:lol: THANK GOD... EVERYONE HERE HAPPY PEOPLE SAID THEY WILL START GOING BACK TOT HE GAMES.. THEY DIDNT WANT TO SUPPORT THE MC CORTS AND ALL THEIR MANSIONS . MOST OF THE DEBT INCURRED WAS DUE TO THEIR PERSONAL SPENDING HABITS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TEAM. JOCO IS SOOO HAPPY... THE TALK HOW WENT ON EARLY TODAY JUST TO HANDLE THE VOLUMN OF CALLS. HOPEFULLY WE WONT BE LOSING ANYMORE OF OUR PLAYERS .
Thank God. This was the worst thing that I've ever seen in local sports. The McCourts looted the Dodgers of everything they could steal in the few years that they owned the team. The record of their business dealings is clear. When they bought the team in 2004, the Dodgers had been tops in attendance nearly every year since those statistics began. Now there are only 17,000 season ticket holders left...down from 27,000 just last year. When the O'Malley's owned the Dodgers, season ticket sales were usually capped at 35,000-40,000 so that locals could still walk up and get a seat... The team that once compared favorably with the Yankees in cash generation now owes more than $400,000,000 and had to borrow $30 million from it's broadcast partners just to pay salaries this month. The minor league system, the envy of all baseball just ten years ago, has been looted as well. Expensive players were not drafted, while others were "low-balled" and not signed. Premier free agents are not even offered... I could go on and on... I didn't want to start a "Dodger section" here, because I didn't want to bore you folks with what would have been a nightly rant about Mrs. McCourt and her playboy poolboy. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end to all of that. Maybe the nightmare is finally ending... ..........JO'Co
:roll: BTW- even the McCourt's charity was a phony. The Dodgers have raised enormous amounts of money over the last few years for the McCourt's charity, only to discover that 25% of the money raised was going to just one guy in the form of salary...the same guy who handles a lot of Frank's other deals. The Dodgers can't be taken away from this guy fast enough. When he tried to buy the Red Sox, he wanted to tear down Fenway Park and build a new stadium on land that he owned. Right now, he owns the land under Dodger Stadium and he's making plans to develop it...
:cry: It will take some time to find all of the different ways that the McCourts were using to defraud people and loot the Dodgers. What's known for sure is that the two of them, Frank McCourt and his wife Screaming Meanie, charged more than $100 MILLION in expenses to the Dodgers in the seven years that they owned the team. Both of their sons are on the team payroll and have been paid millions of dollars in salary, although there is no record of either of them showing up to work or having any real responsibilities. Other McCourt family and friends appear all over the pay records with phantom jobs... The final straw for Commish Bud Selig was Frank's latest attempt to hide money from the commissioner's office. In order to meet his April payroll, McCourt borrowed $30 million from Fox TV and deposited it into his PERSONAL ACCOUNT instead of into a Dodger account. In this way, he hoped to hide the fact that the Dodgers don't have any money: it's all gone... So there we are. A franchise valued at $722 million is now worthless. A legendary stadium where families used to watch baseball has gone ghetto from neglect. There's graffiti spray painted on the walls of the former Disney-like restrooms. Drug dealers and gangs now patrol the pavillions and foul pole corners. Filthy rap music, encouraging violence, blares from the speakers as Snoop Dog gives kids advice on the Dodgervison scoreboard in the same stadium where the O'Malleys used to hand out free ice cream after victories... Now for the first time in 51 years, the Angels...the stinking little Angels...will outdraw the Dodgers for the first time. The heart of Los Angeles is broken. It's gone. It's all gone... ........Dodger Dog
Here in New York the Mets find themselves in a similar financial situation because the Wilpons invested heavily with Bernie Madoff. They are several hundred million in debt as a result and had to borrow to make payroll at one point last year. Add to that a really shitty team and rotten attendance and there is a chance they won't survive the season without MLB assistance.
I think that the Dodgers should make a new start by moving their franchise. How about ...BROOKLYN. They could start a rumor that the team name came from folks dodging frilly cars on the crowded Brooklyn streets.
re: Soboroff He was hired the day before and his first day on the job was the day that Selig dropped a house on his boss. His official title is Vice President of the Dodgers, but he's actually a developer. Remember, McCourt's plan is to develop and sell off the land under Dodger Stadium which is valued at $2 billion... re: Brooklyn Not funny. The Dodgers were betrayed in New York, as were the Giants. That's how they wound up out here.
This was in this morning's LA Times. By Bill Shaikin April 22, 2011, 8:55 p.m. Steve Garvey, one of the most popular players in Dodgers history, said Friday that he has teamed with billionaire business magnate Ron Burkle in an investment group that would like to buy the team. Commissioner Bud Selig seized control of the Dodgers this week, dramatically increasing the chances the team eventually would be sold. In that event, Garvey said, he believes his baseball background and Burkle's business acumen could help the Dodgers reclaim their place among baseball's elite franchises. "We want to bring the Dodgers back to their glory," Garvey said. "There was a Dodger way, but that way has drifted by the wayside." Burkle teamed with franchise icon Mario Lemieux in buying the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins in 1999; the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. Burkle has pursued the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals in recent years, according to press reports. He said last week he might buy the NBA's Sacramento Kings, in support of that city's frantic effort to keep the team from moving to Anaheim. The Kings' owners said they would not sell the team. Burkle, 58, has a home in Beverly Hills. Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.2 billion. At least two other local billionaires also have been reported to be preparing bids for the Dodgers: developer Alan Casden, who pursued the team when it was last up for sale, and financier Alec Gores, whose brother Tom bought the NBA's Detroit Pistons earlier this month. Another NBA owner, Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, previously has expressed interest in the Dodgers. In an email Friday, Cuban declined to say whether he would be interested in the Dodgers — "They aren't for sale," he wrote — but said he had received numerous messages from Dodgers fans in the three days since Selig acted. "Between tweets and emails, I couldn't count them all," Cuban wrote. Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and Chicago White Sox executive Dennis Gilbert, all of whom live in the Los Angeles area, are expected to consider bidding should the Dodgers go up for sale. Attanasio told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he was "committed to Milwaukee"; Werner told the Boston Globe he had "no interest" in pursuing the Dodgers. The Dodgers remained in limbo Friday, with Selig waiting until next week to appoint a trustee to run the team and owner Frank McCourt letting the week pass without initiating any legal action in response. Selig and McCourt each have retained attorneys for what the commissioner anticipates will be a lawsuit from McCourt. Garvey previously told The Times he had assembled an investment group that twice last year offered what he called a "cash infusion" to McCourt. McCourt declined the offers. He has pledged to maintain sole ownership of the Dodgers. On Friday, one day after Dodgers vice chairman Steve Soboroff blasted Selig for his "irresponsible" takeover and criticized him for snubbing McCourt but assisting the owners of the financially troubled New York Mets, two people familiar with Selig's thinking said the commissioner drew a sharp distinction between the Dodgers and the Mets. The Mets' owners addressed their cash need by putting a minority share of the team up for sale, while McCourt initially proposed a $200-million loan for a debt-plagued team, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the expected legal action. McCourt since has reached agreement on a $3-billion television contract with Fox, but he has not agreed to sell any part of the Dodgers. Garvey said Friday that he has informed Major League Baseball that Burkle has joined his investment group. He said Burkle was unavailable for comment but had authorized Garvey to speak on his behalf. Garvey said he has "six to eight" other investors in his group. He declined to identify them but said they were "very strong, very deep-rooted in Southern California," with some involved in the entertainment business. Garvey, 62, was an eight-time All-Star for the Dodgers. He has driven in more runs than any player since the team moved to Los Angeles. He was the National League's most valuable player in 1974, and he joined Ron Cey, Bill Russell and current Dodgers coach Davey Lopes in an infield that played together for 8 1/2 years. Although the advent of free agency makes it unlikely a team could keep so many stars together for so long, Garvey said he believes the Dodgers should be able to keep a core of players together long enough for a fan to identify with them and invest emotionally in them. "That would be my No. 1 goal," he said, "to bring back an environment where free agents want to come to Los Angeles and stay there a long time, and to build an even stronger minor league system." If his group were to succeed in buying the Dodgers, Garvey said he would serve as managing general partner. "It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said.
8) Garvey and his legions of pregnant girlfriends seem like minor matters compared to what we have now. I can't even imagine Steve Garvey setting up a children's charity as a scam to funnel money to his pals. Garv has only one weakness...and it's obvious. Considering everything: we'll take it.
he could be pulling a Fredo with cocktail waitresses at home plate for the 7th inning stretch and it would be more of a family show than the BET/Mecha sponsored reality show that goes on now. Bring on Garvey and the whores.. The Dodgers need the family. It would appear Steve is both Dodger Dog and he's got a village of children for the family...so check and check there.
Wow. I never knew this about Garvey. he always came off like a Boy Scout and I remember his wife Cindy was very attractive. Turns out he's like the white Daryl Strawberry :lol: The Straw has bragged that the Met players used to have side bets as to how many women they could bed down DURING a game. He has said that he had usher on his payroll who would prospect for him and would have women stashed in a meeeting room or closet and he would nail them in between innings when he had little chance of having to go to bat ( on the field, that is ). Ah, baseball. The stuff of legends.