A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has agreed that the terms of Frank McCourt‘s 2012 sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers should become public.
Guggenheim Baseball Management purchased the club in a deal that was believed at the time to be worth $2.15 billion. The baseball team was sold after Frank McCourt reached a $131 million divorce settlement with his then-wife, Jamie.
Since the sale of the team, Jamie McCourt has sued to void the divorce settlement, claiming that the team’s value was grossly undervalued in the divorce proceedings.
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As part of the case, she got a chance to review a financial summary of the multibillion-dollar deal. The papers were sealed, but Kelli Sager, an attorney representing the Los Angeles Times, appeared in court and argued that the public interest in the team outweighed privacy concerns.
At a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Scott Gordon agreed.
Bert Fields, an attorney for Jamie McCourt, tells the LAT that the financial summary will show that Frank McCourt “got value way beyond $2 billion.”
Guggenheim, whose parent company owns The Hollywood Reporter, was represented in court by Derek Sarafa. An appeal is possible.
After purchasing the team, the team’s new owners reached an agreement with Fox over TV rights that is expected to earn somewhere between $6 billion and $7 billion over the next 25 years. The structure of that deal has been on hold as the parties work out revenue sharing with MLB.
Twitter: @eriqgardner
