When people think of the Dodgers, they think (or are supposed to think) of a big market team with a payroll that should be north of $100mm.  Well the 2011 Dodgers will have a payroll south of $100mm (not counting deferred money) even though they have been in the top five of attendance repeatedly for the last few years and their owner promised to increase payroll each year.

But we all know by now the heartache Frank McCourt has brought on the City of Los Angeles.   McCourt has spread his dirty laundry and his mounting debt and has put is squarely on the fans, raising parking to $15 (yes other parks charge more but LA has plenty of parking where other places are limited). Since the divorce trial ended and the judge ruled in favor of Jaime McCourt, Frank has been looking for ways to borrow money to keep him afloat. Frank took money from FOX for the up coming season, as FOX usually would pay for the TV deal at the conclusion of the season.  But that money was gone after Frank paid off his Visa and American Express bills.

So what does Frank do now?  Easy he goes to FOX and ask for a $200mm loan.  According to Bill Shaikin of the LA TImes, McCourt wanted to use the Dodgers’ cable television rights as collateral, extending the team’s current contract with Fox by as many as four years if he did not repay the loan.  This from a man who dreamed about the possible revenue from a Dodger network or channel similar to the “Yes” network which televises all Yankee games.

But everyone’s favorite Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, stepped in and denied McCourt’s request to borrow more money.  Selig appears to be laying the ground work for McCourt showing him that he needs to get his act together or he could be forced to sell the team.  Yes McCourt did double the value of the Dodgers organization, but that didn’t take much as FOX had run the entire franchise into the ground.

Fox already lent $145 million to McCourt in 2004, as part of its agreement to sell the Dodgers to him. McCourt put up his Boston parking lots as collateral. Fox essentially foreclosed on the property two years later, then sold it.

Bud Selig has probably grown tired of the circus act Frank and Jamie have become and would love nothing more than to force them to sell the team. Frank must think he is invincible because with each day, he pushes Bud closer and closer to making the Los Angeles Dodgers the next Texas Rangers.