Owners Say Little, but Dodger Sale Expected to Pass

Major league owners will finally vote on the sale of the Dodgers to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. today.

Lawyers familiar with a series of 11th-hour discussions and negotiations Wednesday aimed at mollifying the concerns of some clubs through small language changes in the agreement that News Corp. has with baseball, said they expected the sale to be approved, and Texas Ranger President Tom Schieffer, one of the few executives willing to speak publicly, agreed.

“I think it will pass and I think in the end that’s the only thing that’s important, not the margin of votes,” Schieffer said.

However, San Diego Padre owner John Moores, long the most outspoken critic of the sale, said he felt it was too close to call, and when asked if there were five National League clubs that would oppose it, enough to kill the deal, Moores said:

“I believe that more than five still have problems with it, but [on which side of the vote] they end up is not clear to me. My inclination is that I want to make this happen for Peter [O’Malley, the Dodger owner], but I still have some problems with the transaction.

“I expect there’ll be some negotiation and discussion tonight to clarify what some of the issues are on both sides. I plan to meet with Bud [Selig, the acting commissioner] myself.”

In taking a much softer stance than he has previously, Moores spoke privately in the aftermath of a special joint meeting of American and National League owners held late Wednesday afternoon to discuss specifically the $311-million Dodger sale.

The anticipated highlight was the first owners’ meeting appearance in nine years by Atlanta Brave owner Ted Turner, a longtime cable adversary who has never hidden his personal animosity toward Murdoch.

However, if Turner was here to lobby owners to vote against the sale with a fire and brimstone speech, it didn’t happen, sources said.

Turner refused to talk with reporters, but sources said he spoke for only five minutes in a nonconfrontational and non-vitriolic manner, addressing only legal problems he has had with Murdoch, who is as much a cable partner of Turner’s as he is a rival.

Schieffer said the meeting produced a reasoned discussion, and Selig, when asked about Turner’s talk, said there was a “significant number of impassioned pleas on both sides. It was lengthy and candid, and I thought it went well.”

The discussion will resume before today’s vote, but it was learned that in the meantime Chase Carey, chief operating officer of News Corp. and chairman and CEO of Fox Television, working at times in conjunction with baseball lawyers, met throughout the day and evening Wednesday with several concerned clubs. They agreed to small changes--the negotiations that Moores referred to--in the language of the agreement that Fox has made with baseball (separate from the sales agreement with the Dodgers), strengthening assurances the Murdoch organization would protect the Dodger image and abide by all baseball regulations, particularly those governing international and local telecasts.

Carey would not comment, but O’Malley said he expected the votes to be there today and said he felt that Wednesday’s meeting--”the first time all of the owners have had a chance to discuss it”--was constructive.

Moores said the issues have been chronicled--concern as to how much Murdoch will spend on players, his willingness to abide by international TV regulations and his impact on local revenue streams through cable contracts with 22 of the 30 teams.

“I still have some problem with a guy so heavily invested in the media business,” said the Padre owner, acknowledging that Disney, Time-Warner and the Chicago Tribune are already major league owners but adding “none of them have local contracts with 22 teams.”

The sales agreement requires majority approval in the 14-team American League and three-fourths approval in the 16-team National.

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is believed to oppose the deal, but is unlikely to get six AL colleagues to join him.

The NL vote, Colorado Rocky owner Jerry McMorris said, will be “very, very close,” although sources said Wednesday night that it may come down to only the Padres and/or Braves voting against it. Moores, who several weeks ago said he was against permitting Murdoch to turn the Dodgers into that “monster to the north,” insisted Wednesday that he was now undecided. Turner wasn’t talking, a development in itself.