Tom Barrack, Leo Hindery are latest players in Dodgers bidding
Barrack, head of Santa Monica's Colony Capital, joins bid led by Hindery, founder of Yankees' cable channel, and New York financier Marc Utay. It's one of at least eight bids to survive first cut.
Tom Barrack has partnered with Leo Hindery on a bid for the Dodgers, bringing together a prominent Los Angeles billionaire with the founder of the New York Yankees' cable channel.
The alliance was disclosed Sunday by a person familiar with the Dodgers sale process but not authorized to discuss it.
Hindery and fellow New York financier Marc Utay lead one of at least eight groups that survived Friday's first cut among the bidders. That group had been one of the two prospective buyers known to remain in the bidding without a significant tie to Los Angeles.
The other, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke, has a residence in Malibu and could move the Rams back to Los Angeles as soon as 2015, depending on whether the football team and its St. Louis landlord can agree on stadium renovations.
Steven Cohen, the Connecticut-based investment billionaire, has partnered with influential Southland agent Arn Tellem and has joined the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' outgoing owner, thinks the team will be sold for at least $1.5 billion. Beyond the money, however, McCourt has said that he would consider community commitment in selecting his successor.
"It's somebody who is a huge baseball fan, who loves this community and is willing to commit to this community and put everything they have into it," McCourt said in November, "and bring a world championship to L.A."
Barrack and Hindery have experience in off-field ways of increasing franchise value; McCourt hopes such opportunities will drive the bidding.
The Dodgers' new owner can launch a team-owned television channel, as Hindery built for the Yankees. The Dodgers are scheduled to receive $39 million from Fox Sports next year, the last under the team's current TV contract. The Dodgers could double or triple their annual revenue under a new deal with Fox Sports or Time Warner Cable, but they could try to generate more money by building a team-owned channel.
Barrack heads Colony Capital, a Santa Monica firm that controls $29 billion in assets. Colony enhanced the financial fortunes of Japan's Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in part by renovating a hotel and shopping center surrounding their ballpark. Colony also holds an ownership stake in the French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain and controls Miramax Films.
www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0130-dodgers-bidders-20120130,0,48047...
Peter O'Malley teams with South Korea investor in bid for Dodgers
Former owner would be team's chief executive, and E-Land would provide major financing; group also would include L.A. investors. O'Malley is one of at least eight prospective owners to make first cut.
Peter O'Malley's bid to buy back the Dodgers is supported by financing from the South Korean conglomerate E-Land, two people familiar with the Dodgers' sale process said Monday.
If the O'Malley bid is successful, E-Land Chairman Song Soo Park will become a major investor in the Dodgers, one of the people said.
The ownership group also would have investors from Los Angeles. O'Malley has had discussions with Tony Ressler, a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Ares Capital, according to a person familiar with the talks.
O'Malley would be the Dodgers' chief executive. Foreign investment is not necessarily an obstacle to MLB ownership; the Seattle Mariners' ownership group includes a significant Japanese presence.
An E-Land spokesman confirmed Tuesday the company is involved in the Dodgers bidding but would not elaborate. O'Malley declined to comment.
On Tuesday, as South Koreans woke up to the news that local investors might own one of America's most storied baseball teams, the Korean Baseball Organization — the top professional league in South Korea — had no comment.
Among the baseball fans in chat rooms and on bulletin boards, the reaction leaned negative.
Rather than being proud of owning a foreign franchise as a way to extend Korean cultural and economic influence abroad, many fans here wondered why their moneyed elite didn't invest their millions in Korean clubs. And, despite the experience of the Mariners, the fans expressed skepticism that foreign-backed ownership would be permitted.
"If an outsider could purchase a Major League Baseball team, then Chinese companies would've gotten their hands on it already," wrote one bulletin board contributor.
Wrote another: "Why won't they invest in finding a new Korean Baseball team instead?"
The people who liked the idea said it would pave the way for more Korean talent to make its way to the major leagues.
"Having a hand in the Dodgers will allow Korean players to more easily make the jump. It's good marketing," wrote one fan.
O'Malley is one of at least eight prospective owners to make last Friday's first cut.
The others include East Coast investment baron Steven Cohen, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke, and groups led by Magic Johnson, Beverly Hills developer Alan Casden, Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso and former Dodgers manager Joe Torre, investor and civic leader Stanley Gold and the family of the late Roy Disney, and New York media investor Leo Hindery and investor Tom Barrack of Santa Monica-based Colony Capital.
Frank McCourt, the Dodgers' departing owner, expects the team to sell for at least $1.5 billion. That would be almost double the previous record price for a major league club, set when the Ricketts family bought the Chicago Cubs for $845 million in 2009.
Under O'Malley, the Dodgers were pioneers in international baseball, particularly in Asia. In 1994, three years before O'Malley sold the team to News Corp., Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park became the first Korean player to appear in a major league game.
In November, O'Malley joined Park and former Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo — the second Japanese player to appear in the majors — in an investment partnership to own and operate the Dodgers' old spring home in Vero Beach, Fla. Park and Nomo agreed to use their homeland connections to help lure teams, camps and clinics to Vero Beach.
E-Land, a dominant fashion retailer in South Korea, has expanded its business interests into such areas as hotels and resorts, restaurants and construction, according to the company website. The company is family-run and privately held.
According to the E-Land website, the company opened its first U.S. retail store in 2007 at a mall in Stamford, Conn., under the brand name "Who A.U." The slogan for the brand: California Dream.
www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0131-dodgers-korea-20120131,0,65868...