Dodger Blues: McCourt Divorce Reveals Team’s Huge Debt

Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) – The ongoing high-profile divorce trial of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his estranged wife Jamie, the former team CEO, revealed that the baseball club was $433 million in debt as of last year.

Apart from the revelation the team was heavily indebted, court documents filed for the said divorce case also indicated that Frank McCourt has been turned down at least three times for additional financing, Los Angeles Times.com reported.

According to the Times report, Citibank, a Chinese investment group and Bill Guthy of Guthy-Ranker infomercial fame turned down Frank McCourt’s financing requests last year.

Dodgers’ chief financial officer Peter Wilhelm, in a deposition, said Citibank declined McCourt’s cash call, telling him it “did not feel that the Dodger organization had the capacity to take on more debt.”

The report in the L.A. Times also indicated that the debt load has limited the Dodgers ability to pay their players and could affect the club in signing talent.

The Dodgers reportedly registered an opening-day payroll of about $104.9 million, ranked 11th in MLB.

The Dodgers entered Thursday with a 68-66 record, seven games out in the NL West. Los Angeles is also 7 1-2 games behind in the NL wild-card race.

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