The Crane Pool Forum

Still has to go through all the approval stuff via finances and MLB, but CEO John Angelos has agreed to sell to a group headed by
Baltimore native David Rubenstein for a reported $1.725 billion. John Angelos assumed running the club in 2020 taking over for
his now 94 y/o father Peter.

Coming off a 101-win season with a low payroll, young stars already on the field with more seemingly on their way, plus a new
recently negotiated 30-year lease at Camden Yards, it sounds like a good time for the Angelos clan to 'sell high'.

Oh I'm sure the fans will be happy to see the back of that family

A young winning team? Let’s all go together and buy them!

I got $17, it's all yours if you can make it happen!

I wonder how much wins/prospects affect the value of a franchise.

I would think most of the value is the anti-trust exemption. Anything else is gravy.

Centerfield wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 11:30 am I wonder how much wins/prospects affect the value of a franchise.

It's more that it's an indication that the organization is currently in good shape: stadium stability, playoff team, young roster w/low payroll and
more on the way so plenty of room to grow and spend without having to do so immediately or go through a five year tear-down/rebuild.
Most of those conditions were the opposite just a few years ago including the stadium lease which just got renewed in the last few months.
Not sure how much all that directly affects the price but it certainly has the ability to drive up interest which in turn can drive the price.

These things get framed in black and white, but Angelos family has more of a mixed legacy in Baltimore. There have been blatant missteps, but Peter built an ownership group comprised of local luminaries — himself, Tom Clancy, Pam Shriver, Barry Levinson — and he took over just after the establishment of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, so even though he didn't build it, the good will around it reflected on him. Through multiple cycles of revitalization and decline in downtown, the neighborhood and culture in and around the park has (mostly) been untouched by any but the best of good will from the varying (often otherwise clashing) factions of the city and county.

The Angelos name decorates the outside of downtown hospital wings and university buildings, and these too remain in excellent shape in a city with a big dilapidation and vacancy problem. The team has spent when the opportunity was available, as quixotic as it has been to try to keep up with the Yankees and the Red Sox.

If fan interference had been correctly called on Jeffrey Maier, the story of the Orioles over the last 30 years (and that of the Yankees, too, of course) might be very different.

Good stuff, Edgy

Thanks, Edgy.
We knew you would provide additional insight.
One of our daughters is a Maryland Terp (we would always stop on the way to/from visiting her), and our best friends are from Bal'mer. So we've spend a lot of time in the city, and have special memories good times there.
Later

I wish John Fisher shared Peter Angelos' ambitions to retire an old, disgustingly rich person.

Everything about the Fisher case is weird. He only bought the A's after trying to take over the Giants as minority owner to move them to Tampa. Not to San Jose, where all the Richie Rich Giant fans can have easy access, but to Tampa, whose baseball legacy speaks for itself.

MLB then lets him buy up the A's, he runs them on austerity forever, always trying to maneuver a way to move them out of town.

It's as if he's completely alien to the Bay Area and could give two shits, but he's the son of the original Gap owner, and it's hard to be more San Francisco than that.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 4:10 pmHe only bought the A's after trying to take over the Giants as minority owner to move them to Tampa. Not to San Jose, where all the Richie Rich Giant fans can have easy access, but to Tampa, whose baseball legacy speaks for itself.

Was this some time in the mid-1970s? At least at that point, Tampa hadn't yet established its poor legacy.

Also around that time, I seem to recall a guy named Marvin Davis who wanted to move the Athletics to Denver.

That the Bay Area was unable to support two baseball teams was an assumed 'fact' by many during the '70s so there almost
seemed to be an ongoing contest to see who could move which team first and which other city would give them the best deal.
IIRC, at least A reason, if not The reason, the Trop Dome in St. Pete, FL was built was as a lure to one or the other.

Angelos has a mixed legacy to be sure. But I always appreciated that he refused to go along with the plan to field replacement players had the strike extended into 1995. Whether he was doing that to make sure Ripken's streak wasn't snapped, or he was just recognized the general disaster that would be, he is often credited with pushing the strike toward a settlement.

Some of Angelos biggest work as a lawyer was representing labor against management in workplace liability cases and such. Refusing to hire scabs might have been an expression of integrity, but he also would have been killing his golden goose.

Also worth noting that in an industry where about 85% of owners are Republicans and 75% have supported President Trump to one degree or another, the Angelos family are a notable exception.

partially cross-posted with above


Mostly it was that Angelos spent a career as a labor lawyer (much of his fortune was made upon winning a class action suit against asbestos
victims) so the idea of replacement/scab players went against what he had done his whole career.

One problem in the later part of his ownership tenure was the inclusion of his sons in running the team where, not unlike the Wilpons, owners
trying to run the team as well are often hampered by not knowing what it is they don't know. One story has one of his sons making decisions
based on how players were, or weren't, performing on his fantasy team.

Less reported is that the sale by the Angelos family is preceded by disputin' and lawsuitin' between Peter Angelos' sons, with son Louis accusing son John of dirty tricks to get controlling interest.

The two main figures in the purchasing group — David Rubenstein and Michael Arougheti — are in the asset management game, which seems like the best way to get rich enough to buy a baseball team these days. Minority figures in the purchase include Baseball Hall-of-Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., Basketball Hall-of-Famer Grant Hill (Rubenstein is a big Duke donor, and former chair of the board of trustees), former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke. I imagine those names are there to look good on the prospectus and secure partnership and community support. When in Baltimore, it's a lot harder to say GtFO to Cal Ripken.