WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware bankruptcy judge is set to hear arguments on a request by Fox Sports Net West to delay consideration of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ plan to sell media rights to future games.
Fox, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., contends the planned media rights sale violates an existing contract giving it television rights through 2013 and priority in negotiating a contract for games starting in 2014. It has filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce its right under the contract and is also asking the judge to postpone a scheduled Nov. 30 hearing on a motion by the Dodgers seeking court approval of the proposed sale process.
Judge Kevin Gross has agreed to hear arguments Tuesday on Fox’s motion to postpone the Nov. 30 hearing.
The Dodgers have refused to postpone the hearing, accusing Fox and its Prime Ticket regional sports network of trying to interfere with efforts to sell the team and its assets so that it can emerge from bankruptcy.
The Dodgers claim Fox attorneys are trying to delay arguments on the sale motion because they are either unprepared or expect to lose.
“Given that the motion has been pending for roughly two months, there is no excuse if they are not prepared. That means they think they will lose,” the team said in a prepared statement. “The Dodgers expect that the bankruptcy court will understand Fox’s motivations and will deny the motion.”
Fox maintains that the sale motion cannot be properly evaluated without an understanding of the terms of a recent settlement in which Major League Baseball and the Dodgers agreed to a court-supervised sale of both the team and the media rights to future games. The settlement agreement has yet to be filed with the court.
In a motion filed late Friday, Fox said ” there is no good faith reason that LAD should still be under the bankruptcy court’s protection” and asked for an injunction preventing a media rights sale.
Zambrano hit by line drive.
Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano was recovering Saturday after being hit in the face with a line drive during Friday night’s start for Caribes de Anzoategui in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Zambrano was removed from the game after the liner hit him near the right ear in the fifth inning.
Caribes general manager Sam Moscatel said Saturday that Zambrano received 10 stitches to close the wound.
“He’s a bull,” Moscatel said. “He’s OK. We spoke (Friday) night after he had the surgery, and he said he wants to make his next start on Friday.”
