LA Dodgers Gain Bankruptcy Loan Reprieve

June 29, 2011

A judge has ruled that the Los Angeles Dodgers can use as much as US$60m of a bankruptcy loan after Major League Baseball (MLB) dropped its opposition following changes in the loan’s terms.

A requirement that the Dodgers sell television rights within six months was deleted and a potential fee for the lender, vcialis 40mg JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Highbridge Capital Management LLC, order was cut to US$250,000 from US$4.5m, lawyers for the Dodgers said yesterday at a hearing in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

MLB layer Tom Lauria said that the MLB’s aim yesterday was to prevent the Dodgers trying to auction the broadcast rights. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig last week rejected a proposed deal with Fox Sports, leaving the Dodgers unable to keep to its payroll commitments. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said the 17-year agreement, valued by him at about US$3bn, would have assured the team’s financial stability.

“My client came here to fight the process being put in place to start an auction,” Lauria said in an interview. “So it’s MLB, one, McCourt, zero.”

Bruce Bennett, an attorney for the Dodgers, said the team filed for bankruptcy to gain time to auction the television rights. Although the deadline has been removed from the loan terms, the team still has the right to propose an auction while under court protection, he said.