Here is an updated article from the LA Times this morning. This is just confirmation on what many of us thought was going on with the Dodgers. Here is a franchise that should only be second to the Yankees and the McCourts are running this storied club into the ground so they can finance their lavish lifestyle. (Now their attorneys) No offense to the Minnesota Twins but the Dodgers have a smaller payroll than them! Let’s hope this nightmare ends soon and the court awards joint custody and the McCourts are forced to sell it to an owner who can take over and develop the team into what it should be.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/...0,6434159,full.storySome snipits.
LA HoldCo's net losses for the first 11 months of 2008 and 2009 were $15.5 million and $5.9 million, respectively. Its $20.6 million in cash and liquid assets at the beginning of 2008 had dwindled to $5.5 million as of Nov. 30, 2009 — a 73% decline in less than two years.
The holding company went into technical default on its bank line of credit after the second quarter of 2009, because the cash available to pay its debts was less than required. The banks could have shut down the credit line at that point but did not, financial reports show.
In a court declaration, Wilhelm, the Dodgers' CFO, identified "borrowed funds" as the primary source for the "operation of the business enterprise as well as a source of potential distributions" to the McCourts.
The McCourts took $108 million in personal distributions from the Dodgers from 2004 to 2009, primarily from the borrowed funds, court records show.
For example, in 2006, Blue Land Co. — the McCourt entity that owns the Dodger Stadium parking lots — took out a $60-million loan against the parking lots, according to Wilhelm's declaration. The McCourts invested $10 million in the Dodgers and used about $50 million for personal mortgages and purchases of residential real estate, Wilhelm said.
The money to repay that loan comes from the rent payments the Dodgers charge themselves on land they own, shifting team revenue to the Blue Land entity, according to Wilhelm's deposition.
In his declaration, Wilhelm said he was aware of only two McCourt business assets that had been sold to generate funds for the Dodgers organization in the last six years — the sale of a Boston commercial building for about $3.9 million, and the sale of the minor league Vero Beach Dodgers for about $3.1 million.
In 2008, the McCourts were told that the sale of a minority ownership stake in the Dodgers could raise "a significant amount of money," according to an e-mail from McCourt Group Chief Operating Officer Jeff Ingram.
