Ballpark: Senator brokered deal
■ Continued from Page 7
Also Monday, the County Council gave its ap
proval to two other baseball matters:
The council voted 10-3 to lend $8.1 million to the
Public Facilities District so it can proceed with land
acquisition for the stadium.
The council voted 12-1 to approve a lease with the
Mariners through 1999 at the Kingdome.
The Mariners’ owners had threatened to sell the
team last month after some County Council members
wanted to slow down the stadium project, due for
completion in 1999. The owners said they didn’t
want to face another season of losing millions of dol
lars with the Mariners playing in the Kingdome.
U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., brokered a deal in
which the owners agreed to reconsider if the county
issued more bonds, the stadium board approved a
lease on the Mariners’ terms and the city of Seattle
picked up the bill for traffic control and other game
day costs
Dodgers put up for sale; asking $300M
■ BASEBALL: After 46 years
of ownership, the O’Malley
family is selling its team
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Peter
O’Malley, whose family has con
trolled the Dodgers since 1950 —
seven years before they moved
from Brooklyn to Los Angeles —
surprised baseball Monday by
announcing that the team is for
sale.
O’Malley, about 60, said estate
planning was the primary reason
behind the decision. He succeed
ed his father, Walter, as team
president in March 1970, but
none of Peter’s three children has
held more than a part-time posi
tion with the team.
“It’s probably smart to plan for
the future. That’s probably the
main reason,” O’Malley said.
“I’m not a tax expert, [but] it’s a
pretty good idea not to have all
your eggs in one basket.”
The O’Malley family is second
in seniority among baseball own
ership groups, trailing only the
family of the late Tom Yawkey,
which purchased the Boston Red
Sox after the 1933 season and
turned it over to the Jean R.
Yawkey Trust, which remains
the team’s primary owner.
“The O’Malleys leave to base
ball a rich and powerful legacy,”
acting commissioner Bud Selig
said. “I want to assure Dodger
fans, Peter and the team that we
will work with them to keep the
franchise in Los Angeles.”
The sale price could be more
than $300 million, well above
the current record for a baseball
team, the $173 million paid by
Peter Angelos’ group for the Bal
timore Orioles in 1993.
In addition to the team, the
Dodgers own the 300-acre site
near downtown Los Angeles that
includes Dodger Stadium, which
the team also owns; a spring
training facility in Vero Beach,
Fla.; and some property in the
Dominican Republic known as
Campo Las Palmas.
O’Malley; his sister, Terry Sei
dler; and her husband, Roland,
are the team’s primary owners.
O’Malley said six months would
be a realistic timetable to find a
buyer. Baseball’s approval
process could take another 6-12
months.
“There’s no pressure,” he said.
“Results are more important than
timing. We’ve probably received
one offer a year for 25 years. I
may be here for a long time. It
will not be a circus.”
When asked how his father,
who died in 1979, might react to
Monday’s announcement,
O’Malley said, “He would have
said, ‘Peter, it’s your call, think it
through,’ which I think I have
done. He would have supported
it.”
O’Malley said family owner
ship of sports today is “probably
a dying breed,” and that he can
“defend corporate ownership.”
Walter O’Malley was hired as
the Dodgers’ lawyer in 1942, be
gan acquiring shares two years
later and took control on Oct. 26,
1950, from Branch Rickey, who
had been general manager since
October 1942 and a part owner
since August 1945. John L. Smith
and O’Malley jointly owned 50
percent of the team, and Rickey
owned 25 percent. O’Malley ac
quired Rickey's shares and later
bought out Smith’s widow, rais
ing his percentage to at least 67
percent by 1951.
Walter O’Malley moved the
team from Ebbets Field to Los
Angeles following the 1957 sea
son and convinced Horace
Stoneham to move the New York
Giants from the Polo Grounds to
San Francisco, ushering in the
nationwide expansion of the ma
jor leagues, which had never put
a franchise west of the Mississip
pi.
Widely regarded as the most
intelligent owner, Walter O’Mal
ley was widely believed to be the
power behind Bowie Kuhn, base
ball’s commissioner from 1969 to
1984.
“The O’Malleys will be sorely
missed upon completion of the
sale,” NL president Len Coleman
said.
The Dodgers have prided
themselves for having the lowest
ticket prices in baseball, and
O’Malley said “commitment to
the community, to Southern Cal
ifornia, to Los Angeles is the No.
1 criteria” for the new owner.
“I think quality ownership is
very important,” O’Malley said. "I
will do everything possible to
identify the most quality owner
ship to follow our family. I want
the transition to be smooth and go
on as if nothing has happened.”
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