Mark Cuban Bidding to Buy Texas Rangers
It’s not the first time that Mark Cuban has eyed a baseball franchise. The last time he tried to become a baseball owner he was denied the opportunity and walked away frustrated and disappointed. Now he has a chance to own two Texas-based sports franchises.
Owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Cuban was recently named as being an undisclosed but prospective bidder for the Texas Rangers at a bankruptcy hearing.
The Texas Rangers season is going well on the field as they lead their division, but there are clouds surrounding their ownership as they await the next owner of the club. The team is currently being run by Major League Baseball.
Right now, Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan is the front-runner to land the franchise.
Attorneys from the Dallas firm of Greenberg Traurig are representing an anonymous bidder and have declined to reveal who they’re representing. At the hearing, the team's court-appointed chief restructuring officer did say that the undisclosed bidder was very wealthy and had the assets necessary to buy the team.
William K. Snyder also disclosed that Houston businessman Jim Crane wanted to start the bidding with a nine figure offer, but the New York bankers have already committed to Ryan’s group.
The hearing for the auctioning of the team will take place on August 4th.
As Cuban seeks to become a basketball and baseball owner, he must be really determined to land the team this time.
Cuban has stated that he would either try to buy the team in a solo bid, or as a major investor in Ryan’s group.
It’d be ironic if Cuban, an impetuous, independent owner, would buy the team with another colourful owner in George Steinbrenner recently passing away.
Cuban became very interested in buying the Rangers once he learned of recent court rulings reducing the amount of debt a new owner would have to face. Tom Hicks, the Rangers current owner, owes $400 million to creditors.
"The economics have changed, which has gotten me interested,'' Cuban told a Texas newspaper "My lawyers are still going through everything, but the bigger point is that I now have an interest.''
Of course, we have to see whether the league would embrace Cuban as an owner. Can you imagine if Cuban owned the San Francisco Giants when umpire Phil Cuzzi’s errant call at the plate denied the Giants the win? Do you think Cuban would just slap his knee and accept the loss? No way.
Cuban’s best chance is to probably join Ryan’s group in buying the club as he already failed to land the Cubs in 2008. Major League Baseball’s preferred owners are Ryan’s group.
Cuban has already found it difficult thus far to land a team on his own, as he recently posted in his blog: "I never thought it conceivable that it would be hard to spend a billion dollars on a sports team. Add me to the list of people who never want to participate in this type of sales process again. I tried every trick I knew to try to get them to commit to me.''
Maybe Cuban as an owner is what the league would need, whether they are afraid to admit it or not. Cuban’s outright, blunt opinions would likely sit well with baseball fans who want to see changes in baseball and challenge Commissioner Bud Selig.
One thing you could count on with Cuban as an owner is that he’d be committed to winning and he would do the best he could in bringing in more revenue to the team. He has done a great job with the Dallas Mavericks, proving he is a savvy businessman. Will he be the new sheriff in Texas? Let the bidding begin.
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