Over the past few months, I’ve been watching the developments of the ongoing deal by Texas Rangers’ owner, Tom Hicks’ attempts to sell the team to any interested party willing to pay his over inflated asking price for the organization.
Hicks, as the owner of Hicks Sports Group, is also the owner of the NHL’s Dallas Stars as well as the English Premiership soccer club, Liverpool. And through his investment vehicle , he oversees this vast array of sporting interests,as well as his other varied business holdings and investments.
Tom Hicks by all accounts we’re led to believe is a very shrewd businessman who’s well respected by his peers. But in this day and age that’s not really saying a great deal . Especially in light of the shenanigans of businessmen , such as, Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford. The two men in question have been accused of defrauding their clients in excess of $59 billion , in monies that is unlikely to be fully recovered on behalf of their original investors. Stanford at present awaits trial in Federal Court,for grand larceny, wire fraud ,tax evasion and the running of a Ponzi scheme. Madoff , having been found guilty , was sentenced to 125 years in a federal prison by the US Federal Court System in Manhattan,New York City, New York.
Courtesy of Associated Press and Yahoo Sports
Greenberg-Ryan group Rangers finalist
By Stephen Hawkins , AP Sports Writer
Arlington, Texas (AP)—Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks will enter into an exclusive negotiation for the sale of the team to a group headed by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg that includes team president Nolan Ryan.
Hicks Sports Group said in a release Tuesday night that Greenberg’s group “primarily consists of Dallas-Fort Worth investors,” including the family of Hicks, who would maintain a stake in the team under the proposal. Ryan would remain president of the team.
Greenberg’s group and Hicks will work over the next 30 days to complete the transaction. It then will be forwarded to the commissioner’s office and require approval by 75 percent or more of all owners.
“Our family has chosen to negotiate with the group we believe will be best to protect and ensure the long-term positive future of this franchise,” Hicks said in the release. “Nolan Ryan is the personification of the word trust; he and Chuck worked diligently and relentlessly to get to this point.”
The sale is expected to be for more than $500 million, but Greenberg and Hicks declined to discuss the specifics of the proposal.
“The deal isn’t done yet, but I am confident we can complete this soon and have the Rangers well-positioned for the future,” Greenberg said. “We are committed to stability, continuing to work the baseball plan that’s in place, and doing whatever is necessary to build upon the team’s tradition and bring home a World Series championship.”
Greenberg’s proposal was chosen over bids submitted by former agent Dennis Gilbert and Houston businessman Jim Crane, who just last week submitted a new one after Greenberg and Gilbert had emerged as finalists.
Forbes earlier this year valued the Rangers at $405 million, 15th among the 30 major league teams. Hicks bought the team for $250 million in 1998, from a group that included former President George W. Bush.
The San Diego Padres were sold for just over $500 million this year and the Cubs were bought in October for $845 million in a deal that also included Wrigley Field and 25 percent of Comcast Sportsnet.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig had called Tuesday a “hard and fast deadline” for Hicks to submit a prospective buyer for the team.
Hicks Sports Group this year defaulted on $525 million in loans tied to the Rangers and the NHL’s Dallas Stars, which Hicks has owned since 1996. Hicks has said that was a deliberate move to force lenders to renegotiate terms of the deals.
The group of 40 lenders holding debt from Hicks Sports Group will have to approve the sale of the Rangers
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With the never-ending tales of economic woes that continues to cast its blight across the sports panacea. Baseball it seems has been affected more than most. But then again the same tales of woe that now continue to spread across the nation has also affected the arenas of NASCAR, the NBA , NHL, MLS and golf’s PGA Tour , as well as the LPGA Tour. And with the ongoing Tiger Woods’ saga seemingly taking one unsavory turn, from one moment to the next. It has to be said that the world’s number one golfer and the PGA Tour are in for some very rough and difficult times ahead, without the abrupt departure of Woods’ self imposed exile from the circuit for the foreseeable future.
In happier times Liverpool fans held Hick in high esteem. Not so , now . As he’s burdened the club with a great deal of debt and the competitiveness of the team just isn’t what it use to be . Add in the fact , that the club’s manager, Rafael Benitez’s relationship with Hicks is said to be strained. And the mere fact that Benitez has been told that there’s no money to pursue the purchase of new players. Well , in the end you’ve got nothing but turmoil within the organization.
While baseball has recently ended its winter meetings, wherein the general managers and teams get together, to discuss the state of the game and make the usual customary deals. Free agents , impending free agents and a number of players are either traded , signed or re-signed by the teams. The deals range in value from the outlandish to the minimal. But yet the general managers and in particular the game’s commissioner, Bud Selig and its President of Operations , Bob DuPuy continually fail to address one of the main underlying issues concerning the game. And that is the finances of the clubs within MLB. At the drop of a hat, Bud Selig will continue to tell you that the game’s revenues have increased.
Albeit, that attendances for major league games are slightly down. But in large part the increases come from inflationary elements and the very fact that a number of teams around the league have raised prices , whereas others have decreased some of their ticket prices but increased concession prices , parking and other such sundries. It’s all smoking mirrors.
Hicks speaks of his own aspirations with regard to the soccer club. But yet we’re led to believe that Hicks had a plan in place ?
The maneuvers by Hicks and that of his company in deliberately defaulting on a loan with the Dallas Stars as an entity. While not on the face of it illegal, it does smack of a man who is less than genuine in his business dealings. It gives credence to the fact that in not getting his own way he was quite prepared to place in the franchise and its existence in some jeopardy . The very fact that all three of his major sporting investments are now in a state financial woe. It goes to the question as to the business practices of Hicks and his ownership group.
The Texas Rangers are in financial turmoil, as too are the Dallas Stars. And Hicks’ involvement in the Premiership soccer club based in England , has left the fans there baying for Hicks’ blood and that of his business partner, George Gillett. Having bought the club for $400 million , the club has seemingly had some success but at the same time he’s made the club look a complete mess in its operations. And in terms of success on the field , it has been something of anathema.
Baseball in all of its various shapes and forms has become a sport about the haves and have nots. Time and time again, I’ve either read or heard people say that the status quo as it now stands is good for the game. But how can that be ? When the minnows of the sport continuously see their best players leave for pastures green and the likes of owners such as Hicks , who with their vast wealth seemingly do nothing in terms of trying to make their teams competitive. It’s not redundant to ask Bud Selig the question …..’what has the tax sharing revenue scheme solved at the end of the day ‘? It’s not as if the smaller teams and their owners have in large part used the money to the benefit of their organizations. More often than not , the money ends up going into the pockets of the owners and their various partners.
Courtesy of Wall St Journal
Creditors Find Hicks Sports Group in DefaultBy Matthew Futterman, Wall St Journal
Creditors to Texas financier Tom Hicks’s Hicks Sports Group have declared the company in default, a measure that could eventually dislodge the Texas Rangers baseball club and Dallas Stars hockey franchise from his control.
The default notice is the strongest sign yet of the economic perils awaiting the country’s professional sports leagues, where owners have spent lavishly on player salaries. Many owners’ personal fortunes are also on the wane, creating uncomfortable standoffs between the owners and lenders.
In Mr. Hicks’s case, a group of 40 financial institutions and other investors hold $525 million in debt. Galatioto Sports Partners, a New York sports-financing group, holds the largest position, having lent nearly $100 million to Hicks Sports Group.
Mr. Hicks missed a $10 million quarterly interest payment on March 31, triggering the default notice. The teams are unable to fund both their operating expenses and debt service, and Mr. Hicks has declined to continue making up the difference out of his own pocket, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Baseball for all of its inherent legacies and history, is still very much an archaic sport in terms of its business practices. It states that before a prospective owner is allowed to purchase a team, they have to be on a sound financial footing and that the purchase of a club has to be approved by at 75% of its members. However , what we know to be true, is that the game’s hierarchy rarely conducts an audit as to the financial well being of its teams. How else can one explain them allowing former Chicago Cubs’ owner, Sam Zell, place the team into bankruptcy proceedings, merely to stave of the advances of creditors who were owed money by the Cubs’ former parent company , The Tribune Group ?
Nolan Ryan, President of the Texas Rangers, speaks about his philosophies on the sport of baseball and in particular the art of pitching. Ryan, alongside Charles Greenberg have formed a business syndicate looking make a successful bid in purchasing the team from much beleaguered owner, Tom Hicks and his, Hicks Sports Group.
Now with Hicks in an acrimonious tussle with several creditors with regard to the Dallas Stars and at the same time he’s looking to sell the Texas Rangers to a group made up of noted Pittsburgh attorney , Charles ‘Chuck’ Greenberg and former Texas Rangers’ great, Nolan Ryan. The sooner Hicks is out of the sports franchise ownership business. Then the better off the sport of baseball and hockey is liable to be ! One would hope also that at some point in the future there’s an interested party looking to pursue the purchase of the soccer club ? If only to allay the fears of the fans that the team won’t be driven into the ground by Hicks and placed on the brink of either extinction or bankruptcy.
As to the travails of baseball, while it remains in the hands of Bud Selig. Just expect the same sort of asinine attitude and statements to be put forth by him and the members of the game’s hierarchy. It’s not as if they’d ever have been viewed as being the brightest set of individuals that one would ever be likely to come across, just the greediest , that’s all !
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