Spotted: Forbes
Whom ever buys the Los Angeles Dodgers in a bankruptcy court-led sale from Frank McCourt will have a stack of IOUs to deal with.
The baseball team and its related entities now owe $555 million, according to people familiar with the finances.
McCourt securitized a large portion of the team’s ticket revenue in two trusts for which there is $390 million of debt attached. Annual principal and interest payments on the debt is around $32 million a year, meaning in 2010 the team, which gets the ticket revenue after the debt payments, would have received $70 million of the $102 million the Dodgers pulled in from ticket sales. For 2011, as attendance fell 17%, the team would have only received about $50 million.
The Dodgers also have borrowed $55 million from Major League Baseball’s credit facility and have used $80 million of debtor-in-possession financing from the league. On top of that, McCourt borrowed $30 million from Fox so he could meet payroll this past season. And the team is not off the hook from paying into MLB’s revenue-sharing system, which cost the Dodgers over $30 million in 2010.
All of these liabilities make the Dodgers, which forbes valued at $800 million in March, the most indebted team in baseball history.
Google Inc. unveiled a new online music store with T-Mobile to compete against its competitors Apple and Amazon.
The new service features millions of songs from record labels EMI, Sony Music and Universal, but will not have music from Warner Group.
To help jump-start the new music store, Google said it will offer one free song for consumers to download every day.
It will also allow consumers to share purchased songs with friends on the Google-plus social network. The feature will give users of Google-plus a “free, full-play” of songs purchased by their friends.
Good news for music lovers everywhere!
Wale releases the official video for ‘Ambitious Girl’ off last year’s More About Nothing mixtape.
In an unexpected move, veteran rapper Busta Rhymes has officially signed to Cash Money Records. The surprising news was announced via Twitter last night when Rick Ross congratulated Busta, and Busta replied with praise for Cash Money.
In an added twist, New Orleans rapper Mystikal, who was recently released from prison, also joined the New Orleans-based label.
Mystikal has been working with former Cash Money producer Mannie Fresh on his first post-prison album.
#1. Mac Miller – Blue Slide Park – 144,000 (144,000)
#15. Wale – Ambition – 41,000 (205,000)
#18. Tyrese – Open Invitation – 33,000 (110,000)
#21. Tech N9ne Collabos – Welcome To Strangeland – 26,000 (26,000)
#22. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV – 25,000 (1,668,000)
#32. J. Cole – Cole World: The Sideline Story – 17,000 (387,000)
#60. Pusha T – Fear Of God 2: Let Us Pray – 8,900 (9,000)
#119. Drake – Thank Me Later – 4,000 (1,484,000)
#124. Wiz Khalifa – Rolling Papers – 3,700 (609,000)
TM 103: Hustlerz Ambition set to release on December 20th
Directed by DRE Films
Preview of the official Rosa Acosta 2012 Calendar
Now available at rosaacostastore.com
Check out video below:
For more log on to: www.rosaacosta.com
Last Friday evening a gunman opened fire a few blocks away from the White House. Yesterday, the Secret Service says a bullet hit an exterior window of the White House, but was stopped by ballistic glass.
Witnesses heard shots and saw two speeding vehicles in the area, while an AK-47 rifle was also recovered.
The Secret Service says it has not conclusively connected Friday’s incident with the bullets found on the White House grounds.
Police have identified Oscar Ramiro Ortega, 21, as the man involved in a shoot out near the White House Friday night.
Ortega is described as a white Hispanic man standing 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds, with medium build, brown eyes, black hair and on the left side of his neck he has a tattoo reading “Israel.”
An arrest warrant was issued on Ortega by U.S. Park Police.
Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact local law enforcement or US Park Police at (202) 610-7500.
source: Life+Times
With Michael Jordan’s dominance throughout the ’90s providing a spark, the basketball culture in Chicago has recently dominated that of other sports in the city, one where the Cubs and Bears also call home. Chicago has also come to rival and in some regards, surpass, other basketball capitals such as N.Y.C. and L.A. in producing local talent the likes of Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose, the latter of which now leads a young, resurgent Bulls squad. Here, in our first documentary, Life+Times follows a select crop of the city’s youngsters—high school sophomores Tyquone Greer, Jahlil Okafor, and Paul White—with the potential to carry on in the city’s rich legacy.
Also featuring famed NBA trainer Tim Grover, Chicago basketball scout Daniel Poneman, and Oak Park product and New York Knicks’ 2011 first-round draft pick, Iman Shumpert.
GWOP MAGAZINE 