2003 SPORTS: NEW DODGERS OWNER EXPECTED IN 2004 BOSTON'S MCCOURT TO TAKE THE HELM.Byline: Rich Hammond Rich Hammond Los Angeles Daily News sports writer. Instrumental in bringing the Los Angeles Kings hockey organization closer to the fans. He is the atypical "what a guy" to Kings fans everywhere. Rich Hammond on himself. Staff Writer A mystery man from the East Coast, with no background in baseball other than his longtime devotion to the Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox are a member and currently champions of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s American League. From to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park. , swooped into Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, in October and agreed to purchase the Dodgers, one of sports' most storied franchises. Frank McCourt
Francis "Frank" McCourt (born August 19, 1930) is an Irish-American teacher and author. , a prominent Boston land developer, will pay News Corp. approximately $430 million for the Dodgers, assuming that the sale is approved in January as hoped. The announcement, on Oct. 10, concluded News Corp.'s brief courtship with McCourt and its long, confusing effort to get somebody to buy the Dodgers. If approved, the sale will end the reign of News Corp., which bought the team from Peter O'Malley
``This is an organization,'' longtime manager and current team Vice President Tommy Lasorda said, ``that under the O'Malley regime was all about class. It was dignified, and it was a winner, and hopefully we can get back to that.'' News Corp. believed it had a match in the spring, when Tampa Bay Buccaneers But that deal fell apart, complicated by NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga cross-ownership rules that made it difficult for Glazer to come up with enough independent money for the Dodgers. Other candidates, such as former Seattle Marines owner Jeff Smulyan and real-estate developer Alan Casden, showed a continued interest, but over a two-month period, McCourt emerged as a potential fit and then, the likely choice. McCourt's involvement was something of a surprise to his colleagues in Boston, because McCourt's financial credibility had been called into question when he attempted to purchase the Red Sox in 2001 and the Angels in 2002. The majority of McCourt's fortune, estimated to be between $400 million and $500 million, comes from his ownership of a valuable 25-acre parcel of waterfront land in South Boston. News Corp. officials were assured of McCourt's ability to finance the sale, and hoped the sale would be approved at a Nov. 20 owners meeting, but by that point, McCourt had submitted only a small fraction of the necessary paperwork. McCourt faced a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting all the paperwork to Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. . There were also intra-team issues for McCourt to consider, primarily the status of general manager Dan Evans and manger Jim Tracy, as well as the future of Dodger Stadium, with the possibility that McCourt might build a new downtown stadium. ``We feel enormously privileged and excited about this opportunity to lead the Dodgers to continued excellence across every level of the organization,'' McCourt said in a statement released by News Corp. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Frank McCourt, standing in his Boston office in this 2001 file photo, will pay approximately $430 million for the Dodgers. Patricia McDonnell/Associated Press |
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