 President Chen Shui-bien, who acted as the middle person in the merger agreement, asked First Financial Holdings to purchase one of the teams, while Macoto Bank voluntarily took over the other.Before CPBL's 2003 season started, CPBL decided to fine each former "traitor", or those who broke contracts with CPBL, that returned with the former TML teams because of their previous contract-breaking.Both Macoto Bank and First Financial Holdings originally refused to pay the fine, and the players were banned from playing in the 2003 season.