Mark Cuban explains why his Dodgers bid failed

MarkCubanSaveTheDodgers.com was left with a useless domain name and an overrun of extra t-shirts when it was reported over the weekend that Mark Cuban had not survived the first round of bidding for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Monday, everyone's favorite sports owner explained why he won't be the one to rescue the iconic franchise from the financial follies of Frank McCourt.

The short answer: With more than 10 parties putting together a bid, the situation was going to be way too competitive to pique Cuban's interest. And so he put an offer that was likely way too low for McCourt's liking.

From Access Hollywood:

"It just didn't work out. I wanted to buy a baseball team; they were selling a media rights deal," the Dallas Mavericks owner ... told Access Hollywood Live's Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Monday. "It just wasn't going to work out."

"The economics got so out of control because the Dodgers' TV deal's up for bid and so there's a lot of groups coming in going, 'This TV deal's worth so much money that we're gonna pay whatever it takes to get the Dodgers.' And so they're buying the TV rights deal first and the team second."

It's been said a dozen times if it's been said once. Mark Cuban did not become a billionaire by engaging in bad business deals and he's not about to pay an inflated price just to become the owner of a second sports team. He washed himself of his interest in the Cubs once he saw how leveraged the purchase would have to be and was more than willing to let Nolan Ryan have the Texas Rangers at the price they went for ($593 million). The Dodgers' for-sale situation is more like the Cubs with many rich parties interested in owning the unique trophy — no matter what the cost.

Cuban, who grew up a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, may own a baseball franchise one day. But it's clearly going to be on his own financial terms and with a team that isn't drawing much additional interest from other ownership groups. Maybe that kind of opportunity doesn't come along often in baseball — and maybe it never will — but Cuban seems perfectly willing to wait for the perfect situation.

Big BLS H/N: @BillShaikin

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