Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt continue to see their divorce details make it onto the front page and while the 
news has revealed loads of gossip, how they live and how they financed their lifestyle. The latest discovery trumps them all.
It’s been discovered that the Dodgers pay rent to…the Dodgers for use of Dodger Stadium, to the tune of $14 million for 2010.
Unusual?
Remember, the McCourts own the Dodgers, the stadium and the land it sits on. For those not familiar with a typical lease arrangement for a baseball team, the Dodgers’ rental payments are 7 to 10 times more than the next most expensive rent in the rest of MLB baseball.
The Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers were listed in a Los Angeles Times article on the subject and according to the newspaper, not one of those teams pays more than $1.2 million to their municipal landlords.
The Dodgers’ neighbors to the south, the Anaheim Angels don’t pay rent for their field but kick in a percentage of revenue from parking and ticket sales to the city. That is estimated to amount to $2 million in the previous two seasons.
That said, here’s the kicker and juicier piece to this story. There is no other team expense listed in the financial documents submitted to the court that surpasses the stated rent. There are figures being thrown around about $24 million having been taken off the top of team revenues for the rental costs.
According to the court filings, the pool of rental money hasn’t been tapped by the team to better itself. As we know, the McCourts have reduced their total payroll by almost as much as the rental fund. On Opening Day 2008, the costs for the Dodgers roster was $23 million more than in 2010.
David Boies who represents Jamie McCourt wants you to know he’s on the side of the fans who are demanding for the team to open its wallet and get some pitching. “It’s a way of taking money out of the Dodgers and putting it into a place they can access it,” Boies said.
Boies has been in the news a lot lately. He was on the legal team that argued the winning side in the California Proposition 8 court challenge.
Whether anything more is learned about the $24,000,000 sitting out there on a financial ledger remains to be seen. Many analysts question whether the trial will happen at all in light of embarrassing and nasty details that may come to light.
In the meantime, the Dodgers’ hitting has taken a break since All-Star weekend and on the nights they get some timely knocks, the pitching goes south.
Who’s got the popcorn concession if this trial does make it to court? Anyone?
Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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