Bloomberg: Carlyle Group/David Rubenstein In Talks To Purchase Orioles

[Ohfan67]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Your point? I literally said ALL Billionaires take advantage of government opportunities.

You said “unless you’re Elon Musk”.  I probably over interpreted the statement but you sounded like you thought he was different. 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Ohfan67

[UMDTerrapins]

The only thing worthy of latching onto here is that there seems to be credible evidence of what we suspected….that the team is in fact for sale. When something like this leaks you have to question who would leak it and why. These kinds of negotiations remain invisible until someone sees a benefit to making it public. It’s hard to imagine any upside for Rubenstein leaking, so I’m assuming it’s either Angelos or someone who was looking for a scoop. If it’s Angelos, it would probably be an effort to motivate other prospective buyers, as well as Rubenstein, to step up with offers. And if it is Angelos doing the leaking, I doubt it implies we’re anywhere remotely close to an actual agreement. So, I’m not getting excited, but just hearing that we’re legitimately for sale and will be rescued from captivity from the Angelose family is an incredibly happy thing for me.  

[Hank Scorpio]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

I didn't say owners don't want to make more money, but the vast majority are in it for the fame and ego boost because they are already Billionaires. 

Agreed. To amuse themselves. 

I'm certainly not rich, but to me there are certain aspects of it that must be depressing. What do you aspire to do at that point? 

Hmmmm...

[WarehouseChatter]

I find it interesting that the Banner has been quiet on this. They broke the family legal dispute but are saying nothing about Rubenstein/Orioles. Do you think they are questioning the credibility? The Sun had an article. Just curious as to everyone’s thoughts.

[Moose Milligan]

47 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

WTF? How did I get thrown into this? I've always given credit to John Angelos for hiring Elias as well. Why would I label you an Angelos Apologist for that? 

Such an odd statement.

Well I remember that time you called Frobby "an Angelos guy" so I just wanted to take cover

 

[interloper]

17 hours ago, RZNJ said:

You think they would let Elias go and keep everyone else or that if Elias goes a lot of his lieutenants won’t follow him to his next gig.  Elias knew Sig and Koby Perez from before.  That’s how it works.

I don't think Koby has any connection to Elias in particular. He's running the show in his department, but either way the department is set up now. Sig probably follows Elias, but the analytics department is set now. I like Eve as someone who can step into a GM role, she's beyond having to follow Elias around now. Plenty of good people here without Elias and Sig. 

Not sure how you read my comment as 100% of the staff stays. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Just caught up with this thread and I have a few thoughts/comments.

1. As I stated earlier, I was told this months ago by two separate people who seemed to have good information, but were connected through several degrees of separation. I don't really pass on stuff like that anymore because there is no use starting rumors before I have real concrete info. Clearly something coming from Bloomburg holds more weight than something from Orioleshangout.com. I'm glad it hit though.

2. My thoughts are anything that removes the Angelos family from ownership has to be a netgain for Orioles fans. I will give John Angelos credit for hiring Mike Elias and turning this franchise around into something to be proud of, but his ridiculous comments and emergence in the media suddenly during a year of success showed me that an Angelos can't help but to take center stage when things are going well. It was just like when Peter Angelos came out of hibernation when the Orioles where heading to the ALCS in 2014. I was in that lockeroom and there were players and coaches going, "That's the first time I've ever seen him."

3. I've seen a lot of stuff thrown around about Bloomberg, and I certainly understand the poster on here who lost his job to his Carlyle Group being jaded, but at the end of the day, there is no Billionaire out there who is not connected with greasing palms or not associated with the federal government in some way. Once you get to that level you have to play the game. Unless you are Elon Musk and so rich and so successful that you just tell everyone who doesn't like you, including other Billionaires, to "Go F themselves." Lol... Yes, I have a man crush on him!

4. As for Bloomberg running the Orioles just to make money and thinking he will pinch pennies, I just don't see it. Billionaires have big egos and few want to own a losing team. Billionaires don't buy teams to make money. They buy professional sports team for the glory of being an owner on a team that wins the championship. 

5. As for Elias, why would Bloomberg not want to keep Elias and his crew? If anything, he's more likely to pay what it will take to keep him and his crew together for many years. My biggest concern with Elias has been him suddenly realizing he will not be able to spend enough to keep his top players that he drafted, signed and developed. With Bloomberg, I can't imagine him allowing a Gunnar or Jackson Holliday to walk over money if they are still impact players.

6. Personally, this would make my Holiday season if this somehow came to fruition before the year was out. Give me a Billionaire over a guy who's done nothing but ride on his father's coattails any day. 

Good post.  In paragraphs 3, 4 and 5, you mean Rubenstein, not Bloomberg.  Though if Bloomberg wanted to buy the team, that would be good, too.

[Moose Milligan]

25 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:

I agree that John Angelos deserves credit for hiring Elias. But at the same time, while that was great to get us through the rebuild successfully, his “never spend at all costs” approach became a serious impediment to the franchises success now that the rebuild was over and done with. 

No one can tell me that Elias “lift off comments” in ANY WAY mesh with last offseason’s tepid approach to FA and improving the team or this deadlines moves with bringing in the likes of Fujinama and Flaherty. The 2 don’t mesh. All those moves were moves made with spending as little as possible with winning/competing being very much secondary. And that was while the team had the second lowest payroll in the sport with one of the best teams (records on the field).

Yes John Angelos got us an Elias. But literally everything that he did once the team got good was to stand in the way of the team/org/Elias’ success. Like everything! Every word spoken and action taken was awful.

Fujinami and Flaherty were late season pickups for a stretch drive to the pennant.  They really didn't have much of anything to do with spending money. 

If anything, Elias' inability to let go of good prospects to pick up a quality starter is how we wound up with Flaherty.  I don't think it had anything to do with Angelos not wanting to spend money for two months to secure a pennant and increase World Series chances.

And no, not "literally everything" he did once the team got good was to stand in the way of success.  That's just hyperbole.  I will agree that he doesn't want to spend money but that's about it.  Other than that, he's allowed Elias to do whatever he wants and the returns have been great.  

[Number5]

2 hours ago, Bemorewins said:

We have a lot to spend to get to a bottom 10 payroll (as in 20th)…lol

20th is middle 10.  Just sayin'.  

[Frobby]

11 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

 

And no, not "literally everything" he did once the team got good was to stand in the way of success.  That's just hyperbole.  I will agree that he doesn't want to spend money but that's about it.  Other than that, he's allowed Elias to do whatever he wants and the returns have been great.  

I agree that some of the criticism of JA is over the top.  I do think we’d be better off with an owner who doesn’t need income from his baseball team to support his lifestyle.  

By the way, I’d wager that Rubenstein is very well acquainted with the Lerner family and could probably figure out a way to resolve the MASN mess once and for all.   
 

[RZNJ]

16 minutes ago, interloper said:

I don't think Koby has any connection to Elias in particular. He's running the show in his department, but either way the department is set up now. Sig probably follows Elias, but the analytics department is set now. I like Eve as someone who can step into a GM role, she's beyond having to follow Elias around now. Plenty of good people here without Elias and Sig. 

Not sure how you read my comment as 100% of the staff stays. 

You seem to think things can run on auto pilot if key people leave.   I don’t agree.  Elias mentioned having a previous connection to Koby Perez and that’s how he got here when asked about how he filled spots when he got the job.  

We have no idea how good or bad Eve Rosenbaum would be.

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by RZNJ

[SemperFi]

14 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

The only thing worthy of latching onto here is that there seems to be credible evidence of what we suspected….that the team is in fact for sale. When something like this leaks you have to question who would leak it and why. These kinds of negotiations remain invisible until someone sees a benefit to making it public. It’s hard to imagine any upside for Rubenstein leaking, so I’m assuming it’s either Angelos or someone who was looking for a scoop. If it’s Angelos, it would probably be an effort to motivate other prospective buyers, as well as Rubenstein, to step up with offers. And if it is Angelos doing the leaking, I doubt it implies we’re anywhere remotely close to an actual agreement. So, I’m not getting excited, but just hearing that we’re legitimately for sale and will be rescued from captivity from the Angelose family is an incredibly happy thing for me.  

It's difficult for some to keep secrets even with non-disclosures. 

Gillian Tan is a legit journalist (Bloomberg, WSJ) and swims in the same financial circles as Rubenstien who as you note receives no benefit from a leak.  To me it adds legitimacy that it's coming a financial not an industry source. 

I also don't see a benefit for JA or proxy to leak something, I'm sure the bank hired to explore the sale has done their due diligence-they are paid handsomely to couple buyer to seller.

 

[Pickles]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

There’s profit, and there’s profit.  Most baseball teams make a small profit.  The Orioles are making an extremely large profit.  And in the short term, that’s fine.  It’s the byproduct of going through a rebuilding and having a lot of good key players who are in pre-Arb or early Arb years.   But we will soon be entering a different phase and the owner shouldn’t pretend that the team doesn’t have money to spend.  

Rubenstein is significantly more wealthy than the Angelos family, so from that perspective, he would seem to be better positioned to invest in the team, whatever that may look like.

I don't expect him, or any other owner for that matter, to operate at annual losses.  So from my perspective the biggest obstacle to the Orioles ML payroll increasing dramatically, is the revenue the Orioles generate.

Now, that's imo what would make this guy a great owner: Does he have a plan to dramatically increase the O's revenue, including opening new streams of income, and is he willing to in turn reinvest that into the club?

That's what a great owner would do imo.  Now, we don't need to go back down the rabbit hole about who and what this guy is, but his background doesn't inspire me with massive faith in that's what he's going to do.

As unbelievable as it is to some, and even to my past self of only a few years ago, I'm in a wait and see mode with this guy.  I don't think ANY change is automatically an improvement over the Angelos family, and, frankly, the club has been well ran for the last few years and I'd hate to see anything mess with that.

[interloper]

35 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

You seem to think things can run on auto pilot if key people leave.   I don’t agree.  Elias mentioned having a previous connection to Koby Perez and that’s how he got here when asked about how he filled spots when he got the job.  

We have no idea how good or bad Eve Rosenbaum would be.

 

And we have no idea how good or bad a new owner would be. This all seems kind of pointless to talk about IMO. Any day now Angelos will come out and pour cold water on this whole thing anyway, I'm sure. 

All I know is that if key people leave, the organization is much more equipped to handle that now than they were. So at least there's that. 

[Going Underground]

51 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Good post.  In paragraphs 3, 4 and 5, you mean Rubenstein, not Bloomberg.  Though if Bloomberg wanted to buy the team, that would be good, too.

Bloomberg also has ties to Baltimore. Hopkins grad and gave a ton of money to Johns Hopkins hospital that one of the main buildings is named after him. Don't like Bloomberg News at Camden Yards stadium .