Last month, a post in this blog was discussing the possibility of L.A. Dodgers' season ticket holders trying to intervene in the team's bankruptcy case. In most cases, even in a complex bankruptcy reorganization involving a multimillion-dollar business, the only parties involved are the debtor and the creditors. No one else has much of a reason to get involved, and even if they do, the bankruptcy court is unlikely to allow other parties into the case.

But baseball is always different. Even up to the U.S. Supreme Court, there has been a tradition, even reaching the status of legal precedent, of sentimentalizing the appeal of baseball in American culture. The best example of this is that Major League Baseball has never been subjected to antitrust laws the way any other business would expect to be. Why not? Don't look too hard for a strong legal reasoning. It's mainly because even the Supreme Court doesn't have the heart to mess with baseball.

As a result, even though Dodger season ticket holders have absolutely no standing to become part of the Dodger bankruptcy case, they were not laughed out of court. In the end the U.S. Trustee didn't let them intervene in the case, but the trustee only said they could not intervene "at this time." It was almost as though the trustee expected their complaints might become relevant later, and wanted to be able to let the season ticket holders in, later in the case.

So, what did the season ticket holders want? They wanted a seat at the table in order to have a say in how the team gets out of bankruptcy. This, they said, was because the methods used could affect the value of their season tickets. If, for instance, the team opted not to invest in good playing talent, the season ticket holders would be cheated.

San Diego bankruptcy lawyers who have been following the news reports on the Dodgers' case can see the justice in the season ticket holders' plea. However, the only input those season ticket holders really get to have is whether or not they want to renew their season tickets.

Source: L.A. Times "Dodgers season ticket holders ask for say in bankruptcy" Sept. 27, 2011