The divorce feud between battling billionaire Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie, came to an end yesterday with a deal for Frank to pay her $130 million cash to relinquish any claims to their jointly run Los Angeles Dodgers.
The settlement cleared the way for Jamie, 57, to switch sides and support Frank, 58, as an ally in his upcoming bankruptcy court showdown which starts on Halloween. Those hearings will determine the ultimate control of the team, valued by some to be as much as $1.2 billion.
The ex-couple’s contentious divorce over Dodgers assets had complicated the separate bankruptcy court case involving the team, including valuable TV rights to Dodgers games.
Frank McCourt wants to auction about $3 billion in TV rights for a $385 million down-payment in order to buy off his ex-wife and pay team bills, but Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has blocked that effort in bankruptcy court. Selig wants to eliminate Frank McCourt’s role in the team altogether.
The league has been providing bankruptcy financing to the Dodgers, and seeks its own reorganization plan that would force McCourt to sell the team without cashing in any TV rights.
Four days of hearings on the team’s future are slated to start Oct. 31 before a Delaware bankruptcy judge to resolve the standoff.
Jamie McCourt originally had backed Selig’s case until switching sides.
By dropping her claims on the team, Jamie could aid her husband’s bankruptcy battle.
“From the beginning, Jamie has consistently expressed her willingness to accept a settlement, even if it required her to give up her interest in the Dodgers, the team she loves, if a fair resolution were possible,” said her spokesman Matthew Hiltzik.
Others familiar with the settlement said Jamie will get $130 million cash plus a share of real estate they had amassed in their 30-year marriage, which includes posh homes in Malibu, the Rocky Mountains, Boston and Mexico.
Jamie had been CEO of the Dodgers since the couple bought the team in 2004. Frank fired her a week after their separation in October 2009.
If Frank wins the bankruptcy bout, he would be able to sell TV rights to bail out his team and pay off his divorce settlement. If he loses, he would likely be forced to sell the team.
Either way, Jamie would still collect her $130 million cash, said sources familiar with the settlement.
Legal experts said both sides in the divorce battle have racked up nearly $35 million in legal costs, the most expensive divorce case ever in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Frank McCourt took the Dodgers into bankruptcy protection in June