Dodgers sale could mean bigger cable bills

While former Lakers great Magic Johnson may be leading the group shelling out a record $2 billion to buy the storied baseball franchise, in the end consumers may pick up much of the tab because their cable bills likely will be going up, up, up!

The $2 billion price tag tops by more than $1.1 billion what the Chicago Cubs were sold for three years ago and $1.5 billion more than what Frank McCourt paid for the Dodgers in 2004. When the Dodgers, which filed for bankruptcy last year, were first put up for sale, most baseball watchers thought McCourt would be hard pressed to get $1 billion, much less twice that. Even Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team who's not shy about opening his wallet, thought that the Dodgers weren't worth $1 billion. But Johnson's group, whose big backer is Mark Walter, chief executive officer of financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, which will be the Dodgers controlling owner, was willing to pay so much because it figures it can make that money back in television revenue. It's not a crazy bet. Sports rights fees have skyrocketed lately.

Currently, Fox's regional cable network Prime Ticket carries the bulk of Dodger games at a price tag of roughly $38 million per season. The Dodgers also have a broadcast deal with CBS' KCAL-TV, which carries 50 games. Those will likely go away because the team can get more money from cable than broadcast. Fox's contract with the Dodgers runs through the 2013 season and the network has exclusive rights to renegotiate a new agreement through November of this year. After that, Time Warner Cable, which is launching a regional sports channel here later this year, can jump in the fray and try to grab TV rights to the Dodgers. But while Time Warner Cable and Fox Sports will likely be willing to pay more than double and perhaps even triple what the Dodgers are currently getting, that still may not be enough given the price tag. Another scenario is that the Dodgers will look to create their own cable sports channel, as the Yankees have with YES. That way the team can keep not only subscriber fees from cable and satellite companies, but also advertising revenue.