Has The Dodgers Next Owner Already been Decided?
It has become apparent that Frank McCourt will not give up the parking lots. We knew when the team went up for sale that he had final say in deciding whether he would include them. I made the mistake of assuming that he would include them once he saw all the bids coming in especially at over 1.5 Billion. This could be just a ploy to try and get more money, but I think he really intends to keep them because he sees the parking lots can ultimately be worth Billions more. I have a theory that he has already decided whom he wants to sell to and what his next steps will be. He previously has stated that he liked living in Los Angeles in he intended to stay living here. He did say that there is a bidder willing to buy the team without the parking lots.
I feel that bidder is St Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Over the last year there has been a lot of talk about the Rams possibly moving back to Los Angeles. There has been a lot of talk if there current stadium is not renovated they can leave after 2014. Things got interesting when it was reported that Kroenke is in the batch of final bidders. There is no other reason why he would bid on the Dodgers. The NFL has rules regarding cross-ownership. If Kroenke buys a baseball team in Los Angeles, which would be permissible, and then an NFL team other than the one owned by Kroenke moves there, the situation could get dicey. I touched on this earlier this month. I believe that he could already have a deal in place with Kroenke.
- He sells him the team
- McCourt keeps the parking lots
- They announce they will build a state of the art Football Stadium in the existing lot and create a new parking structure.
- Then they announce that the Los Angeles Rams will become the new tenants of the stadium.
During all this process Frank McCourt makes out to be the Hero and Savior for doing something that many have tried before him and could not do, bring back football to Los Angeles.
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Except Kroenke CAN own a baseball team in another city. The NFL rule is that he cannot own a baseball team in another “NFL market”, since LA doesn’t have a team, it is not a NFL market.
Let me clarify that a bit If Kroenke buys a baseball team in Los Angeles, which would be permissible, and then an NFL team other than the one owned by Kroenke moves there, the situation could get dicey. It may be that Kroenke would merely be required at that point to transfer the paperwork of the Dodgers to another family member. Regardless, it would be hard not to view a purchase of the Dodgers as a potential precursor to moving the Rams to the same town.
Why would the situation get dicey? As was stated in the first post, NFL owners cannot own an MLB franchise in another NFL market, but since LA has no team it is not considered an NFL market. I see you responded to that by suggesting that if a team not owned by Kroenke eventually moved to LA things could get dicey. Why would that be so? Even though it would seem to be in violation of NFL rules, I’m certain Kroenke would be fine as he would have bought the Dodgers when LA was not an NFL market. It would be very unfair of the NFL to penalize him if he is following the rules. The NFL cannot apply rules retroactively so Kroenke buying the Dodgers doesn’t necessarily mean he has to move the Rams to LA.
Kroenke has come across this problem before and what he has done is transfer ownership to a relative. I don’t see anything that states NFL market, just the term city.
You’re right it says “NFL city” not market.
“The NFL also forbids its majority owners from owning any sports teams in other NFL cities”
That said, Kroenke has not come across this problem before. Kroenke owned the Denver franchises before the Rams, and there was no move involved. In this situation he would own the Dodgers, and then a another team would move to LA. Since another owner moved his team to LA it’s likely that, as Gabe said, some sort of exception would be made, since he was there first.
He was questioned when he got the rams cause of the ownership of Nuggets and Avalanche, so those situations had to be addressed. Im sure all the NFL rules would get worked out somehow if it came to that. Point is the door seems to be there that McCourt has placed for him.
But once the Rams move there it will be no Rex?
That & Roger Goodel has said an NFL team in LA would require 2 expansion teams. The NFL isn’t going to screw St Louis twice. The only sitch I see is Kahn moving Jacksonville to STL and Rams move to LA. Jacksonville is in a very long and constricting lease
As a life long die hard Arsenal fan, I’d be well happy if Kroenke got the Dodgers. When they finally finish the Expo line to West L.A. I’ll be taking public transportation to Dodger Stadium so Frank McCourt can suck on that.
As I understand it, Frankfurter won’t get paid per car. He’ll get paid $14m per year from the Dodgers, whether you park there or not
Well that puts a damper on things.