The Economist: A long Los Angeles nightmare ends

The Economist argues that the high purchase price will come back to haunt the franchise long after Frank McCourt is gone.

At this price, everything would have to go right for the new owners to make a profit. They are required to make costly capital improvements to Dodger Stadium as part of the deal. They will need to spend heavily on new players to improve the club’s lacklustre on-field performance and revive fans’ interest—particularly now that their local competitors, the Angels, have signed Albert Pujols, baseball’s best player, to a mammoth ten-year, $254m contract. And although the deal has been described as a “100% cash offer”, it is doubtful that even Guggenheim has $2 billion of its own capital lying under the mattress and available to buy a baseball team. The far more likely outcome is that the acquisition will have to be financed with a heavy debt load, whose interest payments will probably siphon off much of the franchise’s revenues and limit the owners’ ability to invest in it.