Why is Peter Angelos doing the things he’s doing?

[hoosiers]

I doubt PA is going to sell, but I agree with the lousiness of our competitive position - at least financially speaking - with the rest of our division.  The Os have benefited from some weak teams from within our division the past few years as we have gone to the playoffs, but our run was also financed by a lot of draft picks and minor league talent.  That's why the run will likely end soon.  The NYY and the BoSox have better, younger and cheaper major league talent than the Os as well as better farm systems.  It is going to be difficult to catch them from behind.  The Os have a heavy reliance on Gausman, Bundy and Harvey developing into quality pitchers and avoiding injury in the near term.  

PA has not built out a proper international scouting organization and any new buyer will have to factor in additional scout costs likely in the $2M-$M range and increased annual spend in the $5M range.  

PA has ramped up payroll in line with attempts to compete this year and possibly next.  I hope he ramps down the payroll soon, re-establishes strong profitability and invests properly in acquiring talent.

[thezeroes]

I do believe that he  (Peter Angelos) has already made the transition of the Law Firm and the Ownership of MASN to his sons.  That would just leave the Ownership of the Orioles which will probably be also handled quietly, behind the scenes away from probing eyes and Journalist.  An article that was written several years ago would rather confirm this.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/08/26/Franchises/Peter-Angelos.aspx

[spiritof66]

4 hours ago, accinfo said:

I assume his sons will also inherit his law practice which will provide a pretty good revenue stream to pay off any estate liabilities that arise.  Peter Angelos is one of the very few law practices that has never taken a partner.  If the Angelos family wants to continue to own the Orioles I suspect they will.  What that may look like is anyone's guess at this point. 

One of the reasons law firms make new partners is to enable the firm to continue after the retirement or death of the original partner(s). IF you assume that the firm would have no partners other than John and/or Lou Angelos, neither of whom is a prominent lawyer and both of whom  presumably would be pretty busy running their baseball team, I would guess the firm would be re-organized with more partners, contract or disband. Even if John or Lou could make a lot of money as part-time lawyers in the ongoing firm, say a million dollars a year (which I think is very unlikely), that would not go very far toward the hundreds of millions needed to pay estate taxes.

[spiritof66]

54 minutes ago, thezeroes said:

I do believe that he  (Peter Angelos) has already made the transition of the Law Firm and the Ownership of MASN to his sons.  That would just leave the Ownership of the Orioles which will probably be also handled quietly, behind the scenes away from probing eyes and Journalist.  An article that was written several years ago would rather confirm this.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/08/26/Franchises/Peter-Angelos.aspx

Lou is listed as working at the law firm on its website; John is not. I have seen no indication that Lou (or John) is a partner in the firm, and plenty of recent references to the effect that Peter is.

Peter does not own a direct interest in MASN, which is a partnership in which Orioles and Nats entities are the partners.The parties represented that to the courts repeatedly.over the past couple of years. I'm pretty sure the Orioles have not sold their interest in MASN to anyone.

A transfer of ownership to the Orioles, even through a will, would be subject to approval by a majority of MLB owners. They and the Commissioner have in the past requested detailed financial information about the proposed buyer. They have no obligation to be quiet about the information they receive, about their deliberations or about their vote. They might leak some or all of that, or they might not.