Puck News: Orioles sold to Rubenstein

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, SemperFi said:

That's all nice but does anyone really think "the group" in ownership group really does anything?  My view is that unless they have a decent stake-which they don't- they are either passive investors, friends/asssociates or ambassadors for the team/city.   

They very well may be, I don't know. I just know that when you build a group to problem solve, that building it from a diversity of thoughts and experiences only helps build better solutions. My response was more about the comment that diversity in ownership did not matter. 

[Pickles]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

That’s my thought and why maybe they “bought it cheap”.

 

Reasonable speculation imo.

[Orioles5258]

32 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think there are several members of this group who could provide substantive input for Rubenstein to consider.  As I mentioned, Bloomberg runs a huge cable network and could be very useful on MASN.  Schmoke is a former mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland and can help on political issues that they obviously have (this is true regardless of what you think of his political views).   Cal may be asked to weigh in on operational issues (hopefully, only when a voice outside of team management is needed).   

I must have slept through the years when Schmoke was Governor of Maryland, don't remember that at all.

Cal does two important things right off the bat, Georgia will want to sell her 1/3 of shares to the ownership group that has Cal as a member, and how can MLB vote down an ownership group with Cal Ripken in it, that would be some bad PR

Edited February 1 by Orioles5258

[Going Underground]

1 minute ago, Orioles5258 said:

I must have slept through the years when Schmoke was Governor of Maryland, don't remember that at all.

Mayor of Baltimore. 

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Reasonable speculation imo.

It makes sense though, right?  If you are John Angelos, the less you get, the less the taxes are.  So, instead of the ownership group giving him the extra 300M (or whatever the number is), you tell them instead of 2B, you get 1.7B and tell them to pay that fee.

Just wondering if that was part of the thought process. 

[Pickles]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It makes sense though, right?  If you are John Angelos, the less you get, the less the taxes are.  So, instead of the ownership group giving him the extra 300M (or whatever the number is), you tell them instead of 2B, you get 1.7B and tell them to pay that fee.

Just wondering if that was part of the thought process. 

Oh, yeah, it makes a lot of sense.  It was exactly what I was thinking.

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Would Rubenstein now be on the hook to pay the MASn fees?  Or would this go back to the Angelos family?

Well, it’s MASN that owes the fees, technically.  I doubt there is any debt outstanding, personally.  I recall there is something in the MASN contract that allows the Nats’ TV rights to revert to the Nats if MASN doesn’t pay promptly.   MASN did not appeal from the recent arbitration award relating to 2017-21, so they must have had the funds on hand.  I know Brit suggested that might not be the case, but I doubt she’s correct.  

[SteveA]

1 hour ago, SouthRider said:

I expect Cal to have the same input as Tom Clancy and Pam Shriver under Angelos' ownership tenure.  

So less than Brady Anderson?

[SteveA]

59 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think there are several members of this group who could provide substantive input for Rubenstein to consider.  As I mentioned, Bloomberg runs a huge cable network and could be very useful on MASN.  Schmoke is a former mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland and can help on political issues that they obviously have (this is true regardless of what you think of his political views).   Cal may be asked to weigh in on operational issues (hopefully, only when a voice outside of team management is needed).   

Schmoke was never governor.

[deward]

4 minutes ago, SteveA said:

So less than Brady Anderson?

One would hope.

 

Edited February 1 by deward

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

Schmoke was never governor.

Oops, brain fart there.  I’ll go fix that.  

[Billy F-Face3]

Isn't Bloomberg a Yankees fan? I am wondering how a couple of billionaires from New York being part of the ownership group is going to affect the synergy of operations for the franchise, knowing they had more interest in the team's division rival in the past.

[Brooks The Great]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Nope, he still went to Duke. That’s how this works. There’s only been one exception… Lefty. 

Someone probably already mentioned it, and surely some of the news articles have, but Rubenstein went to Duke undergrad also. So the incoming future majority owner of the O's and one of the future minority owners are Duke guys. 

[Sports Guy]

10 minutes ago, Brooks The Great said:

Someone probably already mentioned it, and surely some of the news articles have, but Rubenstein went to Duke undergrad also. So the incoming future majority owner of the O's and one of the future minority owners are Duke guys. 

So, they are used to winning

[Moose Milligan]

19 minutes ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Isn't Bloomberg a Yankees fan? I am wondering how a couple of billionaires from New York being part of the ownership group is going to affect the synergy of operations for the franchise, knowing they had more interest in the team's division rival in the past.

C'mon.