a U.S. sports team with the Dodgers expected to fetch $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.
News Corp.’s Fox Sports is protesting the Los Angeles Dodgers’ request to hire Blackstone Group to market the team’s media rights, setting up a potential battle with the cable network that, until recently, had been one of embattled owner Frank McCourt’s biggest supporters.
Two teams that have been in the news for the wrong reasons — the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are now in bankruptcy court, and the financially distressed New York Mets — have seen two of the biggest drops in MLB’s local TV ratings so far this season. Both major-market teams have faced high-profile ownership controversies that appear to be affecting local viewer interest this season. The Mets’ local ratings are down 29% from midseason last year; the Dodgers’ ratings are down 27%.
The Chapter 11 financing permits the Dodgers to use $150 million for daily operations and buys time for the team to seek a media deal and ensure the team’s long-term financial stability, the Dodgers said. A judge would need to approve use of the money and a hearing is set for Tuesday. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced last week that he wouldn’t approve a Dodgers television deal with Fox Sports that reportedly was worth up to $3 billion.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig vetoed a long-term media deal for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, a move that could push the club into insolvency and set up a lengthy court battle between Selig and embattled Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
In the never-ending saga of the McCourt divorce proceedings, the settlement may come down to a TV deal. Frank and Jaime McCourt announced a tentative resolution Friday, one that requires Major League Baseball approval of a long-term contract between the Dodgers and Fox. McCourt has often reiterated that the deal is essential to the Dodgers’ long-term financial viability.
At the center of the controversy over Major League Baseball’s takeover of the Los Angeles Dodgers is a growing battle over the team’s television rights and how owner Frank McCourt planned to spend the money from the deal.
Major League Baseball has moved to seize control of the Dodgers, a famed franchise that fans and much of the baseball world had come to see as crippled by an owner who does not appear to have enough money to operate the team. The move was prompted by a number of issues, including owner Frank McCourt‘s recent receipt of $30-million personal loan from former owner Fox to meet payroll.
