Latest on Angels sale

[Hubs]

33 minutes ago, Trendon said:

So if the bidding is in February, maybe we find out the winning bid by the end of February, and then they finalize everything in March?

 

32 minutes ago, Pancake Bear said:

Worth noting that there are major differences between basketball and baseball as far as team building. That said, any Golden State fans on here? What kind of owners have Lacob and Guber been? 

And before we get a bunch of asinine comments on his net worth, there would obviously have to be more people in the ownership group, as with the Dodgers. The Dodgers spent a ton of money early and are still pretty near the top of yearly spenders.

They turned a 450 million dollar team in 2010 which was a perennial loser, hadn't won a championship since the 1970's, into the best team of the 2010's with 4 titles and 6 championship series appearances. They got a brand new amazing arena, and the team is now the most valuable franchise in all of sports.

They also have a good balance between the owner (Lacob and Guber primarily), and management Bob Myers, which is what they need (Epstein). 

Lacob has wanted a baseball team for a while, and he grew up in Anaheim, was a peanut vendor for the Angels for 7 years, understands the market and includes them in the LA market.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Hubs

[Warfarin]

33 minutes ago, Trendon said:

It’s probably longer and more complicated than we might think. They’ve already vetted the bidders before allowing them to see the books, but they’d still have to formally agree on purchase price, liabilities, get MLB and ownership approval, etc.

And the Angels laundry list of lawsuits they’re dealing with likely further complicates things.

Maybe @Dollar Bill has a better idea of the timeline?

I have to assume that the purchase price, liabilities, and lawsuit related issues will be factored into the negotiations themselves and settled as part of the final bid.  The MLB ownership approval part, I imagine, will take some time.  I am not sure if this can all be done by the start of the season - that seems rather optimistic, but certainly by at least the first half of this year?

I'm not too familiar with how the process goes, so I'm just sort of theorizing though.

[Warfarin]

10 minutes ago, Hubs said:

 

They turned a 450 million dollar team in 2010 which was a perennial loser, hadn't won a championship since the 1970's, into the best team of the 2010's with 4 titles and 6 championship series appearances. They got a brand new amazing arena, and the team is now the most valuable franchise in all of sports.

They also have a good balance between the owner (Lacob and Guber primarily), and management Bob Myers, which is what they need (Epstein). 

Lacob has wanted a baseball team for a while, and he grew up in Anaheim, was a peanut vendor for the Angels for 7 years, understands the market and includes them in the LA market.

The biggest appeal to me is that Lacob knows how to run a sports franchise, has done so very successfully, and appears likely to be emotionally vested in the team given his ties to Anaheim.

I would prefer an owen like that, who may have less net worth, than one like PSS, who is richer but would probably operate the team as more of strictly a business.  I think Lacob would be more willing to give up some potential profits for the sake of pursuing titles.  I don't know that for sure of course, just a guess.  

So for now, I would put Lacob as my preferred bidder, based on the three known entities that we have.

[ScottT]

Mets 2020 sale:

https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/breaking-down-mets-steve-cohen-sale-drama-timeline/

July 9: The first round of bids are due, with Cohen placing the largest bid at $2 billion. The Rodriguez/Lopez team offered a bid of $1.7 billion, The Post reports. Harris and Blitzer had a similar bid.

Aug. 17: With final bids due in two weeks, sources say Cohen’s hopes of purchasing the team may be hurt by Jeff Wilpon’s dislike for him. “Jeff Wilpon hates Steve Cohen,” a source close to the bid says. “He wants A-Rod to come away with the team or make Cohen pay double the nearest offer.”

Aug. 28: Hours after The Post reports Jeff Wilpon is not involved in the sale, it is reported that Cohen has won the bidding.

Sale wasn't approved until October 30.

[BTH]

17 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

The MLB ownership approval part, I imagine, will take some time.

If probably depends on when they have an owners meeting.

If I had to guess, I’d guess that they have some sort of first quarter meeting and the sale gets finalized then.

[Hubs]

16 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

The biggest appeal to me is that Lacob knows how to run a sports franchise, has done so very successfully, and appears likely to be emotionally vested in the team given his ties to Anaheim.

I would prefer an owen like that, who may have less net worth, than one like PSS, who is richer but would probably operate the team as more of strictly a business.  I think Lacob would be more willing to give up some potential profits for the sake of pursuing titles.  I don't know that for sure of course, just a guess.  

So for now, I would put Lacob as my preferred bidder, based on the three known entities that we have.

The warriors win and make money. That's a great combo. They dont have a 7 Billion dollar net worth cuz they were just a winning franchise. 

[Warfarin]

8 minutes ago, ScottT said:

Mets 2020 sale:

https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/breaking-down-mets-steve-cohen-sale-drama-timeline/

July 9: The first round of bids are due, with Cohen placing the largest bid at $2 billion. The Rodriguez/Lopez team offered a bid of $1.7 billion, The Post reports. Harris and Blitzer had a similar bid.

Aug. 17: With final bids due in two weeks, sources say Cohen’s hopes of purchasing the team may be hurt by Jeff Wilpon’s dislike for him. “Jeff Wilpon hates Steve Cohen,” a source close to the bid says. “He wants A-Rod to come away with the team or make Cohen pay double the nearest offer.”

Aug. 28: Hours after The Post reports Jeff Wilpon is not involved in the sale, it is reported that Cohen has won the bidding.

Sale wasn't approved until October 30.

Hmm.  So .. about 4 months or so timeline.  If we start the bidding in February, then that would seem to suggest a sale that could take until maybe June or so to complete.

[Warfarin]

3 minutes ago, Hubs said:

The warriors win and make money. That's a great combo. They dont have a 7 Billion dollar net worth cuz they were just a winning franchise. 

I agree.  Notably, while the NBA luxury tax and cap system is far different, the Warriors have basically been the top spending team for many years now.  I think one year they weren't first, but they have been #1 most of the time.  That is a promising sign, IMO.

[Second Base]

I thought I remembered A-Rod and J-Lo bidding on the Mets. That wouldn't been super stable.

[Pancake Bear]

43 minutes ago, Hubs said:

 

They turned a 450 million dollar team in 2010 which was a perennial loser, hadn't won a championship since the 1970's, into the best team of the 2010's with 4 titles and 6 championship series appearances. They got a brand new amazing arena, and the team is now the most valuable franchise in all of sports.

They also have a good balance between the owner (Lacob and Guber primarily), and management Bob Myers, which is what they need (Epstein). 

Lacob has wanted a baseball team for a while, and he grew up in Anaheim, was a peanut vendor for the Angels for 7 years, understands the market and includes them in the LA market.

Wouldn't we have said a lot of the same things about Arte as an owner for the first ten years? The Angels were winning and making money, and the value of the team skyrocketed. Ticket sales were among the best in the majors. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Trendon said:

So if the bidding is in February, maybe we find out the winning bid by the end of February, and then they finalize everything in March?

They should film it like a reality show.

[Dtwncbad]

13 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I thought I remembered A-Rod and J-Lo bidding on the Mets. That wouldn't been super stable.

J Lo does have five rings in the last 25 years.

[BTH]

30 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

Hmm.  So .. about 4 months or so timeline.  If we start the bidding in February, then that would seem to suggest a sale that could take until maybe June or so to complete.

If Arte wants to sell the team quickly, as suggested before, maybe he’d shorten the bidding process to speed things up.

Instead of ~2 months for the bidding process, maybe it’s 1 month.

[Warfarin]

1 minute ago, Trendon said:

If Arte wants to sell the team quickly, as suggested before, maybe he’d shorten the bidding process to speed things up.

Instead of ~2 months for the bidding process, maybe it’s 1 month.

Perhaps.  Arte does seem to have a mainly pressured style of negotiation that speeds things up.  Still, given this is a multi-billion dollar sale, I imagine it might take longer.

As long as the sale occurs with room to spare prior to the upcoming offseason (i.e. a deal is agreed upon and owners ratify it), I think that should largely suffice in terms of seeig a hike in spending next offseason, and enough time for the new ownership to sell Ohtani on their vision.

[Dollar Bill]

1 hour ago, Trendon said:

It’s probably longer and more complicated than we might think. They’ve already vetted the bidders before allowing them to see the books, but they’d still have to formally agree on purchase price, liabilities, get MLB and ownership approval, etc.

And the Angels laundry list of lawsuits they’re dealing with likely further complicates things.

Maybe @Dollar Bill has a better idea of the timeline?

What has happened in previous sales may or may not be relevant to this one. But, generally speaking, the bidders that emerge as finalists usually get a more thorough round of scrutiny from MLB.  

[Inside Pitch]

19 minutes ago, Dark Bumpy said:

They should film it like a reality show.

Arte gives a rose to the best bidder.... 

[Warfarin]

2 minutes ago, Dollar Bill said:

What has happened in previous sales may or may not be relevant to this one. But, generally speaking, the bidders that emerge as finalists usually get a more thorough round of scrutiny from MLB.  

Thanks Bill!  Assuming bidding starts in February, do you think that Manfred's statement that he hopes to see a sale "resolved" by Opening Day is a bit optimistic, or would it be possible to see bidding start in February, and have a sale completed by opening day?  That would be less than 2 months.

[Taylor]

8 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Arte gives a rose to the best bidder.... 

I was thinking they could call it "So You Think You Can Own the Angels?".

[Pancake Bear]

For all the Sam Blum "fans" out there: he tweeted out a link to the story on Lacob and then said something about his analysis of the comments meaning a sale was probably not gonna happen immediately. Numerous people called him an idiot since it's already been reported bidding won't start for another month and he deleted his speculation.

[Hubs]

46 minutes ago, Pancake Bear said:

Wouldn't we have said a lot of the same things about Arte as an owner for the first ten years? The Angels were winning and making money, and the value of the team skyrocketed. Ticket sales were among the best in the majors. 

They weren’t winning or run like The Warriors. They’ve been there for 13 or 14 seasons now and if you think about it… were the Warriors even a top ten franchise prior? And now they’ve got 4 titles (should be 5) in 6 tries.. they’ve got the best franchise valuation in all of sports and yes they lucked into having the best player in the game in his prime but we have the top 2.  
They’re the perfect fit

[Second Base]

1 hour ago, Dtwncbad said:

J Lo does have five rings in the last 25 years.

[BTH]

1 hour ago, Warfarin said:

Perhaps.  Arte does seem to have a mainly pressured style of negotiation that speeds things up.  Still, given this is a multi-billion dollar sale, I imagine it might take longer.

As long as the sale occurs with room to spare prior to the upcoming offseason (i.e. a deal is agreed upon and owners ratify it), I think that should largely suffice in terms of seeig a hike in spending next offseason, and enough time for the new ownership to sell Ohtani on their vision.

Yeah, I don’t think getting the sale done by Opening Day is that important.

At the very latest, I’d hope it’s done before the end of the season.

A happy middle ground I would take would be for it to get done by June/July, ahead of the trade deadline.

[Second Base]

I remember when it was first announced, I mentioned something about it getting down at three end of the 2023 season. We'll see if that holds true. 

[Warfarin]

25 minutes ago, Trendon said:

Yeah, I don’t think getting the sale done by Opening Day is that important.

At the very latest, I’d hope it’s done before the end of the season.

A happy middle ground I would take would be for it to get done by June/July, ahead of the trade deadline.

That one Tweet referenced that two sales could occur in the first half of 2023.  If the Angels can complete it in that timeline, i.e. by the middle of the season, that's fine with me.  The key is getting it done at least a bit before the offseason.  Whether it's opening day or midseason won't make much of a difference.

[Pancake Bear]

Some of you aren't really thinking clearly when you say all that matters is if the new owner is set by the end of this season or sometimes during the season.

If we don't have a new owner at least known (not necessarily all the i's dotted and t's crossed) by Opening Day, our chances of keeping him definitely go down. First, because some players don't want to negotiate after the season starts. Second, if somehow (extremely unlikely) it stretches to season's end, it's open market and we may well not have the highest bid. 

It is very important that a new owner is at least identified before Opening Day to give Perry a chance to negotiate a deal.