The issue that has come up now, is when will the auction be held to determine the purchaser of the Texas Rangers. There was originally a hearing scheduled for August 4, where the bankruptcy court would hear bids from potential buyers. However, creditors and a court-appointed restructuring officer want the hearing delayed in order for other potential bidders to have time to obtain financing. On Wednesday, Nolan Ryan, current team president and the head of one of the groups looking to purchase the Rangers, asked the judge to go ahead with the auction as planned on August 4th. Ryan claimed he was asking this as team president, because postponing the auction could prevent the Rangers from keeping Josh Hamilton, as he is eligible for salary arbitration this offseason, and he must be too expensive for a team in bankruptcy to afford. However, there is a little conflict of interest here, as more time would mean more buyers for Ryan to compete with.
In a related note, Mark Cuban was given the go ahead to submit a bid to purchase the Rangers. However, don’t read into this too much. As you remember, Cuban also submitted a bid to purchase the Chicago Cubs a few years ago, and then was essentially blackballed by MLB. As sources state, Cuban had submitted the highest bid for the Cubs franchise, however, a potential MLB owner must be approved by the other owners, and few were willing to approve Cuban due to his brash style and previous happenings as owner of the Dallas Mavericks. So it will be interesting to see how this progresses…
Friday, July 23, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
More Conflict Between The Dodgers Owners
The long struggle between Frank McCourt and his estranged wife Jamie McCourt over control of the Dodgers took another twist yesterday. This twist revolved around a postnuptial marital property agreement that put the couple’s homes in Jamie’s name. Frank maintains that the agreement, which was signed by both parties, gave him control of the Dodgers, while Jamie denies ever signing away control of the Dodgers.
The disagreement exists because there are actually six copies of the documents, where three of them were signed at a different time than the other three. Jamie’s lawyers have argued that the three copies she has do not include the “Schedule A,” which lists the assets of Frank McCourt, including the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, forensic scientists have recently examined the three copies that do contain “Schedule A,’ and concluded that the document had not been tampered with, which could be a huge blow to Jamie and her lawyers.
Frank’s attorneys argue that since the forensic scientists concluded that the original staple was still in the three copies that contained “Schedule A,” along with Jamie’s original signature, there is no doubt that Jamie had been lying all along. Meanwhile, Jamie’s lawyers are arguing that the attorney that drew up the contract may be gone over a different copy with Jamie, than the one signed by Frank McCourt.
Even if this is a victory for Frank, the judge still could rule to throw out the marital property agreement if he deems it to be unfair, with the next trial date schedule for August 30.
The disagreement exists because there are actually six copies of the documents, where three of them were signed at a different time than the other three. Jamie’s lawyers have argued that the three copies she has do not include the “Schedule A,” which lists the assets of Frank McCourt, including the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, forensic scientists have recently examined the three copies that do contain “Schedule A,’ and concluded that the document had not been tampered with, which could be a huge blow to Jamie and her lawyers.
Frank’s attorneys argue that since the forensic scientists concluded that the original staple was still in the three copies that contained “Schedule A,” along with Jamie’s original signature, there is no doubt that Jamie had been lying all along. Meanwhile, Jamie’s lawyers are arguing that the attorney that drew up the contract may be gone over a different copy with Jamie, than the one signed by Frank McCourt.
Even if this is a victory for Frank, the judge still could rule to throw out the marital property agreement if he deems it to be unfair, with the next trial date schedule for August 30.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Texas Rangers Are In Court Again
I wrote an earlier post that discussed the pending sale and bankruptcy of the Texas Rangers franchise. Well, it has just gotten a little more complicated. According to ESPN.com, the court-appointed restructuring officer reopened the sale of the team to potential purchasers, and even began accepting bids again, even though current team president and prospective purchaser Nolan Ryan states that his group already had their bid accepted by the team, and now have the exclusive rights to purchase the team. This recent development caused Ryan and his group to file suit against the Texas Rangers in bankruptcy court, requesting that the judge put a stop to the current bidding process.
It seems unlikely that any other groups would eventually take the place of Ryan’s group and purchase the team, as MLB is heavily in favor of bringing back one of the all time Texas greats to own a franchise in his home state. And after watching the Chicago Cubs sale over the last 2 years, we know how important it is to have MLB supporting your bid to purchase a team. In addition, it looks like Ryan’s group has position themselves well by having massive funding for the purchase as well as savvy businessmen and attorneys included in their group.
Stay tuned as I am sure there will be future developments in this case in the upcoming weeks…
It seems unlikely that any other groups would eventually take the place of Ryan’s group and purchase the team, as MLB is heavily in favor of bringing back one of the all time Texas greats to own a franchise in his home state. And after watching the Chicago Cubs sale over the last 2 years, we know how important it is to have MLB supporting your bid to purchase a team. In addition, it looks like Ryan’s group has position themselves well by having massive funding for the purchase as well as savvy businessmen and attorneys included in their group.
Stay tuned as I am sure there will be future developments in this case in the upcoming weeks…
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)