Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt Agrees To Sell Team At Auction

Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt late last night struck an agreement with MLB to sell the franchise, ending months of bitter fighting with the league that included a bankruptcy filing and an MLB attempt to strip McCourt of the team. The club and MLB issued a joint statement shortly after 1:00am ET today saying they have agreed “to a court supervised process to sell the team and its attendant media rights in a manner designed to realize maximum value for the Dodgers and their owner, Frank McCourt.” The Blackstone Group LP will lead the process (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).

The sale is expected to include the team, Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots, a package bought by McCourt for $421M in '04 and "likely to sell now for two to three times as much." McCourt might need the team to fetch at least $1B at auction "in order for him to break even after paying off debts and taxes, according to court records in California and Delaware" (L.A. TIMES, 11/2).

For more on this story, see today's issue of THE DAILY.