Opinion: C’mon, Angelenos, let’s buy the Dodgers

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For sale: Nice little baseball team. Good income potential. Storied history. Includes midcentury modern stadium on expansive property with ample parking. Great views. Players and other fixtures included. Needs some TLC. Price: On request. All-cash offers would be nice.

Dodgers fans rejoiced Wednesday at the news that despised owner Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the team.

Of course, many of these same Dodger fans rejoiced in 2004 when then-despised owner Fox sold the team to Frank and Jamie McCourt.

But why rehash a failed love affair? Lots of people make mistakes (see: Kim Kardashian).

Let’s look to the future.

Let’s buy the team.

We know it can be done. For heaven’s sake, the good folks of Green Bay, Wisc., own their NFL team. And that’s Wisconsin. Are you telling me that the savvy, sophisticated residents of Los Angeles can’t do the same?

I know what you’re thinking. Times are tough. But we’re about to blow, er, spend $98 billion on a stupid train (see: high-speed rail, California, boondoggle).

Seen in that light, a $1-billion baseball team that actually makes money is a bargain.

There are several ways to do this. Maybe Eli Broad or someone could just write a check -- just to make it simple, you know -- and then later sell shares to the public.

Or maybe we could go to Gov. Jerry Brown. If you recall, George Skelton wrote last month that ‘the Brown administration is sitting on $9.1 billion in infrastructure bonds.’ Just a bit of that would buy us a nice, shiny baseball team and stadium.

Imagine: A government bailout that made money. It’s enough to make a tea party Republican join hands with an Occupy L.A. protester and sing ‘Kumbaya.’

So there you go, L.A. It’s a plan easily as well thought out as Herman Cain’s ‘9-9-9’ tax proposal; it’s much shorter than Mitt Romney’s ‘59-point’ economic plan; it doesn’t cost nearly as much as President Obama’s latest jobs plan; and it meets Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s goal that the Dodgers’ next owner be local.

And as an owner, all I want are seats in that expensive section right behind home plate (so I can wave to my friends watching on TV). And a nice parking spot. And free food. And I’d like to chat with Vin Scully. And maybe take batting practice.

Oh, and I want some say in player trades, and in managing the team.

What? I’m an owner, aren’t I?

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Relieved fans now hoping for ‘owner who cares’

Would Fox Sports or Time Warner consider bids?

-- Paul Whitefield