Major League Baseball’s initial filing in the Dodgers’ bankruptcy case is out, and it’s quite clear that they are going to pull absolutely no punches here and, presumably, will pull no punches when the initial hearing in the matter gets underway early this afternoon.
In addition to objecting to everything McCourt wants to do, they lay out what will obviously be the overarching theme of their case. Note that, unlike the Rangers/Tom Hicks situation, MLB is not content to merely wade in in an effort to protect its own administrative interests and powers. It’s clearly taking aim at McCourt himself. The verbiage comes via Bill Shaikin’s report:
“In pursuing his own financial interests at the expense of the club, over-leveraging it and draining millions of dollars for capital investment and operations, Mr. McCourt has placed the [Dodgers] in their current, incredible position of not being able to make payroll less than halfway through the regular season ... Having siphoned off well over $100 million of club revenues and obviously unable to distinguish between his personal interests and those of the club, Frank McCourt has driven the Dodgers into a liquidity crisis so severe that, absent extraordinary measures, the club would be unable to make its payroll. Mr. McCourt attempted to use that looming disaster to leverage [MLB] into approving the sale of the club’s broadcast rights to pay current expenses and to permit millions more to be misappropriated for personal use.”