Supreme McCourt

The cameras and microphones were gone. Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie, sat in a Dodger Stadium luxury suite Thursday as twilight shrouded the diamond and darkness closed in on his first official day as the club’s new owner.

“Indescribable,” McCourt said of his emotions. “A kid’s dream. All of this is going to take a while to set in.”

In the last week of January, with the Dodgers scheduled to open spring training in about three weeks, McCourt knows he doesn’t have a kid’s luxury of time.

He repeatedly made that clear during a stadium news conference and a private interview later, saying the Dodgers needed to add the hitter they have failed to add through the first three months of the off-season.

“Things need to be done and will be done,” he said. “The team lacks excitement, and I want to win this year.”

Where that hitter is coming from this late in the winter isn’t clear, but that’s how it was as McCourt -- who reached an agreement in principle to buy the team from News Corp. on Oct. 10 -- finally braved the hornet’s nest of community and media skepticism regarding his highly leveraged purchase, ability to operate the Dodgers at a competitive level and intentions for Dodger Stadium.

Accompanied by business associates and public relations assistants and saying it had been painful to hear and read some of the things that had been said and written while he was prevented from responding by baseball rules governing prospective owners, McCourt first delivered what equated to a 20-minute induction speech and ultimately made promises and pledges beyond the addition of a hitter.

Although vague at times and swaggeringly confident at others, he said the organization clearly needed to be “reenergized and refocused,” that the 15 seasons since the last victory in a playoff game represented an “unacceptable drought,” and that the “boldness and innovation” that had long characterized the Dodgers had to be restored.

“It really comes down to a sense of urgency,” McCourt said. “It seems to me that the Dodgers have become complacent [on and off the field]. We have to regain that sense of urgency.”

In the process, he said, there are “zero plans” to move out of Dodger Stadium, he is committed to keeping the Dodgers in the top quarter of the payroll rankings, he will begin regular meetings with season-ticket holders today and he considers himself to be the right man at the right time.

“I’ve been part of a 110-year-old [construction] business with a track record for success,” the Boston real estate developer said. “I know what it takes to inspire and to lead.”

How many of the current senior staff will remain with him to lead is unclear.

McCourt, 49, announced that his wife would be vice chairman. His transition point man, Corey Busch, is expected to take a high-level position with the club.

Chairman Bob Daly, who held a 5% stake under News Corp., is definitely leaving, and President Bob Graziano is likely to as well.

McCourt said he would give the senior staff a chance to plead their case, but “I intend to act quickly and decisively in making the necessary changes.”

As for General Manager Dan Evans, the new owner refused to discuss specific positions.

However, industry sources said the Dodgers planned to look into the availability of Pat Gillick, who is now basically unattached and living in Toronto after putting together championship teams with the Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners.

McCourt was asked during the private interview if the fact that the Dodgers still needed a hitter this late in the off-season didn’t equate to a decision-making problem in regard to Evans.

“I certainly draw those inferences,” he said, “but I need to delve a little deeper. It’s not fair to pretend I have all the answers. Basically, I’m just a fan.”

In Evans’ defense, McCourt also added that “it was to Dan’s credit that he did a good job of protecting the young players this winter. It’s important for the farm system to be given a chance. At the end of the day, it takes a combination of players from your system and players acquired in trade and free agency. I suspect that there are a lot of [general managers] who would have traded one of those kids just to make themselves look good.”

Evans made it his line in the sand. He refused to trade Edwin Jackson, Greg Miller or Franklin Gutierrez in deals that would have landed the needed right-handed hitter. In addition, the Dodgers have been saying suddenly that his hands were tied by the ownership change.

Although McCourt said repeatedly Thursday that he was prevented from being involved in club decisions, industry sources said again that Evans and Daly had made a legitimate offer for outfielder Vladimir Guerrero before he signed with the Angels but that McCourt refused to approve it when Commissioner Bud Selig couldn’t assure him that a major investment might not prompt some owners to oppose his purchase.

McCourt wouldn’t discuss Guerrero specifically but acknowledged privately that “I did have an increasing number of conversations with Daly late in the [sales process]. I think that as Bob reached the conclusion that the deal would go through, he felt it was appropriate to get feedback from me on certain issues. In every case, however, the final decisions were made by Bob and his staff.”

It’s possible, of course, that McCourt’s feedback influenced some of those decisions, but that was not the only hazy area to evolve during Thursday’s coming-out affair.

Among others:

* McCourt insisted that he has put more than $200 million of his money into the $430-million deal, but industry sources maintained that he has none of his own involved.

* While saying he is prepared to maintain a payroll among baseball’s highest and that his $430-million purchase reflected his financial commitment, people familiar with the initial business plan he submitted to major league baseball said he planned to model the Dodger payroll after the $65-million-to-$75-million neighborhood of the San Francisco Giants.

* Although McCourt revealed that there was no time frame for him to find an investor willing to buy out News Corp.’s equity in the reworked sales agreement, sources said there are built-in financial incentives that hinge on how quickly he can find an investor. News Corp. is loaning him $165 million and has a $40-million preferred share as minority owner. Reports circulating Thursday that McCourt owns only 52% and News Corp. 48% were not accurate, multiple sources said.

The financial intrigue, along with the community’s fervor, was exacerbated recently when Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad notified News Corp. that he was willing to buy the Dodgers for $430 million, mostly in cash, if McCourt’s bid fell through.

Asked if he resented Broad’s 11th-hour intervention, McCourt said: “I wish it hadn’t happened, but I wasn’t resentful. I was so focused on buying the Dodgers and doing what I needed to do to have our deal go through that I wasn’t distracted. At the end of the day, it didn’t much matter.”

In the twilight at the end of his first day as the official Dodger owner, McCourt could afford to be magnanimous. How much else he can afford remains to be seen.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Dodger Owners: Timeline

1889-1897

OWNERS: Charles H. Byrne, Joseph Doyle, Ferdinand Abell

HISTORY: In 1888, the Brooklyn franchise’s name is changed from Grays to Bridegrooms for the seven players who married that season. The Bridegrooms win an American Assn. championship the next season and in 1890 move to the National League, also winning a championship.

1898-1902

OWNERS: Charles H. Ebbets, Ferdinand Abell, Harry Von Der Horst, Ned Hanlon

HISTORY: Upon Byrne’s death in 1897, Ebbets is elected as club president and enters into a partnership with Baltimore’s Von Der Horst and Hanlon.

1902-1908

OWNERS: Charles H. Ebbets

HISTORY: Citing financial difficulties, Von Der Horst, Hanlon and Abell sell their shares to Ebbets in 1902, making him the sole owner of the franchise, then known as the Superbas.

1908-1925

OWNERS: Charles H. Ebbets, Edward J. McKeever, Stephen W. McKeever

HISTORY: Ebbets buys land in Flatbush -- where Ebbets Field is built and first used in 1913 -- and takes on partners Edward and Stephen McKeever to soften the financial blow.

1925

OWNERS: Edward J. McKeever, Stephen W. McKeever and heirs of Charles H. Ebbets

HISTORY: Ebbets dies April 18. At Ebbets’ funeral, Edward McKeever falls ill with pneumonia and dies within a week.

1925-1938

OWNERS: Stephen W. McKeever and heirs of Edward J. McKeever and Charles H. Ebbets

HISTORY: Stephen McKeever dies in March 1938, leaving the team to his daughter, Marie Mulvey. The team, which had been nicknamed the Robins (for longtime manager Wilbert Robinson) since 1914, becomes the Dodgers for good in 1932.

1939-1943

OWNERS: Marie Mulvey and heirs of Edward J. McKeever and Charles H. Ebbets

HISTORY: Team prospers under Executive Vice President Larry MacPhail’s innovative leadership.

1944

OWNERS: Walter F. O’Malley, Branch Rickey, John Smith, Marie Mulvey and heirs of Charles H. Ebbets

HISTORY: Ed McKeever’s stock is put up for sale by heirs. Branch Rickey, Walter O’Malley and John Smith buy the 25% interest for $347,000.

1945-1950

OWNERS: Walter F. O’Malley, Branch Rickey, John Smith, minority shareholders

HISTORY: In 1945, Rickey, O’Malley and Smith buy 50% of the team from the Ebbets heirs for $750,000, to amass 75% control of the team. Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in 1947.

1950-1975

OWNERS: Walter F. O’Malley, various minority shareholders

HISTORY: In 1950, O’Malley wrestles majority control of the team from Rickey, amassing 66.2% of the franchise. The Dodgers win their first World Series title in 1955 and O’Malley moves the team to Los Angeles in 1958.

1975-1979

OWNERS: Walter F. O’Malley

HISTORY: In 1975, O’Malley assumes complete ownership of the Dodgers by acquiring the final 33.8%.

1979-1997

OWNERS: Peter O’Malley

HISTORY: Peter O’Malley assumes ownership upon the death of his father. The Dodgers win their fifth and sixth World Series championships while under the O’Malley family’s ownership in 1981 and 1988.

1998-2004

OWNERS: News Corp.

HISTORY: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. purchases the Dodgers for $311 million. The Dodgers fail to make the playoffs in any of the six seasons under this organization’s ownership. Robert Daly, in 1999, purchases minority stake in team, becomes chairman, CEO.

2004-

OWNERS: Frank McCourt and eventual investor(s)

HISTORY: Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt purchases the Dodgers for $430 million, with News Corp. remaining as a minority partner.

*

Research by Los Angeles Times; Sources: Los Angeles Dodgers, WalterOMalley.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Los Angeles Times Archives, Times Wire Services and NYC Sports Commission

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

BY THE NUMBERS

$430 million

Price Frank McCourt paid for the Dodgers, Dodger Stadium and surrounding property, Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., and Campo Las Palmas, a player-development facility in the Dominican Republic.

*

$311 million

Price News Corp. paid when it bought the team in 1998.

*

$113.2 million

Dodger payroll at end of last season.

*

509-463

Dodger record under News Corp., a winning percentage of .524.

*

15

Seasons since Dodgers’ last World Series appearance.

*

2

Dodgers’ playoff appearances since 1988.

*

0-6

Record in playoff games since 1988.

*

8

Consecutive seasons the Dodgers have drawn more than 3 million in attendance.