[Cynthia Foster]
Dodgers fans in Los Angeles and beyond have been musing about what owner Frank McCourt's divorce from wife Jamie could mean for the team. While Frank's camp insists the answer is nothing, one has to wonder when the LA Times runs a story outlining how the McCourt's divorce could be the most expensive in California's history.
The two have estimated that they'll spend approximate $19 million on their divorce trial, with Frank McCourt planning to drop $5-10 million and Jamie McCourt up to $9 million.
The LAT consulted with family law experts from Southern California and New York, and almost all expressed surprise at the dollar amount.
"I'm pretty sure there's not been any litigation in a California divorce where they've spent so much on attorneys' fees," said Lynn Soodik, a Santa Monica family law attorney who represented Meg Ryan in her divorce from Dennis Quaid.
Jamie McCourt, who was fired as CEO of the Dodgers by Frank McCourt in October, is asking her husband pay her legal fees.
Frank McCourt's attorney denied that the $5-10 mil will come out of Dodgers coffers. Instead, he'll get a "simple personal loan." Multimillionaire sports executives: they're just like us!
Frank McCourt has been a class act since buying the Dodgers. I think that his biggest mistake was in hiring the Billy Beane protoge as GM, but then Frank was a rookie owner. He has spent a lot of money refurbishing the stadium. He's brought in good people (Coletti, Torre) to run the team, and he's saying judge me by my results. I was really impressed with the way he handled the Manny situation last year. He basically told him that you're not getting back on this team unless you clean up your act. McCourt is deep and sincere, not bad qualities for an owner. Its too bad that the wife decided to pursue her antics last year. Coletti will find the players again this year.
Posted by: Vimax | May 02, 2010 at 12:25 AM