Frank McCourt joined Darren Rovell on CNBC's Squawk Box on Thursday to talk about his battle with Major League Baseball over his Dodgers team — and what a battle it is.
McCourt further established his complaint about MLB commissioner Bud Selig's action to overtake ownership of the Dodgers, saying that the league's current investigation doesn't seem genuine or legitimate, and that Selig's best interests of baseball clause seems "inappropriate" in this case.
McCourt was in New York to meet with MLB officials, without Selig, to discuss a 17-year television deal with FOX worth more than $3 billion. McCourt says the deal has been in the works for six months and that MLB vetoed it. However, MLB released a statement saying the deal was not vetoed, but they will not make any decisions until their investigation is finished.
McCourt has been under fire for using $100 million of the team's money for personal matters — namely his messy divorce – but he is adamant that he has not broken any of MLB's strict financial rules.
"Baseball has very strict rules that you have to abide by. Dodgers abide by those rules," McCourt told Rovell. "We're compliant with every one of major league baseball's rules including financial and DSR rules. We're current on all obligations, all of our notes and vendor payments and so on."
McCourt also broke down the $100 million he used to legitimize his loan taken from the team. While McCourt does admit making to making mistakes, he says he wants work things out with Selig and the league.
"When you look at the $100 million, we're talking about over a seven-year period, I took out $5 million per year," McCourt said. "My wife was paid $2 million a year. You can criticize me for either of those decisions or those amounts but that's roughly $50 million over seven years. The other $50 million was a loan against not a Dodger asset, against a real estate asset."
McCourt says he simply wants to talk to Selig to straighten things out, but can't seem to get ahold of the commissioner.
"I'm trying to talk to Bud, and he's not returning my calls. and I just want to know why he's ducking me," McCourt said. "I don't understand. When there's a problem, usually people talk about the problem. You sit down if you're interested in solving a problem, you sit down to talk about a solution. At least that's what I've found in my business career, and I've tried to talk to Bud for several weeks."
To see more of McCourt's interview about Selig, check out the video below.
