Frank and Jamie McCourt have reached a divorce settlement under which she would get about $130 million and relinquish any claim to a share of the Dodgers, a newspaper reported Monday.
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The settlement, which would conclude what is believed to be the costliest divorce in California history, would remove Jamie McCourt as an obstacle to Frank McCourt's plan to retain ownership of the team by selling the Dodgers' television rights in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing multiple people who are familiar with the agreement but spoke on condition of anonymity because it has not been finalized.
The agreement appears to be setting up a winner-take-all court showdown for the Dodgers between Frank McCourt and baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, according to the Times.
The McCourts incurred $20.6 million in legal bills related to the divorce through July, according to Los Angeles Superior Court filings by each of the parties, the Times reported.
To settle the outstanding dispute over whether the Dodgers were the sole property of Frank McCourt or community property could have added at least $14 million to those bills, based on estimates in a filing on behalf of Jamie McCourt, according to the Times.
Selig has asked the Bankruptcy Court to order the Dodgers sold. For Frank McCourt to keep the team, he probably needs U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Gross to deny Selig's request and to grant an auction of the Dodgers' television rights, over the objections of Selig and Fox Sports.
However, in the absence of the pending settlement, Frank McCourt could not have kept the team without defeating Selig in Bankruptcy Court, then defeating his ex-wife in divorce court on the issue of whether the Dodgers were community property.
It remains uncertain whether the Bankruptcy Court would allow McCourt to use money from a television deal to satisfy a divorce settlement -- Selig refused to do so -- or whether the net proceeds of a sale of the team would exceed $130 million.
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