TV deal still has solid ratings

Then-bankrupt Dodgers landed a pact that grows more valuable each year.

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JAY L. CLENDENIN Los Angeles Times

THE DODGERS, who launched SportsNetLA in 2014, have a big advantage with local television revenues.

The Dodgers' $240-million signing of Kyle Tucker revived anguished cries that the team is ruining baseball. It also revived a strange chapter in team history, with frenzied online commentary that the signing of Tucker was made possible in large part because Major League Baseball long ago rewarded the Dodgers' owners with preferential financial treatment that continues to this day.

Is that true?

Yes and no.

Uh, thanks.

Go on.

Remember Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' former owner? In 2011, after then-Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a proposed $3-billion local television deal between the Dodgers and Fox Sports, McCourt took the team into bankruptcy court before agreeing to sell. That meant Selig and the MLB owners would not pick the new Dodgers owner. McCourt would, in a process controlled by the court.

With the Dodgers' local TV rights soon to expire, McCourt realized bidders for the team might offer more more and he might make if the bidders knew in advance how much the league would take from the sale of those rights.

In a settlement with McCourt and to avoid the risk of the judge imposing a deal less favorable to the league MLB agreed the fair-market value of a Dodgers TV deal would be based on the very Fox deal that Selig had rejected.

Why did that matter?

That value was $84 million for the first year and would increase thereafter, with the league taking its standard 34% cut and sharing that among all its teams.

However, with a bidding war looming between Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable, Selig knew the rights would be worth more than Fox had offered in its extension with McCourt, who needed immediate cash.