MLB just took control of the Dodgers

[Gothamite]

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that's what you meant by "fan issues."

I'll admit that I haven't been to the park in five years, but I never had any problem navigating it. I never had to show my ticket that many times, though, so it sounds like this could be another McCourt issue.

I'm still not sure what a main gate would accomplish, since as you note fans approach the stadium from every side at once.

[The Six]

It just adds to the confusion of where to park and figuring out where your seat is. I'm not saying I'm wandering around like a lost child in a mall, but getting around the place is too much of a pain. Even if it was easier to get around, the place discourages you from leaving your section, even if to just walk around. You must stay in your seat. It isn't friendly.

Anyway the lack of a main gate isn't the biggest problem. It's just one of many that I listed. I don't think dark, narrow concourses that require you to dodge the ridiculously long lines make for a good time. There's apparently graffiti in the bathrooms, too.

[Gothamite]

Yes, but everything you listed is relatively new, can be chalked up to McCourt's mismanagement of the club, and can be rather easily fixed (more concessions mean shorter lines, which open up the concourses, etc.).

Except for the lack of a main gate, which doesn't make sense for a stadium surrounded by parking lots anyway.

[FiddySicks]

It just adds to the confusion of where to park and figuring out where your seat is. I'm not saying I'm wandering around like a lost child in a mall, but getting around the place is too much of a pain. Even if it was easier to get around, the place discourages you from leaving your section, even if to just walk around. You must stay in your seat. It isn't friendly.

Anyway the lack of a main gate isn't the biggest problem. It's just one of many that I listed. I don't think dark, narrow concourses that require you to dodge the ridiculously long lines make for a good time. There's apparently graffiti in the bathrooms, too.

I'd be willing to bet that there's graffiti in the bathrooms of EVERY park in the majors. I was at a Giants game last weekend in the suite section and saw tags in the stalls. Look, I HATE the Dodgers with every fiber of my being, but even I can't say that Dodgers Stadium is a dump. It has some awful issues, but it's still a fairly good ball park with an amazing view o the surrounding area. It's maybe not iconic like it used to be, but in comparison to REAL dumps, like the last incarnation of Yankee Stadium at the end, it's state-of-the-art.

[Sodboy13]

I'd be willing to bet that there's graffiti in the bathrooms of EVERY park in the majors.

Having recently peed at Target Field, Miller Park, U.S. Cellular Field, and Comerica Park, I can't recall any tagging in any of their facilities. Is this more accepted out west? Is a California ballpark bathroom like a New York City Subway train circa 1977 - it's just open season?

[The_Admiral]

The Midwest drinks harder at ballgames. It's not paint they end up spraying.

[The Six]

I'd be willing to bet that there's graffiti in the bathrooms of EVERY park in the majors. I was at a Giants game last weekend in the suite section and saw tags in the stalls. Look, I HATE the Dodgers with every fiber of my being, but even I can't say that Dodgers Stadium is a dump. It has some awful issues, but it's still a fairly good ball park with an amazing view o the surrounding area. It's maybe not iconic like it used to be, but in comparison to REAL dumps, like the last incarnation of Yankee Stadium at the end, it's state-of-the-art.

That's the thing, nobody has come up with reasons why it's still good. So it has a great view...any tall building in the same spot would offer that. I think people are just reluctant to admit it because of its history.

[mania]

So...

A great article on how McCourt basically :censored:ing killed the Dodgers. Nobody's going to want to buy them now.

[Gothamite]

I'd be willing to bet that there's graffiti in the bathrooms of EVERY park in the majors. I was at a Giants game last weekend in the suite section and saw tags in the stalls. Look, I HATE the Dodgers with every fiber of my being, but even I can't say that Dodgers Stadium is a dump. It has some awful issues, but it's still a fairly good ball park with an amazing view o the surrounding area. It's maybe not iconic like it used to be, but in comparison to REAL dumps, like the last incarnation of Yankee Stadium at the end, it's state-of-the-art.

That's the thing, nobody has come up with reasons why it's still good. So it has a great view...any tall building in the same spot would offer that. I think people are just reluctant to admit it because of its history.

It has a great view of the game. It's open and airy, without the overhangs common to retractable roofs. There isn't a bad seat in the house.

Now, it's been a couple years since I've been there, but the food was always good as well. Not fancy like Ichi-rolls, but good, basic ballpark food. Maybe McCourt screwed that up as well, I don't know.

Basically, if you want to watch a game with a beer and dog, there isn't a finer place in America to do so.

[The_Admiral]

How can it stop being iconic, anyway?

That McCourt article is mindblowing. Thanks for the link. What a horrible mess. This is probably what I have to look forward to as a Cubs fan, with cash-strapped ownership living a big lie.

[STL FANATIC]

I've only seen it on TV, but as I said way back in this thread, I'd love to see a game at Dodger stadium...IF the fans became passionate. I'm not out to blame fans or figure out who's to blame. I just know that the stadium has looked dead the last few times I've seen it for one reason or another. Once whatever needs to happen to get energy back in that stadium does, it'll go back to being on my list of things I'd like to experience.

[BBTV]

I've only seen it on TV, but as I said way back in this thread, I'd love to see a game at Dodger stadium...IF the fans became passionate. I'm not out to blame fans or figure out who's to blame. I just know that the stadium has looked dead the last few times I've seen it for one reason or another. Once whatever needs to happen to get energy back in that stadium does, it'll go back to being on my list of things I'd like to experience.

I was there last month for a game. There were certainly some passionate fans, but the team isn't very good so I don't expect 50k people to come out on a Friday night and get all angry. It's very clean - certainly didn't seem like as old a park as it is. The sightlines are very good, and it's insanely cheap (I paid $30 for third row seats. Upper level seats were going for $5.) The food was pretty much just old ballpark food - certainly can't hold a candle to what many of the new parks can offer. Lots of dark stairwells and narrow corridors linking parts of the concourse - I've heard about all of the stabbings and other stuff that goes on in the stadium but could never figure out how it was possible... until I saw those areas. Yeah - you could def kill someone without anyone noticing.

The goofy thing IMO was how the stadium / parking lot is pretty much it's own separate area, kind of like an amusement park. I'm used to parks that are in areas where they have their own limited parking, the city might offer parking, private lots might offer it, etc. Not a self-contained area like that. Not good or bad, just different. No tailgating at all though - it's just drive up, park, and go in.

[DEAD!]

How can it stop being iconic, anyway?

That McCourt article is mindblowing. Thanks for the link. What a horrible mess. This is probably what I have to look forward to as a Cubs fan, with cash-strapped ownership living a big lie.

After reading the article, I say forget divorce court, I want them in prison!

[NJTank]

What a mess.

The McCourts have driven one of the cornerstone MLB teams into ruins. Incredible. No wonder Selig is forcing them out, they need someone else anyone running the Dodgers. How can someone sell the parking, stadium and ticket sales and get nothing from it. Especially the stadium. Dodger Stadium may be 50 years old but it is a Classic Ballpark it was well built and it was recently renovated. I can seriously see a day when Fenway and Wrigley have been repalced and Dodger Stadium is looked at as fondly of what used to be. Incredible. This explains the divorce too, you have two shallow people whose one true love is the person in the mirror.

The Dodgers will rebound they will get a new owner and with the brand name Dodgers it won't take that long to fix it.

.

[FiddySicks]

What a mess.

The McCourts have driven one of the cornerstone MLB teams into ruins. Incredible. No wonder Selig is forcing them out, they need someone else anyone running the Dodgers. How can someone sell the parking, stadium and ticket sales and get nothing from it. Especially the stadium. Dodger Stadium may be 50 years old but it is a Classic Ballpark it was well built and it was recently renovated. I can seriously see a day when Fenway and Wrigley have been repalced and Dodger Stadium is looked at as fondly of what used to be. Incredible. This explains the divorce too, you have two shallow people whose one true love is the person in the mirror.

The Dodgers will rebound they will get a new owner and with the brand name Dodgers it won't take that long to fix it.

.

Not so sure I agree with that, Tank. Major League Baseball pulled a LOT of strings just so that the McCourts could buy the team in the first place. The Dodgers had a metic ton of problems before they took over and from what I remember, there weren't many, or possibly nobody who was willing to buy them back then. Now the whole problem has been exacerbated to the point where the Dodgers are in such financial ruin that they're a shell of their former selves. What do you sell to a prospective new owner when the previous owner sold gave away all assets except for the team? Who in their right mind is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a team to only have to pay rent on their stadium and parking lots, and NOT make any revenue from tickets?

And had MLB approved this FOX deal, the Dodgers wouldn't even get any TV revenue for the next 17 years on top of all of that. How in the world is that a good idea? Selig blocked that deal because it was absolutely insane to even propose.

[Gothamite]

Exactly. McCourt is going to have to be stripped of everything that he took from the Dodgers. The parking concessions, the ticket sales, all of it.

Even then, it'll take some time to build them back up. The McCourts stole a ton of money from the team that it'll need.

[NJTank]

I can see MLB trying to get the new owner to make attempts to buy things like the stadium and at least ticket sales back.

[Mac the Knife]

First:

The McCourts have not, and have not been accused, of doing anything illegal. Nor should they be. They simply split what initially was encapsulated within the structure of the Los Angeles Dodgers into a wide array of separate, specialized business entities: one for tickets, one for owning the stadium, one for parking lots, one for the team, etc., etc. To an extent, every professional sports team does this. The McCourt's merely did it to a level previously unimagined.

Second:

The McCourt's have committed no fraud. Regardless of how they got it, they owned the team and could do whatever - including running it into the ground - they wanted once they bought it. Sad, but true.

Third:

Bud Selig has far more power here than anyone here's willing to credit him with, particularly depending on how far he's willing to go with this - and the alleged entanglements won't be that big a deal if he really, really wants McCourt out.

The steps that would have to be taken would be unprecedented, but could be done:

• Hold an owners' meeting and terminate the Dodgers franchise. The intellectual properties (e.g., the Dodgers name) and player contracts in such case would revert to MLB.
  
• Immediately award a new Los Angeles National League franchise, owned by MLB a la the Expos if an owner couldn't be found.
  
• Most importantly, have the "new Dodgers" play not at Dodger Stadium, but in Anaheim, sharing the stadium with the Angels.
  

The first step would be devastating enough, but on the sheer announcement that a new LA team would play in Anaheim rather than at Dodger Stadium, McCourt's entities would all, all have to declare bankruptcy. The end.

[Gothamite]

That wouldn't exactly help - nobody wants Dodger Stadium to be sold off to pay McCourt's debts, which is what would happen if they get the bankruptcy courts involved.

The McCourt's have committed no fraud. Regardless of how they got it, they owned the team and could do whatever - including running it into the ground - they wanted once they bought it. Sad, but true.

No, not true.

The Dodgers club isn't just any old asset. It's a franchise in a larger group that enjoys immunity from antitrust laws, and that means the larger group has a great deal of say in what the owners do with their asset.

Selig had the right, as Commissioner, to seize the club when they run it into the ground. Which he has. He also has the right to force them out. Which he will.

[The Six]

Basically, if you want to watch a game with a beer and dog, there isn't a finer place in America to do so.

Alright, you can go and disagree, but please don't tell me this. It's just not true. The magic isn't there. It's not a great park anymore.