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

[ThisIsBirdland]

1 minute ago, Pickles said:

The payroll is increasing.  That's just a fact.  People are always going to want it to go higher, but as long it doesn't get in the way of winning, I don't care.   Payroll is not the most important thing about winning.

Elias has done a phenomenal job drafting and developing a strong organization. Locking up the superstars of the rebuild and augmenting the team with a few critical outside pieces could take them from a regular contender to a legitimate, consistent WS favorite.

[MTMan13]

3 minutes ago, Pickles said:

It's still his money.  If he dies in six years, they're going to have to sell the team.

That's not how modern sports ownership conglomerates work. The groups that bought the Lakers, Broncos, WFT, etc all had a roster of shareholders who put up a percentage behind a frontman / lead capital provider. Succession planning and share sale plans are guaranteed to be in each of these ownership group governance agreements. It's much more corporate, and correspondingly has less key-man risk. 

As an aside, how can anyone nitpick over the Orioles being sold? Satan might be a better owner than Pete. 

Edited December 7, 2023 by MTMan13

[beantownrefugee]

The biography on his website shows Mr. Rubenstein swinging for the fences at Fenway Park.  Maybe he is a serious baseball fan.  Maybe he wants to plug himself into the lineup once he's owner?  

https://davidrubenstein.com/about-david/

[interloper]

So. Now that a real news site like Bloomberg has this, the reporters are going to want to talk to Angelos. 

I'm sure that will go swimmingly as usual. 

[Billy F-Face3]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Amazing…so I guess that random poster on that Mets board was on to something?

If he's from New York, he probably knows a person or 2 who's connected in the finance world and would have the inside scoop about these talks.

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, MTMan13 said:

That's not how modern sports ownership conglomerates work. The groups that bought the Lakers, Broncos, WFT, etc all had a roster of shareholders who put up a percentage behind a frontman / lead capital provider. It's much more corporate, and correspondingly has less key-man risk. 

As an aside, how can anyone nitpick over the Orioles being sold? Satan might be a better owner than Pete. 

But when he dies, and his family wants to liquidate his controlling share, they're going to have to sell and we'll have a new controlling owner.

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, Pickles said:

But when he dies, and his family wants to liquidate his controlling share, they're going to have to sell and we'll have a new controlling owner.

And none of them will have the last Angelos..which is amazing 

[Pickles]

I don't like this dude for a number of reasons, and yes, I've heard of him before a week ago.

But I will say this: How these billionaires make their money can you tell a lot about how they're going to run their organizations.

Peter Angelos made his money as a trial lawyer and he ran his baseball team as one.  It was disastrous on a numbrer of levels.

Steve Bisciotti made his money in personnel, and he's ran his football team as such.  And it's been very successful.

Rubenstein is a lawyer and investment capitalist, who seems to have made his money largely because of a lot of friendly relationships with people inside the Beltway.

That doesn't inspire me with confidence.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Pickles

[MTMan13]

Just now, Pickles said:

But when he dies, and his family wants to liquidate his controlling share, they're going to have to sell and we'll have a new controlling owner.

Sure, but you have significantly less "lame duck" risk where the group is not acting in the best interests of the team because of a power void.

While David's net worth is significant, $4bn would seem to not be enough for him to be a >50% shareholder of the team. Suspect we're a >$2bn price tag based on the Mets revenue multiple (and 2023 Revenue was undoubtedly much higher than the 2022 number I'm using). No idea how much debt is allowable in these deals (the NFL has limits), but presumably the required equity check is >$1bn. Seriously doubt a $4bn net worth family would allocate more than $400-500MM to own a professional sports team. So hopefully he's got a big group of rich Baltimore fans who each own 5-10%. Would be cool to see Biscotti take a piece and have a pre-wired succession plan to be the majority owner of the team once David needs to step down. 

Who knows though, he's probably a competing bidder!  

[Moose Milligan]

6 minutes ago, interloper said:

So. Now that a real news site like Bloomberg has this, the reporters are going to want to talk to Angelos. 

I'm sure that will go swimmingly as usual. 

It'd be the best if they somehow got Dan Connolly in there.

[Pickles]

Just now, MTMan13 said:

Sure, but you have significantly less "lame duck" risk where the group is not acting in the best interests of the team because of a power void.

While David's net worth is significant, $4bn would seem to not be enough for him to be a >50% shareholder of the team. Suspect we're a >$2bn price tag based on the Mets revenue multiple (and 2023 Revenue was undoubtedly much higher than the 2022 number I'm using). No idea how much debt is allowable in these deals (the NFL has limits), but presumably the required equity check is >$1bn. Seriously doubt a $4bn net worth family would allocate more than $400-500MM to own a professional sports team. So hopefully he's got a big group of rich Baltimore fans who each own 5-10%. Would be cool to see Biscotti take a piece and have a pre-wired succession plan to be the majority owner of the team once David needs to step down. 

Who knows though, he's probably a competing bidder!  

Bisciotti once described minority ownership as gifting an interest free loan in exchange for a box seat.  I don't know how many Baltimoreans want to hand over 10s of millions of dollars to be a glorified season ticket holder.

[MTMan13]

Just now, Pickles said:

Bisciotti once described minority ownership as gifting an interest free loan in exchange for a box seat.  I don't know how many Baltimoreans want to hand over 10s of millions of dollars to be a glorified season ticket holder.

That's really funny - I never saw that quote, but there is some truth to that statement. The valuations are also absurd. You're only buying a sports team today out of love for the team, vanity, access, or to park capital in a largely risk insulated security. There are no real "bargain buys" to be had. 

[Just Regular]

Its a Smalltimore where did you go to high school kind of thing, but as a fellow City alum, Rubenstein as possible principal owner gives a good feeling.

The high school is basically across the street from the old Memorial Stadium site.     He probably would have been in 11th grade give or take when the '66 Orioles were finishing off the Dodgers.      Some people can form lifelong attachments to the teams they grew up with.

[Pickles]

Just now, MTMan13 said:

That's really funny - I never saw that quote, but there is some truth to that statement. The valuations are also absurd. You're only buying a sports team today out of love for the team, vanity, access, or to park capital in a largely risk insulated security. There are no real "bargain buys" to be had. 

Don't forget, he initially came into the Ravens org as a minority owner.  He only did that with the OPTION to buy, because as he said, minority ownership is a terrible deal.

[Sports Guy]

5 minutes ago, Pickles said:

I don't like this dude for a number of reasons, and yes, I've heard of him before a week ago.

But I will say this: How these billionaires make their money can you tell a lot about how they're going to run their organizations.

Peter Angelos made his money as a trial lawyer and he ran his baseball team as one.  It was disastrous on a numbrer of levels.

Peter Bisciotti made his money in personnel, and he's ran his football team as such.  And it's been very successful.

Rubenstein is a lawyer and investment capitalist, who seems to have made his money largely because of a lot of friendly relationships with people inside the Beltway.

That doesn't inspire me with confidence.

Who is Peter Bisciotti?  Is he Steve’s evil twin?