Andrew Zimbalist Says What We’re All Thinking
In this article about the Dodgers sale (which raises some of the same questions I’m having about the price), Andrew Zimbalist says this about Frank McCourt:
“It’s problematic,” Zimbalist said. “He was looking for some kind of ongoing income stream and he got it. Here’s a guy who borrowed practically all the money to buy the team for $430 million and now he’s selling it for $2.15 billion and he’s coming out with a healthy capital gain — it’s repulsive. This is someone who doesn’t deserve to walk away with a healthy profit after eight years of running the Dodgers in the most egregious, the most inefficient, the most self-interested, and the most vainglorious, idiotic way possible. It really is repulsive that he will still be making a profit in some way.”
Amen, Mr. Zimbalist. A-men.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Why should Dodger fans care about the morality of McCourt’s profit from this?
Because Dodgers fans are moral beings, and all moral beings should be repulsed by McCourt being rewarded for his actions.
yankees fans on the other hand…
Don’t care.
I care about the product on the field, not whether billionaires can become even bigger billionaires.
It would have been almost impossible for him to walk away from this at a loss given how valuable baseball franchises has become.
Why bother caring about it? Meh.
Brian Stow would like to have a word with you.
Dodgers fans and morals? Hilarious.
“Dodgers fans and morals? Hilarious.”
Awwww……
pretty sure this has nothing to do with Dodgers fans specifically.
actually I take that back. Dodgers fans were inadvertently accomplices by feeding him money while he drove the MLB team into the ground.
Sure it does, the quote the article is from is about the Dodgers.
I dont think this has to do with the feeling of any fan, but rather just any person, regardless of baseball knowledge or involvement, should be pissed. The man, through money he didn’t have, put a company in danger by running it horribly, and somehow came out more than unscathed, he came out with a cool Billion.
That’s your basic vulture capitalism. It’s how many firms make money in the real (non-baseball) world and I guess it was only a matter of time until someone tried it with a baseball team. My only hope is that this little adventure makes Selig et al. think a lot harder about who they want owning ballclubs.
And now a big IB firm essentially owns the Dodgers. wah wah. :<
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the new American dream.
I hate to tell you this, Kyle and others of your mindset, but businessmen make billions on financial shenanigans all the time in America.
Look at the Forbes list of the richest people and see how many of them actually did anything that helped provide better products and services to the American (or any other) people.
Get over it.
I’m not a Dodgers fan at all, yet I am still repulsed by the fact that an avaricious slug like McCourt will make an enormous profit from this sale.
Rich guy with extremely valuable asset makes money.
Shocking.
Maybe because he exploited their devotion to this team in order to swindle all this money away? I know if it was me I wouldn’t have wanted any of my ticket price going to some Russian pseudo psychic sending “good feelings” my team’s way.
Why should you care if anybody else cares? By all means, enjoy your orgy of apathy, but don’t feel you have to tell the rest of us all about it.