Business

Cohen gets blessing to own Dodgers

Hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen has been cleared for takeoff.

Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital, has been given the go-ahead by Major League Baseball to own a team, The Post has learned.

The 55-year-old baseball fan is one of four remaining bidders for the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cohen this week met with the baseball ownership committee, and it has blessed him as a potential owner, after giving him a thorough vetting, sources said.

All the owners will get a chance to vote on his purchase of the Dodgers if he wins the bankruptcy auction, expected to wrap up next month.

One bidding group that includes businessman Stan Kasten and basketball legend Magic Johnson is said to be the preferred team of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

Kasten and Johnson have made the highest offer, $1.6 billion, while Cohen has offered $1.4 billion, with $900 million of it in cash, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Also in the running are St. Louis Rams football owner Stan Kroenke and a team of Michel Heisley and Ares Capital co-founder Tony Ressler (Leon Black’s brother-in-law).

The price will be the most ever paid for an American sports franchise.

MLB, a source said, favors Cohen because he is the only bidder who is putting in so much cash that he is not borrowing against future television revenue.

With the team in bankruptcy, neither MLB nor McCourt fully controls the sale.

If Cohen wins, McCourt will likely not try to block the deal as he needs his share of the proceeds, a source said. MLB and Cohen declined comment.