Baseball’s Dodgers team owner, Frank McCourt, and his soon-to-be ex-wife Jamie aren’t taking this divorce sitting down. It’s been a back-and-forth battle of the McCourts, and now Frank is claiming he is “behind on his mortgage payments and essentially lives from paycheck to paycheck.”
According to filed court papers, Mr. McCourt’s financial assessment is indeed bleak to say the least. Mr. McCourt continues to claim he is the sole owner of the Dodgers, while Ms. McCourt says they are co-owners. The seemingly endless dispute could not only get incredibly tedious, but it could also require one of them to buy out the other—or sell the team all together.
While many have been perhaps fooled into believing Mr. McCourt is dripping in income from the baseball team, apparently it isn’t so; at least according to the latest filings. According to his papers, Mr. McCourt won’t see any significant income until next year—potentially even as late as March—when he is expecting a quarterly payment of as much as $1.25 million from the partnership that owns the Dodgers. Mr. McCourt claims these payments from the partnership are his “only source of personal cash flow” other than checking-account interest.
How is this possible after the couple were able to purchase the Dodgers for a reported $430 million? Mr. McCourt claims it’s because his liquid assets recently fell to $167,000 after paying approximately $700,000 in expenses for his wife, who was the one that filed for divorce.
In stark contrast, Ms. McCourt allegedly has more than $3.5 million in liquid assets and an additional $1.8 million coming from an investment account.
Over the years, the McCourts have established a reputation for lavish spending with mansion purchases such as a Holmby Hills home for $20 million which they renovated for an additional $14 million. Later, the couple spent a reported $46 million to buy adjacent Malibu beach homes, which were financed by around $28 million in mortgages.
Ms. McCourt says, however, “Frank has access to the vast monetary resources of the Dodgers and other McCourt entities. I do not believe it is appropriate that I should be required to invade savings to pay for living expenses while Frank receives (or has access to) millions of dollars.” Her reported estimate for living expenses were $489,000 a month. She includes things like upkeep of the McCourt houses, salaries for a household staff of eight, tuition and living expenses for the couples four sons, private jet travel, accommodations at five-star hotels, security escorts when traveling, and house calls from her hair stylist and make-up artist in her list of monthly living expenses.
Ms. McCourt has estimated that her and her husband’s net worth is at more than $1.2 billion, including approximately $800 million from the Dodgers. The initial divorce filing by Ms. McCourt states that Mr. McCourt “has failed to pay a number of their living expenses since at least July 2009.” These include home mortgage payments, property taxes, utility bills and staff wages.
And the battle of the McCourt continues.
Boston-born Frank McCourt and Baltimore-born Jamie McCourt met at Georgetown University, married in 1979 and have four adult sons. In 2004, the soon-to-be divorced pair bought the Dodgers in 2004 for approximately $430 million.
