Tiger Woods' divorce was actually pretty tame (and cheap) compared to the McCourts

[Blue_Tires]

The Los Angeles Dodgers made a rare trip to Boston in June to play the Red Sox. For Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, burdened by a messy and public divorce, it was a chance for a homecoming. McCourt took the opportunity to host a party.

The guest list contained many of his hometown friends. But it pointedly did not include other people from McCourt's past: a handful of local real estate developers who had partnered with McCourt decades before and were most responsible for launching his career.

Among the uninvited was Jim Craig, who got to know McCourt when the latter was a 24-year-old condo developer with big dreams and an appetite for risk. Craig was 30 years older than McCourt, more experienced, and more cautious.

The two fought over a piece of land that would become the cornerstone of McCourt's real estate empire, and the collateral for his purchase of the Dodgers. Their parting was not amicable.

"It's one of those sad cases," Craig told the Weekly recently. "You have people who are that ambitious and have the brains. It's just too bad they don't have the scruples to go along with it..."




......Dodger executives complained that the McCourts used the team like a credit card. From 2004 to 2009, they collected $108 million from the team for personal use. This was done haphazardly, as the need arose, and without any sort of up-front financial planning.

They paid $150,000 a year for haircuts.

They flew on private jets.

They ate at the finest restaurants and wore the finest clothes.

They stayed in luxury suites.

They had round-the-clock security. (Their head of security, Jeff Fuller, would become Jamie's boyfriend.)

They had seven homes and belonged to seven country clubs.

They bought two homes in Malibu for $46 million; two in Holmby Hills, across from the Playboy Mansion, for $26.5 million; and spent $14 million installing an Olympic-sized pool, so Jamie would have somewhere to swim.

Over the same period, the McCourts paid no income taxes, thanks to a quirk in the tax code affecting owners of sports franchises.


http://www.laweekly.com/2010-08-05/news/dodger-dog/