Dodgers Owner Guggenheim Baseball Management will pay $14M "per year to rent the parking lots from an entity half-owned" by former Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt, according to land-use documents cited by Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. The documents indicated that the potential uses for the property surrounding Dodger Stadium "include shops and restaurants, homes and offices, and another sports venue. The documents also "discuss the possibility of parking structures on the land," and indicate that Guggenheim "has the authority to sell naming rights to Dodger Stadium." The McCourt-Guggenheim joint venture that owns the parking lots also "has the authority to sell naming rights to any 'non-baseball professional sports facility' on the site." While some team bidders reportedly spoke with the NFL "about the league's interest in a football stadium on the site," Dodgers Chair Mark Walter said that his Guggenheim group "did not." The documents also state that construction on the parking lots "would reduce the available parking spaces -- now 19,000." The city of L.A. and MLB "would have to approve any reduction below 16,500 parking spaces" (L.A. TIMES, 5/5). In Chicago, Phil Rogers noted President & CEO Stan Kasten is "wasting no time trying to get his hands around the facility issues at Dodger Stadium." He will get a visit from Orioles VP/Planning & Development Janet Marie Smith this week "when she's in Los Angeles on Rose Bowl business." Meanwhile, Rogers wrote, "Don't be surprised if the relationship between Scott Boras and the Dodgers improves with the new ownership group in charge." Boras has a "strong relationship" with Kasten and is "likely to have a suite at Dodger Stadium." He has had a "highly visible one at Angel Stadium for years" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/6).
AN OLD FAVORITE: The L.A. TIMES' Shaikin noted when Kasten "met with Levy Restaurants, the company that handles the Dodgers' concessions, he demanded better food, shorter lines and Cool-A-Coos -- if, that is, Levy could find them." The Cool-A-Coo was "just an ice cream sandwich, but it was ours, vanilla ice cream wedged between oatmeal cookies, the whole glorious mess dipped in chocolate." Shaikin noted after the O'Malley family sold the Dodgers to News Corp. in '98, the Cool-A-Coos "vanished from Dodger Stadium." Kasten said, "The Levy people are tracking it down. They have been sending me updates on the Cool-A-Coo front." Shaikin wrote the Dodgers "ought to do a deal" with former El Monte Dairy Owner Leo Politis, whose company made Cool-A-Coos. The prospect "both thrills ... and concerns" Politis, who sold his company 12 years ago. Politis "would not -- and could not -- pay the Dodgers for the right to sell his product at the ballpark, or sign a sponsorship contract that includes advertisements on television and radio" (L.A. TIMES, 5/6).
