Peter O'Malley says estate planning is the primary reason he plans to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baseball's labor problems might also have been a factor.
"I think that Peter has just been unhappy lately with the situation, the direction the game of baseball is going," former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda said Monday, several hours after O'Malley made his surprising announcement.O'Malley didn't give a direct answer at a Dodger Stadium news conference when asked if his decision had anything to do with labor problems, but he did say his only regret in baseball was "the inability of the owners and the players association to work together for the good of the game."
The O'Malley family has controlled the Dodgers since 1950 - seven years before they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
"It's probably smart to plan for the future. That's probably the main reason," O'Malley said. "I'm not a tax expert, (but) it's a pretty good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket."
O'Malley succeeded his father, Walter, as team president in March 1970, but none of Peter's three children has held more than a part-time position with the team.
"They've started their own careers," O'Malley said of his children - Katherine, 24, Kevin, 21,and Brian, 19. "I've never talked to any of the children about running the Dodgers. My father never put any pressure on me. He saw I was interested."
The sale price could be more than $300 million, well above the current record for a baseball team, the $173 million paid by a group headed by Peter Angelos for the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.
The O'Malley family also owns Dodger Stadium and the 300-acre site near downtown Los Angeles that holds the stadium; the spring training facility in Vero Beach, Fla., known as Dodgertown; and some property in the Dominican Republic known as Campo Las Palmas.
O'Malley, his sister, Terry Seidler; and her husband, Roland, are the team's primary owners.
O'Malley, about 60, said he had no idea how much the Dodgers are worth, and that six months would be a realistic timetable to find a buyer. Baseball's approval process could take another 6-12 months.
"There's no pressure," he said. "Results are more important than timing. We've probably received one offer a year for 25 years. I may be here for a long time. It will not be a circus."
When asked how his father, who died in 1979, might react to his announcement, O'Malley said, "He would have said, `Peter, it's your call, think it through,' which I think I have done. He would have supported it."
O'Malley said family ownership of sports today is "probably a dying breed," and that he can "defend corporate ownership."
Tony Tavares, president of the Anaheim Angels, who were purchased by the Walt Disney Co., from Gene and Jackie Autry last year, said the Dodgers won't be the Dodgers as far as he's concerned after they're sold.
"The Dodgers minus O'Malley is not the Dodgers, because the family has been involved for so long, going back to Brooklyn," Tavares said. "I am disappointed that he's getting out . . . I certainly don't think it's a happy day in baseball when a guy like Peter O'Malley gets out of the sport."
The Dodgers have long prided themselves for having the lowest ticket prices in baseball, and O'Malley said "commitment to the community, to Southern California, to Los Angeles is the No. 1 criteria" for the new owner.