BREAKING: Ryan Outduels Cuban In Offensive Battle; Gets Rangers For $385M

((HT: MyFoxDFW/Fox 4 Dallas))

Two groups are vying for control of the Texas Rangers in a Dallas bankruptcy court: one headed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with Houston businessman Jim Crane as a partner, and the other currently running the team with Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg.

There was talk that FoxSports would be interested in the Rangers and the Dallas Stars, but it didn't materialize by the deadline.

Ryan's team questioned Wednesday morning whether Cuban's bid was qualified. The judge in the case decided it was.

The amount of the Cuban-Crane bid exceeded the Ryan/Greenberg bid by US$25-million, but the folks at MLB are wanting the Ryan/Greenberg bid to be the one they choose.

MLB has even threatened to dissolve the franchise if they don't get their way.

Brandon Todd from MyFoxDFW is in the courtroom, and has released through his Twitter account, that the judge is giving Ryan/Greenberg until 1715 local to figure a counter-bid out...

CBS11 in Dallas did an interview with their bankruptcy attorney on retainer...
((HT: KTVT-TV))


Follow their live blog here...

1820 UPDATE: Ryan/Greenberg is reviewing the Cuban/Crane bid...
1845 UPDATE: Ryan/Greenberg, after reviewing the Cuban/Crane bid, came back with a US$320M bid in cash. Cuban/Crane responded with a US$335M bid. The debtors are in the process of reviewing the proposals until 1915EDT

PM UPDATE: The Chief Restructuring Officer, the judge, and the two parties dickered for most of the evening over the bids. Cuban/Crane even went as far as bumping their bid up another $US20M to US$355M. The Ryan/Greenberg group went on record as saying that the auction process wasn't an auction anymore... as evidenced by this piece that comes from our friends at WFAA-TV in Dallas...
Chris Hawes was outside the courtroom...


0039 EDT UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid went up to US$356M cash. Ryan/Greenberg, as the next step, went up to US$365M and want to eliminate the escrow portion of their bid.

0110 UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid went up to US$390M while cutting US$12M in escrow. The minimum bid had to be US$388M from Cuban/Crane to continue.

0145 UPDATE: The Cuban/Crane bid gave the team to Rangers' Express (Ryan/Greenberg). There was a standing ovation in the court when this was announced. Ryan/Greenberg get the Rangers for US$385M in cash plus assumed debt in the neighborhood of US$200M.

The courtroom was, somewhat, in shock when the decision to pull the plug was given by Cuban/Crane. Jim Crane did not hang around the courtroom long after the decision was announced. Mark Cuban did hang around the courtroom to answer questions for the Metroplex media. Chuck Greenberg was left to shake hands in the room.

The auction took 15 hours to complete...

More when we know more...

Selig Would Rather Terminate Rangers Than Get Higher Sale Bid

((HT: NYTimes- Sandomir, Belson))

The HQ thinks this is a dangerous game that Major League Baseball is playing with the courts these days where the sale of the Texas Rangers is concerned.

We all know Tom Hicks was hemorrhaging money and wanted to sell. His losses in the soccer world in Liverpool and with the Dallas Stars forced him, like any other smart businessman, to want to restructure his debt load...

Of US$525-million... after he defaulted on those loans...

Here was the story at the time of the default, thanks to our friends at MyFoxDFW
James Rose was outside for the story in April...


So, then the Rangers go up for auction... and the team files for bankruptcy protection back in May.

The group led by Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg agree to a purchase price not once, but twice, and the plan for Hicks was to make sure that his liability was capped at $75-million dollars. That idea, in June, surely, annoyed all Hicks' creditors who feel they're owed closer to US$450-million.

Major League Baseball went even as far as to float a US$40-million loan so the team could make its 2010 expenses- which include paying Cliff Lee.

The whole process is now heading for an August 4th auction, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is seen as a possible competitor for Ryan/Greenberg, who have sued Hicks for negotiating behind their back for a better bid.

MyFoxDFW caught up with Dallas attorney Clint David...


And now JP Morgan has jumped in to sue the team for transferring its lease- a violation of loan agreements.

There is a better bid on the table, fully financed, from Houston businessman Jim Crane, but Selig wants nothing to do with the Crane dollars.

And the Commissioner has made it publicly clear he wants the Ryan/Greenberg group and no one else... How far...???

Get this, from the New York Times article:

Selig has blocked Hicks from seeking higher bids, and he has threatened to invoke the “best interests of baseball” clause to accelerate the sale. When Hicks voiced doubts in April about whether lenders would approve the Ryan-Greenberg offer, baseball officials issued a statement later that day affirming that it was running the sale and that Selig would deal “appropriately” with interference from Hicks or anyone else.

One of Selig’s lawyers vowed profanely in a conference call that if the judge did not approve the team’s prepackaged bankruptcy plan, which would have sped approval of the Greenberg-Ryan bid, M.L.B. would terminate the franchise, according to a person on the call.

Selig thinks that he can choose the owners- regardless of financial status or solvency... and ignore the court system...???

What do you think the US Government has to say about that idea...???
Just axin'...

TUESDAY UPDATE: A court-appointed official says the August 4th auction should be delayed.

The restructuring officer, William K. Snyder, testified that potential buyers probably wouldn't be able to secure financing by that time. Interested bidders have to come up with at least $500 million.

Snyder suggested that a mediator pick the date after talking to all potential bidders.

The bidding procedures set the Greenberg-Ryan group's offer as the opening bid, but their financing guarantee is set to expire August 12th.

So, if the auction is set past the 12th, Ryan/Greenberg may be out on their ass. That could set in motion the Selig gambit mentioned above, a messy court battle with Hicks' creditors, and a messy court battle with the winner of the auction.

Or Choice D) All of the above...

DEVELOPING STORY: Greenberg And Ryan Suing Rangers

They're not happy with how, essentially, Tom Hicks was still negotiating with other groups after the Greenberg/Ryan group was approved by bankruptcy courts as the one who was going to purchase the club.

Evan Grant's piece in the Dallas Morning News has a lot of the details and court-speak...

Apparently, and rightfully so if true, they're bent at court-appointed Chief Restructuring Officer William K. Snyder who took the bankruptcy case over while bankruptcy court judge D. Michael Lynn was on vacation. Snyder went on to recommend opening up the process to new bids all over again. But, Lynn did come back to rule last week that he intends for the case to be all figured out by July 22nd.

Greenberg and Ryan feel Hicks and the Rangers are in breach of the deal and seek to stop all their alleged shenanigans.

More when we know more...

Could MLB end up with the Texas Rangers?

((ht: bizofbaseball.com))

Interesting story developing in the Tom Hicks goes bankrupt and tries to sell the Texas Rangers saga.

According to a couple of published reports, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is seriously considering using the powers granted to him (I'm not gonna make the joke!) and seize control of the team which would enable the Rangers to then be sold to a group headed by current team President Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenburg.

((Tom Hicks//Courtesy: Dallas Observer))

The reason for this is somewhat technical. Apparently creditors who want a piece of Hicks; he owes a lot of people a lot of money...about $525 million all told. Hicks wants to sell the team, but can't agree with his creditors on how much money from the sale will go to them.

It's complicated.

For a more detailed explanation, go to the source of the story, the Bizofbaseball.com RIGHT HERE

This one will be interesting. Aside from the NHL taking over the Phoenix Coyotes for this season, there really haven't been a whole lot of precedents for this. The league did for a time exercise this option with the Montreal Expos to help facilitate the sale to Ted Lerner, so that he could move the team to Washington DC back in 2001.

20 Years Ago: Nolan Ryan's 5,000th Strikeout

((HT: HSE/MLB Advanced Media))


Rickey Henderson is the answer to the trivia question...
Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News points us in the direction of the night's game story... Merle Harmon and Norm Hitzges were your play-by-play and color from Arlington Stadium...

Hicks Would Sell Rangers But Not Stars

((HT: MyFoxDFW))

Tom Hicks is willing to give up control of baseball's Texas Rangers if the right deal comes along but he intends to keep the NHL's Dallas Stars.

Hicks said in late March that he was seeking minority investors to purchase up to 49 percent in each club. About a week later, the holding company that owns the clubs, Hicks Sports Group, defaulted on about $525 million in loans. Hicks said he intentionally made the move to help negotiate with banks.

"With the right partners, I would be willing to sell a controlling interest in the Rangers," Hicks said on Thursday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Not so with the Stars."

His intentions were first reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
That article, by Randy Galloway, is right here...

His key paragraphs:

"What was "adamant" in early spring doesn’t necessarily apply in late May. And for someone in Hicks’ financial circles, things change as much as the ups and downs of a depressed national market. (This will be, promise, my final comment on all things listed under economics).

With, however, Hicks now saying a majority interest in the local baseball team is up for sale, depending on if Hicks is chummy with the potential buyer, then Wednesday’s next ballpark contact was, of course, Nolan Ryan.

As Hicks’ hand-picked, in-charge-of-everything team president, chummy seems to apply here. Plus, it has been speculated many times that Ryan and his longtime business partner, Don Sanders of Houston, would have an interest in buying a majority share of the Rangers. And no interest at all in what was previously being offered — a minority share.

"Knowing nothing about what the details are, and having not been involved in discussions [about being a majority owner], there’s no way I can comment on any of this," Ryan said.

Would it be something he would now explore?

"That’s hard to say," Ryan added, "without having talked to Tom about it."

On the sale of any team, commissioner Bud Selig’s office is involved in determining partners, since it’s a process where all investors have to eventually be checked out and approved by the other owners.

Under those guidelines, Hicks is being advised, and it can be assumed, also being given a list of potential investors by the commissioner’s office. But it’s a hard sell, obviously, when Hicks was offering only a minority interest while maintaining total control."

Hicks bought the Stars in 1996, and the team won the Stanley Cup three years later. In 1998, he purchased the Rangers from George W. Bush's group and Hicks created a stir in December 2000 when the Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez to a $252 million, 10-year contract. Hicks has said he owns 95 percent of both teams.

Two years ago, he combined with Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr. to buy the English soccer club Liverpool through a different entity.