The Dodgers agreed not to pursue a new cable deal, at least for the moment, as part of an agreement yesterday to win MLB and court approval for a $60M interim financing package that will allow the bankrupt club to meet payroll tomorrow. MLB had objected in bankruptcy court filings yesterday morning to the Dodgers' proposed $150M, high interest rate loan from hedge fund HighBridge Capital (the first $60M will carry the team through the next few weeks). MLB has several objections, but one of them was a key term of the HighBridge deal that the team had to pursue a cable deal.
MLB last week shot down a proposed Dodgers deal with Fox, so it saw the financing as an end run in bankruptcy court around MLB approval. The Dodgers, who filed Monday, after about 90 minutes of the first hearing yesterday, held about an hour of side talks with MLB. When court resumed around 4:00pm ET, the parties notified the judge that MLB had pulled its offer to supply the financing, but HighBridge had dropped its demand that the Dodgers market the cable rights.
That agreement will take the parties through July 20, when the court has scheduled another hearing on whether to extend the HighBridge deal.
