Dodgers’ Financial Future in Doubt After MLB Rejects Fox Sports Agreement

The broadcast package, which included a $385 million loan to the Dodgers, isn’t in the best interests of baseball, the team or its fans, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said yesterday.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt responded that he’ll “explore vigorously our options and remedies.” The proposed deal with Fox was worth about $3 billion, McCourt said at an April 27 news conference in New York.

The Dodgers have struggled to meet their last two payrolls and have another totaling about $30 million at the end of this month that will include more than $8 million in deferred compensation to former player Manny Ramirez, the Los Angeles Times has reported. The June 15 payroll was about $10 million, the newspaper said.

“Commissioner Selig’s letter of rejection is not only a disappointment, but worse, is potentially destructive to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball,” Steve Susman, one of McCourt’s attorneys, said in an e-mailed statement.

Dodgers players could file for free agency if the team can’t make payroll, players’ union spokesman Greg Bouris said in May. MLB spokesman Pat Courtney has declined to comment on whether baseball would step in and provide the money.