Frank McCourt, Old Owner of Dodgers, Not a Popular Topic With New Owners The new owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers had nearly escaped their first news conference on Wednesday without discussing their predecessor, Frank McCourt, when questions were asked about his continued role with the team: he still owns half the land surrounding Dodger Stadium, including the parking lots. After an increasingly unpopular reign as Dodgers" owner - which culminated in a particularly nasty legal brawl over control of the team with Commissioner Bud Selig - McCourt has become a bit like Harry Potter's archenemy, the evil Lord Voldemort: he who must not be named. McCourt was not at the hourlong event on the Dodger Stadium field that was attended by celebrated Dodgers of the past, from Don Newcombe and Maury Wills to Ron Cey and Steve Garvey. But Peter O'Malley, whose father, Walter, moved the team from Brooklyn, stood twice for applause. He tried unsuccessfully to reacquire the team during the sale process overseen by federal bankruptcy court. Vin Scully, the master of ceremonies for the news conference, recalled when Branch Rickey "handed over the franchise, the greatest hand-off in history, to Walter O'Malley and his family." Magic Johnson, the best known of the team's new owners, thanked Peter O'Malley and spoke directly to him. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel," he said. We just have to go back to where you had it before, and we'll put in the time to go back to that. In praising O'Malley's stewardship, Johnson pointedly skipped over the next two less-revered owners: Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment and McCourt, who put the team into bankruptcy last June. But until members of the news media started asking about McCourt, Scully had made the only mention of him. Scully, who started calling Dodgers" games in 1950, remembered the day the Dodgers introduced McCourt as the new owner in 2004. The questions about McCourt carried an unmistakable subtext: why are you keeping him around? He remains a player through a joint venture with the buyers to own the 300 acres around Dodger Stadium. On top of $2 billion for the team and the stadium, McCourt got $150 million more for the real estate. The members of the Dodgers" new hierarchy - Johnson and Stan Kasten, the new chief executive officer, who own small stakes, and Mark Walter, whose Chicago-based financial services firm, Guggenheim Partners, is bankrolling the deal - took turns trying to minimize McCourt's involvement. Will McCourt get half of the newly reduced $10 general parking fee? No, he will not get a cent. "One hundred percent of all operations of this stadium and baseball team; parking, sponsorship, merchandising; everything that happens in Chavez Ravine is controlled and managed by us," Kasten said. But Walter said that if the land is developed - and no plans exist - McCourt could make profits. "That's down the road," Walter said. Current operations - parking - not related to it. But when similar questioning popped up a few minutes later, Johnson beckoned Walter to leave the table that he shared with Kasten and go to the podium. "Be direct with these people," said Johnson. He was, but when the topic came up again, Johnson said, "How many times - I had him go up to the mic to explain to you guys that Frank McCourt is not involved in any shape or fashion. If you need me to come up - I'm 6-9 - to explain it. The rumors, we're squashing them right now. It's only future profits. Then Johnson, the Hall of Fame point guard who engineered the Lakers" Showtime offense of the 1980s, tried to put McCourt and his unloved legacy back in the bottle and stuff a cork in it. "We're not talking about Frank McCourt anymore," he said. This franchise is moving forward with us. If he's part of future development, so what? What's important is new owners are sitting here. He said that the arrangement with McCourt - who, throughout much of the sale process, resisted parting with the land at all - was "how you have to get a deal sometimes."