Sun Article: Orioles pitched settlement offers to eliminate cloud of MASN dispute with Nats

[Frobby]

19 minutes ago, Rene88 said:

How is that tied/relevant? Missing something...

A new ownership group would be terrific news obviously.

It’s not that tied in, except that the poster quoted three Camden Depot tweets and when I went to their Twitter page, there also was a tweet announcing the site was closing down.   I thought people might be interested, as links to their stuff are frequently posted here.  

[Chromehill]

7 hours ago, drjohnnyfeva said:

This is my take on the situation too.  I think they should sue MLB too. 

I read the article yesterday and my take is Ole Pete is coming to the end, so they are trying to arrange the transition so as to not lose much with inheritance.  It wasn't specifically mentioned in the article, but it would make sense with estate taxes and other such un-pleasantries.  I have a hard time believing that talks with Nats to resolve the dispute is about preparation for an actual sale of the team... although that would be the dream scenario for me.

When Pete dies, I believe MLB has to approve the transfer of ownership to his wife or sons.  If the MASN dispute is not resolved, it could be possible that when Pete dies that MLB could force the sale of the team by not approving the transfer.  Between the MASN dispute and Pete's refusal to use replacement players many years ago, probably safe to say that Pete has plenty of enemies among the MLB owners who would vote to approve the transfer of the team. 

I think that is what the MASN settlement is about.  Pete has a valid contract that MLB and the Nationals signed regarding MASN and would have no problem forcing all parties to adhere to it if it went to court.  Problem is those parties are not happy about MASN and can stick it to Pete when he dies, which they will unless MASN is resolved.  

[spiritof66]

2 hours ago, Chromehill said:

When Pete dies, I believe MLB has to approve the transfer of ownership to his wife or sons.  If the MASN dispute is not resolved, it could be possible that when Pete dies that MLB could force the sale of the team by not approving the transfer.  Between the MASN dispute and Pete's refusal to use replacement players many years ago, probably safe to say that Pete has plenty of enemies among the MLB owners who would vote to approve the transfer of the team. 

I think that is what the MASN settlement is about.  Pete has a valid contract that MLB and the Nationals signed regarding MASN and would have no problem forcing all parties to adhere to it if it went to court.  Problem is those parties are not happy about MASN and can stick it to Pete when he dies, which they will unless MASN is resolved.  

Logically, a settlement of the MASN dispute could be part of an agreement by Angelos to sell his controlling interest in the team -- or part of a deal in which the owners would approve a transfer or an agreement to his sons, though I don't see why the owners would agree to that.

It's not correct that Angelos can sue in the courts to enforce the terms of the MASN agreement. The dispute is over the amount of rights fees MASN must pay to the Nats and to the Orioles. The MASN agreement calls for the rights fees to be set by arbitration before the RSDC, and the parties have given up their rights to sue over those fees.

[scOtt]

They're trying to settle the dispute so they know how much money they have to sign Manny this offseason.

 

 

 

 

 

[Beetlejuice]

On 7/2/2018 at 2:21 PM, drjohnnyfeva said:

This is my take on the situation too.  I think they should sue MLB too. 

Sue for what?  Remember this?

Quote

On the verge of retirement, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig probably doesn't want baseball fans to read this story. In fact, he's threatened to "impose the strongest sanctions available" on two team owners for what's about to be detailed.

Suing MLB is sanctionable apparently.  I guess Peetey ignored that threat, but MLB can take action against clubs, it looks like Manfred has been doing some of that.  The All-Star game is an annoyance, but the O’s aren’t getting one until this is resolved.  MLB is pissed that financials were exposed in the MASN dispute.  Like really pissed.  It’s just my personal hunch but I think Manfred is going to threaten to sanction the crap out of him and then remove them as part of a settlement.  

 

The Angelos are in a bad spot because when the November arbitration is done, MASN isn’t going to be able to afford to pay the Os and Nats and then becomes insolvent.  I’ve never seen anything reported about what happens then.   The Os and Nats would probably have to sue MASN for breach of contract and get their rights back, but I suspect MLB wouldn’t want that and try and broker a sale to Comcast — which is what they wanted to do a long time ago.

[spiritof66]

2 hours ago, Beetlejuice said:

Sue for what?  Remember this?

Suing MLB is sanctionable apparently.  I guess Peetey ignored that threat, but MLB can take action against clubs, it looks like Manfred has been doing some of that.  The All-Star game is an annoyance, but the O’s aren’t getting one until this is resolved.  MLB is pissed that financials were exposed in the MASN dispute.  Like really pissed.  It’s just my personal hunch but I think Manfred is going to threaten to sanction the crap out of him and then remove them as part of a settlement.  

 

The Angelos are in a bad spot because when the November arbitration is done, MASN isn’t going to be able to afford to pay the Os and Nats and then becomes insolvent.  I’ve never seen anything reported about what happens then.   The Os and Nats would probably have to sue MASN for breach of contract and get their rights back, but I suspect MLB wouldn’t want that and try and broker a sale to Comcast — which is what they wanted to do a long time ago.

I doubt Manfred and MLB will pursue sanctions years after the Orioles sued to vacate the arbitration award. I think that was just Selig blowing off steam because his authority was being questioned for the first time near the end of his reign. If Manfred and MLB want to get rid of the Angeloses -- and I think they do -- all they have to do is arrange for the owners to turn down his transfer of control to his sons.

From everything I've seen, I don't believe the future arbitration awards (assuming they set the rights fees to the Nats and Orioles based on the pattern set in the first arbitration) would bankrupt MASN. I think the result would be to suck most of the value out of MASN, transferring a big hunk of the value of Nat and Oriole cable rights fees from the Orioles to the Nats, but leaving MASN viable. The diminished flow of cash from MASN to the Orioles would be another reason for MLB's owners to turn down a transfer of the Orioles to Angelos's sons.

[ThomasTomasz]

On 7/2/2018 at 9:32 PM, Can_of_corn said:

I'm guessing your average Marlins fan was saying that before Loria sold.

Do you think they are better off now?

Tanking has proved successful.  However, they also blew most of the trades they made because their plan resolved to cut back so much on their spending.  While they did need pitching, they made a poor investment in Chen, and didn't have very many other funds left to pursue those upgrades.  One of their outfielders would've needed to net a TORP, which probably was Yelich.  Then you've got to field a better bullpen, and those assets are at a premium, and the Marlins at this time have a middle of the road farm system.  Two more years of control for Ozuna before FA as well, so you were looking at a limited window to compete anyway.  

How ownership went about everything..........that's another story.  How they expected the fans to react, again..........that's another story.  But for people to say that this team was a couple pitchers away from competing means selling the farm, and going all in for essentially two years and not getting the jump on a rebuild.  

[Ripken]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:05 PM, Chromehill said:

When Pete dies, I believe MLB has to approve the transfer of ownership to his wife or sons.  If the MASN dispute is not resolved, it could be possible that when Pete dies that MLB could force the sale of the team by not approving the transfer.  Between the MASN dispute and Pete's refusal to use replacement players many years ago, probably safe to say that Pete has plenty of enemies among the MLB owners who would vote to approve the transfer of the team. 

I think that is what the MASN settlement is about.  Pete has a valid contract that MLB and the Nationals signed regarding MASN and would have no problem forcing all parties to adhere to it if it went to court.  Problem is those parties are not happy about MASN and can stick it to Pete when he dies, which they will unless MASN is resolved.  

I was reading this somewhere else, too.  Man, would I love for MLB to force a sale.  Angelos is a disaster.

[weams]

13 hours ago, Beetlejuice said:

Sue for what?  Remember this?

Suing MLB is sanctionable apparently.  I guess Peetey ignored that threat, but MLB can take action against clubs, it looks like Manfred has been doing some of that.  The All-Star game is an annoyance, but the O’s aren’t getting one until this is resolved.  MLB is pissed that financials were exposed in the MASN dispute.  Like really pissed.  It’s just my personal hunch but I think Manfred is going to threaten to sanction the crap out of him and then remove them as part of a settlement.  

 

The Angelos are in a bad spot because when the November arbitration is done, MASN isn’t going to be able to afford to pay the Os and Nats and then becomes insolvent.  I’ve never seen anything reported about what happens then.   The Os and Nats would probably have to sue MASN for breach of contract and get their rights back, but I suspect MLB wouldn’t want that and try and broker a sale to Comcast — which is what they wanted to do a long time ago.

Three times.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

11 minutes ago, weams said:

Three times.

 

[drjohnnyfeva]

I've been out of town for a bit...

 

My take on this is that whatever happens, MLB and the Nats are going to prosper whilst the O's get the shaft.  When MLB decided Washington as the destination for the Expos they and any ownership group down there would have agreed to anything to get the team there.  But clearly they also had designs for redress of whatever they agreed to in the future.  This is where Ole Pete is out of his league, literally.  He thought a deal was a deal.  It wasn't.

He got a good deal when they moved, but didn't seem to plan for all this litigation.  And also didn't seem to consider MLB siding against him in trying to balance a future deal.  The problem is that Washington is a huge market and we're not.  They are going to wind up with the bulk of the money in any deal because they are going to DRAW more.  They probably are already.  MLB is going to back the money and not justice.

They allowed Bud Selig to negotiate a deal with Milwaukee for a new stadium while Commissioner.  He categorically denied accusations that he would sell the team or was looking to do that.  Yet after getting the stadium built on the city's dime, what did he do?  Exactly what the critics inside and outside of baseball said.  Scumbag.  But that's who these people are.

Money talks and legal agreements are meant to be revisited, reinterpreted, utterly disregarded... and so on.  We'll see the team down the road relegate us to the team that plays between Washington and Philly.  Suing probably won't do any good and the bar to recover or get some kind of fair deal out of this is likely too high, but as we've been the square peg trying to get what we feel is ours this whole time, we should continue to needle all the rats til maybe some judge sees our point.  I hold out little hope.

[brooksfrankjim]

There are three economic components to this deal.  Rights fees, profit sharing, and equity value.  The flaw in the original deal is that rights fees were really a mechanism to reduce the profit sharing distribution percentages and in reality the ultimate equity distribution to each party.  

 

[TonySoprano]

Yeah, I'm not buying this one
 

 

[esmd]

I'm not buying it either.

Really, the O's need to play hardball somewhat on this, as it's vital to the health of the franchise.  The O's allowed the Nationals into their market, so they should have the advantage in the MASN pie.  It seems like MLB and the other owners are trying to stick it to them because A) They can't stand Angelos, and B) perhaps they're trying to force a sale?

[Orioles1954]

I do think the Orioles timed out the Machado trade to upstage the Nationals at an All-Star game they should have been hosting.