McCourt plans to make Dodger sale difficult: Mark Cuban interested or not?

((ht: latimes))

This is going to be really interesting. Current Los Angeles Dodger owner and sinking ship Frank McCourt is vowing that he's going to make any sale of his team by Major League Baseball difficult at best.

McCourt's attorney tells the L.A Times that McCourt created a separate entity to control the stadium, the parking lot and a large piece of ticket revenue and that entity is not a part of the team. Bob Sacks also tells the Times that if the league sells the Dodgers, none of those entities would be part of the sale. Sacks also says the league knows of and agreed to this, something the league vehemently denies.

What essentially it means is someone could buy the team and not have rights to anything. It also means this is about to get ugly, because the league is about to take over the Dodgers in full and put the team up for sale. The reason they will step in, McCourt will not be able to make his end of the month payroll due to losing most of his assets in a nasty divorce settlement with now ex-wife Jamie.

Read more from the L.A Times RIGHT HERE

The other interesting tidbit here is that apparently TMZ.com asked Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban if he'd be interested in buying the Dodgers. Cuban told TMZ, "If the deal is right and they're fixable then yeah, I'm very interested", he added, "Who knows what is included and what's not?"


This...is going to get ugly in about 8-days. McCourt keeps saying he doesn't want to fight Major League Baseball in court, but that is exactly where this is heading. Summarizing McCourt's legal and financial issues would take a lot of time and probably several stories, but he is essentially "S.O.L". He doesn't have the financial wherewithal anymore to operate his team.

We'll keep an eye on this and let you know how this story progresses.

CNBC's Darren Rovell talks a bit about McCourt's Financial issues:

Mark Cuban to pick up tab for Mavs championship parade

Mark Cuban

This is what a multi-billionaire pro sports team owner should do. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says he will pay for the parade in the city of Dallas to honor his NBA Championship winning team.

Like most cities in America right now, Dallas is struggling with budgets and doesn't really have the money to put on such an event. Dallas city officials though do apparently have a detailed plan of how the parade would go, saying they've been planning on this for years.

With hundreds of thousands possibly attending, it would take thousands of police and hundreds more city workers all on overtime to pull off an event that would go from City Hall to the Mavericks home arena (we don't do sponsors--they got enough pub in the series)

Read more from the Dallas Morning News (non-subscriber story) RIGHT HERE

We say good for Cuban. Although he sometimes does some odd and says some weird things, he pretty much gets it. There should be a rule that pro sports team owners foot the bill for their parades. It's not like they can't afford it. Sure, it is great that fans get to show their civic pride with their team winning, but these days most cities would have a hard time footing a six or seven figure price tag on an event like this.

Here's a story from the folks at WFAA yesterday as the team returned home from Miami:

Big "D" Celebrates An NBA Title.

Some of the post game celebration of the Dallas Mavericks NBA championship. (Thanks WFAA-TV Dallas, TX)



Celebration inside the American Airlines Center. (Thanks WFAA-TV)



Mavericks owner Mark Cuban appears to have slept with the Larry O'Brien trophy. Cuban tweeted: "this will sound weird. Im laying in bed. with the trophy next me."

Cuban Mad At NBA For Hornets Trade

And, I think, the HQ is in agreement with him this time...

The New Orleans Hornets have been owned by the league since early December. Which, technically, means that the owners are responsible for 1/29th of the operating costs.
When the team is allowed to make a trade that adds a pro-rated salary figure to the operating costs, that gets guys like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban all fired up.

Here's JW Stewart with details inside the localized SportsCenter
((HT: ESPN))


"I don't have a problem if they go dollar-for-dollar, great, more power to them," Cuban said. "You could see if it was like a marquee guy and he's going to bring in lots of dollars. No disrespect to Carl Landry, but I don't see that's the way it works. It's just wrong. I'm one of the owners. The league is supposed to just give them a budget and it never dawned on me that the budget would say you can spend more money to bring in players."

Cuban looks at every business he has with a businessman's acumen. While the Mavs certainly are one of the bigger play-toys he has, it's still a business. When an investment is supposed to be break-even or profitable, it's one thing. When you're propping up someone else's business, it's something else entirely.

Especially, if there's no immediate return...

Mark Cuban Sues UFL

((HT: Dallas Observer via Howard Bloom))

According to a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court this past week, Mark Cuban loaned the United Football League US$5-million. He expected to be paid back by October of last year.

Cuban confirmed to the Dallas Observer in an e-mail: "It was only a loan, and [it's] personally guaranteed by one of the founder's trust." Meaning Bill Hambrecht- UFL founder and Las Vegas Locos owner- who's named in the suit, along with The Hambrecht 1980 Revocable Trust.

On April 7th, 2010 UFL Management, LLC and Cuban's HDNet made a deal: Cuban would loan the league the $5 million, with the understanding it would be paid back by October 6th, along with interest at the rate of 1-percent per year. The payment didn't make it in time, so they restructured: The money would be returned by December 1st at 15-percent.

But "on or about December 1, 2010, Plaintiff demanded that Defendants fulfill the terms of Defendants' guaranty, and pay the debt owed to Plaintiff in accordance with that guaranty, but no part of the debt has been paid."

So much for this marriage...
Here's the highlights from last year's title game...
((HT: theufl))


And a report from WAVY-TV's Bruce Rader...


The HQ wonders aloud about the future of the league...

BCS Poo-poo's Mark Cuban's plan for Football Playoff

Mark Cuban/Courtesy: thenextweb.com

One of yesterday's big "Sports/News" stories was a proposal that Dallas Mavericks owner/gazillionaire Mark Cuban made to bankroll a true college football playoff instead of the corrupt BCS (ok, we added the corrupt part ourselves)

Now comes word that the BCS Executive Director, Bill Hancock "Doubts" that it will ever happen.

Read the story and more from the Dallas Morning News RIGHT HERE

We have a ton of opinions about this. We like Mark Cuban, mostly because he's different that the typical, stuffed shirt, rich guy who has billions of dollars. He may be a bit of a douchebag, but he seems like he'd be kind of fun guy to go drink a beer with, so we can overlook the first part.

We really like the proposal that he made yesterday and think it is a great idea. We've railed for years on the corruptness and monopolistic practices of the BCS, something created by and for the "Power Conferences" and their presidents, but not for the best interests of the fan and players.

The fact that Hancock tried to shoot down Cuban's proposal was expected and quite honestly, we don't think they'd (The BCS) EVER go for a proposal like that. The whole excuse that "It's the best system" it is in place for "The benefit of the student-athlete" is the biggest load of crap quite possibly ever uttered.

We hope at some point someone with the legal authority to tell the BCS Cartel that,  you are a corrupt, illegal monopoly, will actually step up. There is not a person alive who truly believes that the Lords of the BCS came up with the system to benefit student-athletes. They do it to benefit themselves. Pure and simple. Any other argument is pure fiction.

Whatever momentum college football has as they finish the regular season, dies after the first week in December. You can not convince me...or any other rational Sports fan there is any interest in the "Independence Bowl" or the "Humanitarian Bowl" or the "Maaco Bowl". Just ask the schools. Sure, they may smile and say "We're honored to play in a post-season game", but really, they almost all will lose money playing in said game unless it's a BCS game. Heck, just ask UConn, they are about to lose money because they can't give away their tickets to the Fiesta Bowl...and that's a BCS game.

If you want a really good read, check out this book by Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter and Jeff Passan called "Death to the BCS"....it should validate everything I'm saying and re-inforce the point that the BCS is corrupt, evil and should be forced to disband.

In the meantime, check out Cuban in one of our favorite shows Entourage:

BREAKING: Ryan Outduels Cuban In Offensive Battle; Gets Rangers For $385M

((HT: MyFoxDFW/Fox 4 Dallas))

Two groups are vying for control of the Texas Rangers in a Dallas bankruptcy court: one headed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with Houston businessman Jim Crane as a partner, and the other currently running the team with Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg.

There was talk that FoxSports would be interested in the Rangers and the Dallas Stars, but it didn't materialize by the deadline.

Ryan's team questioned Wednesday morning whether Cuban's bid was qualified. The judge in the case decided it was.

The amount of the Cuban-Crane bid exceeded the Ryan/Greenberg bid by US$25-million, but the folks at MLB are wanting the Ryan/Greenberg bid to be the one they choose.

MLB has even threatened to dissolve the franchise if they don't get their way.

Brandon Todd from MyFoxDFW is in the courtroom, and has released through his Twitter account, that the judge is giving Ryan/Greenberg until 1715 local to figure a counter-bid out...

CBS11 in Dallas did an interview with their bankruptcy attorney on retainer...
((HT: KTVT-TV))


Follow their live blog here...

1820 UPDATE: Ryan/Greenberg is reviewing the Cuban/Crane bid...
1845 UPDATE: Ryan/Greenberg, after reviewing the Cuban/Crane bid, came back with a US$320M bid in cash. Cuban/Crane responded with a US$335M bid. The debtors are in the process of reviewing the proposals until 1915EDT

PM UPDATE: The Chief Restructuring Officer, the judge, and the two parties dickered for most of the evening over the bids. Cuban/Crane even went as far as bumping their bid up another $US20M to US$355M. The Ryan/Greenberg group went on record as saying that the auction process wasn't an auction anymore... as evidenced by this piece that comes from our friends at WFAA-TV in Dallas...
Chris Hawes was outside the courtroom...


0039 EDT UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid went up to US$356M cash. Ryan/Greenberg, as the next step, went up to US$365M and want to eliminate the escrow portion of their bid.

0110 UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid went up to US$390M while cutting US$12M in escrow. The minimum bid had to be US$388M from Cuban/Crane to continue.

0145 UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid gave the team to Rangers' Express (Ryan/Greenberg). There was a standing ovation in the court when this was announced. Ryan/Greenberg get the Rangers for US$385M in cash plus assumed debt in the neighborhood of US$200M.

The courtroom was, somewhat, in shock when the decision to pull the plug was given by Cuban/Crane. Jim Crane did not hang around the courtroom long after the decision was announced. Mark Cuban did hang around the courtroom to answer questions for the Metroplex media. Chuck Greenberg was left to shake hands in the room.

The auction took 15 hours to complete...

More when we know more...

Selig Would Rather Terminate Rangers Than Get Higher Sale Bid

((HT: NYTimes- Sandomir, Belson))

The HQ thinks this is a dangerous game that Major League Baseball is playing with the courts these days where the sale of the Texas Rangers is concerned.

We all know Tom Hicks was hemorrhaging money and wanted to sell. His losses in the soccer world in Liverpool and with the Dallas Stars forced him, like any other smart businessman, to want to restructure his debt load...

Of US$525-million... after he defaulted on those loans...

Here was the story at the time of the default, thanks to our friends at MyFoxDFW
James Rose was outside for the story in April...


So, then the Rangers go up for auction... and the team files for bankruptcy protection back in May.

The group led by Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg agree to a purchase price not once, but twice, and the plan for Hicks was to make sure that his liability was capped at $75-million dollars. That idea, in June, surely, annoyed all Hicks' creditors who feel they're owed closer to US$450-million.

Major League Baseball went even as far as to float a US$40-million loan so the team could make its 2010 expenses- which include paying Cliff Lee.

The whole process is now heading for an August 4th auction, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is seen as a possible competitor for Ryan/Greenberg, who have sued Hicks for negotiating behind their back for a better bid.

MyFoxDFW caught up with Dallas attorney Clint David...


And now JP Morgan has jumped in to sue the team for transferring its lease- a violation of loan agreements.

There is a better bid on the table, fully financed, from Houston businessman Jim Crane, but Selig wants nothing to do with the Crane dollars.

And the Commissioner has made it publicly clear he wants the Ryan/Greenberg group and no one else... How far...???

Get this, from the New York Times article:

Selig has blocked Hicks from seeking higher bids, and he has threatened to invoke the “best interests of baseball” clause to accelerate the sale. When Hicks voiced doubts in April about whether lenders would approve the Ryan-Greenberg offer, baseball officials issued a statement later that day affirming that it was running the sale and that Selig would deal “appropriately” with interference from Hicks or anyone else.

One of Selig’s lawyers vowed profanely in a conference call that if the judge did not approve the team’s prepackaged bankruptcy plan, which would have sped approval of the Greenberg-Ryan bid, M.L.B. would terminate the franchise, according to a person on the call.

Selig thinks that he can choose the owners- regardless of financial status or solvency... and ignore the court system...???

What do you think the US Government has to say about that idea...???
Just axin'...

TUESDAY UPDATE: A court-appointed official says the August 4th auction should be delayed.

The restructuring officer, William K. Snyder, testified that potential buyers probably wouldn't be able to secure financing by that time. Interested bidders have to come up with at least $500 million.

Snyder suggested that a mediator pick the date after talking to all potential bidders.

The bidding procedures set the Greenberg-Ryan group's offer as the opening bid, but their financing guarantee is set to expire August 12th.

So, if the auction is set past the 12th, Ryan/Greenberg may be out on their ass. That could set in motion the Selig gambit mentioned above, a messy court battle with Hicks' creditors, and a messy court battle with the winner of the auction.

Or Choice D) All of the above...

Cuban And Kerr Fined For LeBron Comments

From the NBA their own selves, accentuated in bold-faced type...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been fined $100,000 for public comments made in violation of the NBA’s anti-tampering rules. Cuban’s comments were made during an online interview that ran on May 18.

That would be this one with Poppy Harlow and CNNMoney.com


Phoenix Suns President of Basketball Operations Steve Kerr has been fined $10,000, also for public comments made in violation of the anti-tampering rules. Kerr’s comments were made on a radio show on May 14...

That would be here... from the Dan Patrick Show...

The HQ thinks that Cuban kinda got his on reputation alone... his comments were prefaced with the "July 1st" remark. Kerr was joking, if you listen in context...

Obviously, Commissioner Stern doesn't like jokes or prefaced comments...

Mark Cuban Is Not A Fan Of The Dallas Cowboys, Or The NFL

Dallas Mavericks owned Mark Cuban decided to do some venting over the fact the NFL had the audacity to schedule a home playoff game in Cowboys Stadium Saturday night. Cuban's Mavericks host the Utah Jazz the same time the Dallas Cowboys host the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild-Card playoff round.

If given a choice which game would I attend.... no brainer, Cowboys/Eagles.

As for Mark Cuban, lets just say he's not a happy camper.

"I know we're just little pissants compared to the NFL, but seriously, the NFL is turning into the ugly American when it comes to sports leagues," Cuban told ESPN Dallas.com. "They don't give a crap about anybody but themselves."

A spokesman for the NFL declined comment.

The Mavericks streak of 334 straight sellouts is not affected since those tickets are already sold. What are the chances of those seats actually being occupied?

Those of us at the OSG HQ think Cuban is ticked off because he has not shot of joining the NFL fraternity so he's crying in his room. Please, you have already collected the revenue from that game. Remember, the Cowboys own Dallas, you just rent it.

Photo Courtesy: AP

SEC Drops Case Against Cuban

((HT: MyFoxDFW))

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a civil insider trading lawsuit against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ((pictured, thanks Dallas Morning News file)).

While granting Cuban's motion, U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater gave the Securities and Exchange Commission 30 days to file an amended complaint.

Document: Read Full Ruling (PDF)

The SEC alleged Cuban was involved in insider trading when he sold shares in an Internet search engine company, Mamma.com Inc., after receiving confidential information about a private offering in 2004.

The SEC said the billionaire NBA team owner avoided a loss of $750,000 by selling his 600,000 shares, which represented a 6.3 percent stake in the company.

In his 35-page ruling, Fitzwater wrote that the SEC didn't accuse Cuban of promising not to trade based on the confidential information he received. Thus, the commission could not hold him liable for illegal insider trading, the judge wrote.

Fitzwater said the SEC could file a new complaint if it can allege that Cuban promised not to trade on the information.

The judge rejected some of Cuban's claims about his fiduciary relationship with the company, however.

Scott Friestad, associate director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in an e-mail statement that the commission was reviewing the ruling and weighing its options.

Ralph Ferrara, one of Cuban's attorneys, said he needed time to digest the ruling but was initially impressed with what he called Fitzwater's "appellate court level" analysis.

"It sounds like unlike many trial courts on motions to dismiss, he really tried to come to grips with the fundamental legal policy questions that we raised," Ferrara said.

Cuban didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Five years ago, Mamma.com Chief Executive Guy Faure told Cuban by phone that the company was planning to raise capital in a so-called private placement in a public equity offering known as a PIPE, the SEC lawsuit said.

Faure began the conversation by saying he was about to give confidential information and Cuban agreed to keep it to himself, the SEC said. According to the lawsuit, Cuban became angry because he said PIPEs dilute stock value for existing shareholders, and he ended the call by saying, "Well now I'm screwed. I can't sell."

The SEC alleges that Cuban sold his shares hours after the phone call from Faure.

Fitzwater ruled that Cuban's statement can't "reasonably be understood" as an agreement to sell based on the information.

"Thus while the SEC adequately pleads that Cuban entered into a confidentiality agreement, it does not allege that he agreed, expressly or implicitly, to refrain from trading on or otherwise using for his own benefit the information the CEO was about to share," Fitzwater wrote.

The 50-year-old Cuban is a tech entrepreneur who sold his Broadcast.com to Yahoo Inc. in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. He bought the Mavericks in 2000.

Cuban runs a Web site called Sharesleuth.com, which bills itself as providing "independent Web-based reporting aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate chicanery." A companion site, BailoutSleuth.com, tracks the government's $700 billion financial rescue plan.

Mark Cuban Versus The SEC

((HT: myFoxDFW.com))

The Dallas Mavericks are out of the NBA playoffs, and the spotlight is now following the team's controversial owner, Mark Cuban, to a different venue -- federal court.

The insider trading suit filed against Cuban by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year received its first hearing Tuesday. Attorneys presented oral arguments on a motion by the billionaire owner to have the case dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater heard arguments Tuesday on Cuban's motion to dismiss the Securities and Exchange Commission suit, but didn't rule.

Cuban, sporting a black suit rather than his usual T-shirt and jeans, declined to comment afterward. He sat quietly in the front row of the court gallery throughout the proceeding.

The hearing provided yet another window to a case that has captured the attention of the country's legal minds, some of whom believe it represents an unprecedented step by the SEC.

"The basis on which they're going after Cuban hasn't been tried before," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who formerly worked as an attorney in the SEC's enforcement division. "Whether the SEC is going to be able to stretch (its authority) that far certainly remains to be seen."

The SEC alleges that Cuban engaged in insider trading when he sold his shares in a Canadian Internet search engine company, Mamma.com Inc., after receiving confidential information that the company planned to sell additional shares through a private offering in 2004. Cuban was able to avoid more than $750,000 in losses by selling his shares, according to the SEC.

The government's case is based on the contention that, by violating an oral agreement to keep the sensitive information confidential, Cuban committed insider trading.

Cuban and his legal team, while not admitting that the facts detailed in the suit are true, say the government's premise is wrong. They say Cuban, whose shares represented a 6.3 percent stake in Mamma.com, was never an "insider" because he didn't have a fiduciary or similar duty in his relationship with the company.

Cuban's motion to have the case dismissed has sparked a series of pleadings and briefs in which he has attacked the government's position and the government has pushed back with equally sharp elbows.

The SEC argues that a confidential agreement is sufficient to establish a fiduciary relationship and derides Cuban's attempt to say it isn't so.

"Cuban's argument that a person can promise confidentiality and then deliberately and furtively break that promise by trading on the confidential information is shameless," the SEC stated in a memo opposing his motion to dismiss.

"Cuban accepted a duty of trust and confidence to the source of the information and was therefore legally obligated to abstain from trading or first disclose his plan to trade."

Five respected law professors have filed a brief in support of Cuban's position. The professors -- Alan Bromberg of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Stephen Bainbridge of UCLA, Allen Ferrell of Harvard, Todd Henderson of the University of Chicago and Jonathan Macey of Yale -- weren't compensated for signing off on the brief, according to the document.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bromberg said he researched the case after being contacted by Cuban's attorney, Ralph Ferrara, and came to the conclusion that the SEC has gone too far.

"It's like if somebody from company X called you and mentioned there's about to be an acquisition at a very attractive price but asked you not to tell anybody," Bromberg said. "You might say, `Well, sure, I never spill information I get from prospects or contacts,' or you might say, just as a courtesy, `I'll keep this information confidential.' Does that make you an insider? We don't think so."

Thomas Lee Hazen, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who has written extensively on securities law, said he believes the SEC is on solid ground.

"What you've got is a rule that clearly covers people who are under a duty of confidentiality," Hazen said. "It would seem to me that a contractual duty could easily be enough (to charge someone with insider trading)."

No matter where legal experts stand, they agree on one thing: If Cuban doesn't prevail, Tuesday's hearing could be the first chapter in a long and contentious case.

"Frankly, the district court is probably just a way station to the Fifth Circuit or even the Supreme Court," Henning said. "Mark Cuban has some pretty deep pockets."

Here's Fox4's coverage with Matt Grubs on site...

K-Mart's Blue-Language Special ((Quite NSFW))

"You gotta come to Denver, bitch..."
And that's the most G-rated of it all...
((HT: NBC Los Angeles.com))

Bad Cuban: SEC Charges Mark Cuban

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has some explaining to do with the Feds. Federal regulators have charged Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid substandial financial losses.

The Security and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Cuban on Monday in a federal court in Dallas. The SEC (no not that one) says Cuban had the opportunity to get in on the common stock offering of Mamma.com, Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private back in June 2004.

The SEC contends that Cuban knew shares were to be sold below market value and after a few hours of getting that information, Cuban told his broker to sell them avioding $175,000 in losses. The SEC tends to frown upon that.

No comment from Cuban or his attorneys.

Cuban's net worth is $2.3 billion according to Forbes magazine as of March 2007. That's filthy rich.

Photo Courtesy: Tim Heitman/NBA/Getty Images