DODGERS The ongoing OWNERSHIP Thread

the really hardcore fans with money are the ones staying home imo. years of trying to attract the lowest common denominator has left many people alienated from the experience. ask blf about that game we attended. it was field 22 and we were surrounded by those same idiots that cheer for pop flies and scream at people who don't hit beach balls. how do they get these seats?
the food sucks, the beer is way to expensive and many can't get beyond the fact the mccourt has an interest still. they have to make the money to be able to pay it to him so it comes form DS income. oh and magic and co. lied their asses off at the press conference.
i get that some of you want to get on w it and go to DS. i don't feel a need to try and change your minds. i don't recall even calling out anyone for going during the mccourt years. so why the need to tell me, irish, darth or whoever we need to get over it?
we are old school and vote with our wallets. as i suspect many dodger fans still are. am i full of angst? fuck no. i will miss going to DS but i will still see the team in other stadiums and support them. just not with my cash. its my choice.
of course there is no leverage to get mccourt out at this point but it should never have come to that. and i think they underestimated what it meant to a lot of fans.
it will be easy for me to turn my back on dodger stadium and its owners. which include mccourt.

 

I didn't

I agree with you.

I go to games still, but I agree w you.

 

Read a comment in a LA Time article that might make sense. By allowing McCourt to keep ownership of half of the parking lots they avoid the land being reassessed by the city/county thus avoiding a bunch of additional property tax costs. Makes a lot of sense and hard to argue with. Maybe why so many baseball teams are sold with the previous owners keeping the parking lots etc. In exchange for paying 14 million a year in rent they avoid how many millions in property taxes.

 

You know things aren't going well when tickets are on stub hub for 75 CENTS

 

14 million a year is about what the highest paid wall street executives make. and i agree that the silence on behalf of ownership since the press conference means they are just hoping it goes away. or they could have put another spin on it. thats hard to do when the cold hard truth is that mccourt bent them over and abused them on this deal.
did plaschke of mcdonald follow this up? was there anything written calling out magic?

 

Much behind the Guggenheim bid and why they were paying more is tax avoidance. They have a distinct advantage in that area over the other bidders ( I posted that previously). There is no way in this environment and in a state with serious fiscal issues are they going to stand up and say much of our interest and strategy is tax avoidance. In their case hundreds of millions that the other bidders couldn't. They can depreciate player salaries against their insurance profits etc.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2012/04/06/new-dodgers-investors-will-get-big-tax-breaks/

 

I respect your guys right to still boycott but I am so over saying I am putting money in Franks pocket. Whenever I buy gas put money into a crooks pocket. I just don't think it is a big deal anymore because the day to day operations which is infinitely more important are being handle by the new guys. The only entity I am going to boycott is the LA Times who seem determined to keep a story going forever and ever to keep themselves relevant. Look at what they did by publishing pictures of a 9 year old war story recently and the firestorm that created. Not to mention the new policy on reading too many articles they have going now.

 

Amen! They have done a horrible job reporting this and have been clueless and led many fans astray believing what they said that would happen that didn't.

 

Ok guys lets be upfront about the role of the LA Times in all of this. The LA Times has bankruptcy issues as it is owned by the Tribune company and they have been in bankruptcy. Wait lordy lordy lordy the Tribune owned the Cubs and because of Bankruptcy had to sell them for 900 million. Cuban was offering more but because of the bankruptcy and questions about Cuban and insider trading and oh yeah MLB rules etc and teams going in bankrupcy they sold for less than was hoped for. Now along comes McCourt bankruptcy and the Dodgers. Hmmm similar situation except McCourt has fancy lawyers and this and that and gets special rules and sells for over 2 billion dollar or over twice what the Cubs sold for. Wait the Cubs had gone for more than any other baseball team ever sold and a few years later wow oh wow they were skunked by McCourt who got special rules. Now if the LA Times is owned by the Tribune and the Tribune had to sell the Cubs and oh yeah.

ARE THE LA TIMES WRITERS MARCHING TO THE BEAT OF THE TRIBUNE AND SOUR GRAPES?

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/98914/

 

All I care about is winning. I could care less if Hitler, Castro, or George W. Bush owned the Dodgers. If we're winning, I'm happy.

 

To Diablo's comment, I just echo Tuborg's comments. During the McCourt shit, I understood the boycott, because it had an end game. If enough people stopped going, McCourt would have to sell. That worked, and I applauded you guys for doing it. But now, this is it. I guess you're mad, and I can sympathize with that, I just don't understand it. There's gonna come a time, sooner than later, when this team is really good, playing in big games, and the fans will all be back. Eventually none of it will matter. If I lived in LA, nothing in the world could keep me from that.

 

Guggenheim partners are headquartered in Chicago and NY. Yes Chicago home of the Cubs and the local folks spent 2 billion on the Dodgers and paid cash for most of it and didn't buy the local Cubs from the Tribune company. Wait did Sam Zell when scrambling to sell the Cubs get turned down by Walters and is he now pissed that Walters used Guggenheim to buy the Dodgers when he could have overpaid for the Cubs. What is the relationship between the two men and is the Times being used as a personal hatchet by a pissed off former Cubs owner? Hmmm who knows but maybe we need a press conference to have those questions answered.

 

Collusion implies illegality. There was nothing illegal about this. FM had the right to sell the team to whoever he chose. Obviously the Magic/Kasten offer was the best, as he made an insane about of money and got the rights to be somewhat involved, even if it's very little, with the property. Here's my question to you. Would you rather Cohen own the team with his group, have TLR involved, and FM be completely gone?

If you say yes, I hate to say it, but I kind of feel that you're putting your own hatred for FM over the best interest of the team we all love, right? Even thought we'd love to have FM not have anything, I'd much rather he make 14 million a year off the lots and have the stellar ownership group we have. Just my $.02.

Sorry I said FM, I'm just trying to make a serious post and don't want that smiley popping up every 2 words lol

 

Magic the businessman is limited in the full ramifications of the business world. I doubt if Magic really know how all of this is structured and the tax breaks etc. He doesn't get the tax breaks Guggenheim does. So asking Magic questions can yield unintentional wrong answers. This is a business deal done and structured by Blackstone with parameters perhaps not thought of previously. I understand your feelings and they are well founded however thus is the world of business. Do you really think Jamie Dimon fully understood all the facets of how they lost 2 billion dollars? Want answers about the Dodgers ask their lawyers and accountants they are well paid and highly competent and thats why the folks who hire them are wealthy.

 

you know i am angry that it came down to this and im pissed that magic lied so cavalierly and stupidly. what did he think we wouldn't find out? it boggles the mind. i think it comes down to the fact as you say that most people eventually would forget and winning will cure everything. but if thats the case where are the crowds?
maybe its something that comes with age because i remember my father saying he wouldn't go to another game after the first baseball strike and he didn't. he was an avid fan and i loved going to games with him as a youngster. but he just couldn't accept all these rich people arguing over nickles and dimes and the fans paying the price. so he never attended another game until the day he died. and i never really understood that. until now.
call it principle, call it stupidity or whatever you want but i just can't justify the monetary contribution to the team. the last game i went to was w blf and i bought three beers. he was hungry but refused to eat until later because he didn't want to put money in franks pocket. i am actually embarrassed to admit that but it was cold and i was thirsty. it was 36 dollars. no big deal in the scope of things but yet it bothers me.
i don't want to find myself in that position again because it just feels wrong.
i hope the franchise does well and my dodgers win world series again and all those good things. but knowing what i do the joy of being there and spending cash for all things dodgers is gone. and it really never should have been that way. no tax savings could possibly been worth the bad press and ill will they will incur for allowing mccourt to continue suckling the dodger teet.

 

his body language and over defending the accusation was obvious to even the most amateur observer. magic is a lot of things but an actor is not one.

 

No argument with that and hopefully they understood.