A judgment in a Delaware bankruptcy court will force Frank McCourt to accept a $150 million loan from MLB instead of hedge fund Highbridge. The judge may have been swayed by the revelation that McCourt would have to pay $5.25 million to Highbridge if that loan wasn’t approved, creating an apparent conflict of interest. The loan will not allow MLB to assume control of the team. Next up: a ruling on whether future TV rights can be auctioned off now instead of 2013, when the current local TV deal with Fox expires. (More from ESPN LA/Dodger Divorce and Biz of Baseball.) On a related note, you can criticize Bud Selig for many things, but his letter rejecting McCourt’s rushed TV deal (PDF) with Fox is pretty well argued.
How out of whack is baseball economics? The Yankees are paying Kei Igawa millions to commute from Manhattan to Trenton (AA) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (AAA).
The NFL and players continue to go back and forth, though the media thinks a CBA will be done very soon, perhaps by next week. Sure. A major sticking point is the length of the deal. The league wants it locked in for 10 years, whereas the players may want an opt-out after 7.
The NBA and NBPA released results of an audit on the 2010-11 season. BRI (Basketball Related Income) was up 4.8% year-over-year. Salaries, which are tied to BRI via a 57% guarantee, are up the same percentage. Both sides can point to the numbers as supporting their arguments during CBA negotiations.
Turns out that AEG is not interested in building a downtown LA ballpark.
Just as in Minnesota, watching a ballpark being built in Miami is starting to turn locals away from the fact that the public financing was not a good deal.
As usual, no news on an A’s ballpark or the cities. Redevelopment awaits the California Supreme Court. I’m off to a pool party!
newballpark.org 
Perhaps I’m missing something but I don’t know how giving McCourt that loan would make it any easier to resolve the ownership impasse. He could just take the money and flip the team to someone else, unless there’s something in the divorce proceedings that stop him from that. But it may not be someone MLB would prefer.
So which is more important now, the payroll or the ownership question?
By giving McCourt the loan instead of Highbridge, baseball prevents (for now, anyway) another big creditor who gets a say in the future of the team.
Remember, the Rangers auction debacle (and just because it ended well didn’t make it any less of a mess) was caused by the Monarch Alternative predatory lenders buying up Hicks’ existing debt to get a spot a the table. Not exactly the same situation, but similar enough for MLB to want to avoid it.