Frank McCourt to Sell Los Angeles Dodgers

Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball announced that they have agreed to a "court supervised process" to sell the team and its media rights.

The Blackstone Group LP will manage the sale process, according to the announcement.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to order the Dodgers sold. Frank McCourt had long said he would not sell the team.

The Dodgers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June, after McCourt claimed Selig's rejection of a media rights deal left him without the funds to meet the team's payroll.

McCourt was also under pressure to find funds to pay his former wife Jamie the reported $130 million called for in their divorce settlement. McCourt had drawn the enmity of many Dodger fans since it was revealed in legal filings in his divorce that he used millions of dollars of team profits to fund their extravagant lifestyle, including purchasing two homes in Holmby Hills and two more in Malibu.

Major League Baseball had accused McCourt of looting $189 million in team revenue for personal use. The Dodgers called that allegation inflammatory and unsupportable, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Roger Arrieta, a website designer from West Covina, started a website, markcubansavethedodgers.com, in an attempt to persuade McCourt to sell the team to Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

The group plans a "victory rally" at 6 p.m. Wednesday in front of Dodger Stadium's gates.

The Times reported online tonight that Cuban offered to buy the Dodgers several months ago, but declined to enter negotiations when Frank McCourt said the price would be in the range of $1 billion to $1.2 billion.

Steve Sugerman, a spokesman for Frank McCourt, told The Times Frank McCourt "doesn't know Mark Cuban. He hasn't spoken with Mark Cuban. He hasn't had anyone speak with Mark Cuban on his behalf."

Frank McCourt, then a Boston real estate developer, purchased the team and Dodger Stadium, and its training facilities in Vero Beach, Fla., and the Dominican Republic, in 2004 for $430 million from the News Corp.