Los Angeles Dodgers Sue Fox in Bankruptcy Court Over Regional TV Contract

The Los Angeles Dodgers sued News Corp’s Fox Sports, accusing the broadcaster of interfering with the bankrupt baseball team’s plan to sell itself and its television rights through a court-sanctioned auction.

Fox Sports sent a letter that “constitutes a deliberate attempt by Fox to interfere with the ability of LAD and its advisers, including Blackstone Advisory, to sell LAD’s assets,” the team said in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Team owner Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the Dodgers in a process where separate bids would be accepted for the team and its television rights. Fox Sports Net West 2 LLC has the current TV contract, which gives it the exclusive right to negotiate an extension through November 2012. The Dodgers have filed court papers seeking approval to immediately start talking with potential buyers of the television rights, the team’s most lucrative asset. Under the proposal, the team would negotiate with Fox for 45 days. If no deal was struck, the Dodgers would talk to competing bidders. In its filing, the team asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross to bar Fox from “taking any act that otherwise interferes with any property rights of the LAD estate, including existing and future media rights.” Fox has said it plans to challenge any early sale, or negotiations, of the media rights. The company said it may update a lawsuit filed against the Dodgers in September.