Commissioner Bud Selig said on Monday that while the Dodgers' financial state needs to be monitored carefully, he believes the Mets are on the right track financially.
Selig said during an interview on ESPN Radio's "The Mike Lupica Show" that Major League Baseball is "tracking the [Dodgers] situation very closely."
Selig said he was unsure if the Dodgers, faced with financial uncertainty, will have the funds to cover payroll at the end of the month. Selig last month appointed Tom Schieffer, former president of the Texas Rangers, to monitor the Dodgers after MLB assumed oversight of the franchise from owner Frank McCourt.
"I don't know that right now," Selig said, addressing reports that the Dodgers won't be able to make payroll. "I know that story has been written a lot, but the fact is I don't know. I know our people are tracking this very closely. I have appointed ambassador Schieffer, who of course ran the Rangers for years. Tom will keep me very well posted. ... I'll be able to give you an answer as we move forward here, but at the moment, we are monitoring this situation very closely."
The Los Angeles Times reported last month that Fox directly loaned McCourt $30 million, which reportedly was needed to make payroll.
McCourt has asked Selig to approve a 20-year television deal with Fox worth $3 billion, with a $200 million advance that McCourt says will solve the team's financial issues. Selig has not ruled on the deal.
On the radio, Selig also addressed why he approved the deal in which News Corp., which owns Fox, sold the Dodgers to McCourt in 2004.
"I'll tell you what happened. There's a lot of history here, which a lot of people don't seem to understand," Selig said. "There were two other bidders. Fox was anxious to get rid of the team. They were all really anxious. I'll tell you what happened. There were a couple of groups: a group led by Dave Checketts and another group. And for whatever reason, they weren't around at the end, so Fox sold the club to the McCourts and presented them to us. So this idea that we ought to examine ourselves, there was nobody else. We have a long relationship with Fox. There were no other bidders."
Meanwhile, the Mets are headed in the right direction, the Commissioner said.
Sterling Equities, the Mets' ownership group, said in January, in the wake of a $1 billion clawback lawsuit related to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, that it is looking to sell a minority share of the club.
Hedge-fund titan Steve Cohen is reportedly the front-runner to buy the minority stake.
"I've talked to [Mets chairman and chief executive officer] Fred [Wilpon] a lot about it, and I feel very comfortable that we're going to have a very reasoned economic solution to that problem as opposed to another," Selig said.
"They're approaching it the way I would've approached it. They're looking to add equity and I don't doubt that's going to work out. The Madoff situation? That's well in the future. But in this case, to solve the immediate problem, they're doing it."
Selig declined to compare the Mets' financial issues with those of the Dodgers. "To compare one situation to the other is factually incorrect," said Selig
"My job is to protect the best interest in this sport, so when I do something, I do it for the best interest of baseball," Selig said.
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