Crane does make me nervous. He isn't the richest guy out there, he has balked at a deal once, and probably overpaid for the team. We will see how it plays itself out.
http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?...as-astros-owner&catid=26:editorials&Itemid=39 5 Things That Likely Prevented the Vote to Approve Jim Crane As Astros Owner Written by Maury Brown Tuesday, 16 August 2011 15:16 Yesterday, MLB announced that a vote to approve Jim Crane as the new owner of the Houston Astros has been delayed as the league continues its due-diligence process. The announcement came as a bit of a surprise as earlier this month the vote was said to be a go. The reasons as to why have been speculated and run the gamut. Here’s 5 reasons why there could be a delay: 1) The Large Group of Investors in Crane’s Group The $680 million sales agreement reached between Drayton McLane and Crane on May 16 would mark the second-highest sale price for an MLB club behind only the Chicago Cubs sale in 2009, which included Wrigley Field and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago. With that much money needed, Crane has pulled in a large group of investors, each of which needs to go through MLB’s background check. Crane has reportedly brought on more minorities, which brings up… 2) Crane’s Prior Dealings with Discrimination and War Profiteering Crane dodged this bullet when he was part of efforts to purchase the Astros in 2008, the Cubs in 2009, and Rangers in 2010. This time around, he’s not been as lucky. There was a class-action lawsuit in the late ‘90s claiming Crane’s company Eagle Global Logistics operated under discriminatory fashion with blacks, Hispanics, and women of child-bearing age. During the Iraq war, the Justice Dept. charged Crane’s company with war-profiteering charges, with one high-ranking executive serving jail time over the matter. The issue has been said to “be in the past” but it is one issue of several that Crane faces. 3) Backing Out of the Astros Sale in 2008 Crane was very nearly the owner of the Astros in 2008. He was so close that the club had drafted up the press release on the sale agreement when Crane backed out at the 11th hour. That was said to upset McLane and it certainly gave the owners second thoughts about Crane. Indeed, it was said repeatedly in reports during both the Cubs and Rangers that Crane would not be “approvable”. Whether that gap has been totally crossed is unknown, but is surely part of the discussion with Crane. 4) The Astros, Dodgers and Debt One thing that has consumed a great deal of the league’s time has been the on-going battle with Frank McCourt and the Dodgers who are now in bankruptcy. Discussions about McCourt’s highly leveraged purchase have been a repeated part of the conversation with fans and the media. From Is Jim Crane the Astros Savior, or the Next Frank McCourt?: Of the $680 million purchase, just under half ($300 million) is going to be financed with debt. According to Mike Ozanian of Forbes, “In 2010 the Astros had operating income of $14 million, so if Crane parks $300 million of debt on the team the franchise would be in technical default of the league’s debt limit, which is 10 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.” That’s Forbes, not MLB’s numbers. But, there are other aspects of the sale that are concerning from a debt perspective. Whether it’s to keep partial ownership or get around MLB’s debt rules, Drayton McLane will reportedly keep a $65 million minority stake in the club. Crane will have just $70 million and $125 million skin in the game. Crane’s partners are pitching in $300 million, and believe it or not, the rest will be a loan out of Major League Baseball. (SEE Who's to Blame for Frank McCourt Owning the Dodgers?) So, is the financial structure of the Crane deal holding things up? Are owners thinking about how Frank McCourt has gone sideways? Probably not. According to league sources, the biggest difference between Frank McCourt and Crane boil down to two things: a) He’s highly liquid in his assets. Where McCourt had collateral tied up in property, Crane has cast. b) As noted at the top of the list, Crane has a very large investor group with which to spread financial responsibility. McCourt had no other investors. 5) The Astros Into the American League The last of the 5 has to be brought up, but it’s the easiest to answer. With all the buzz about radical realignment in which the Astros would move to the American League, thus giving 15 clubs in the AL and NL, questions surfaced yesterday as to whether Crane’s possible balking at the move was part of the delay. The answer is, no. For one thing, there’s no certainty that the realignment will happen any time soon, if at all. That’s not the holdup. So, What’s the Reason for the Delay? Everyone has their theories, but the truth be known, it’s many things and not just one thing holding up the vote to approve the sale. Commissioner Selig isn’t going to call the vote until there is complete consensus. Word is that could be in 10 days, or two weeks, or it’s entirely possible (although unlikely) that Crane is never approved and McLane goes back to the drawing board. What’s known is this: if the votes are lined up, waiting until the November owners meetings does not have to occur. The vote could take place via conference call, if necessary.
http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice...that-it-has-lingering-doubts-about-jim-crane/ It has been two weeks since Drayton McLane said the deal would be approved in two weeks. Still, there’s no approval. For the first time, the question seems to be not about when it will be approved, but if it will be approved. Drayton McLane’s answers seem a bit less confident than when he said, “It will sail through the approval process.” MLB officials offer vague answers, and this too is a change. It comes down to this: If Commissioner Bud Selig is comfortable with Jim Crane owning the Astros, then Jim Crane will own the Astros. You can read the delay in the approval process any way you like, but as someone who has known Selig for almost 30 years, it’s not insignificant. Perhaps it really is as simple as completely vetting all the investors. But it could also be that MLB just can’t reach a comfort level with Crane. In his heart Drayton McLane has to know this too. If he hasn’t begun to shop for another buyer, he’s at least thinking about the possibility. I’m not sure what has changed in the last couple of weeks, but something clearly has. Major League Baseball asked Drayton not to hold a news conference on May 16 to announce that he’d agreed to sell the club to Crane. MLB officials warned him that the process would be long and tedious, and until they’d done background checks on Crane and his investors, the deal was far from certain. McLane held the news conference anyway, and predicted easy passage for the deal. He apparently promised that he would get the approval fast-tracked to late June given his close relationship with Selig. Indeed, the deal did appear headed toward unanimous approval in those first weeks. MLB officials called it “a done deal” after Selig met with Crane. But in the last few weeks, something changed. I don’t know if Selig reread the massive EEOC complaints against Crane regarding his comments about blacks and women. At one point, the complaints didn’t seem enough to stop the deal, but that was when the vetting was just getting started. And then Forbes published an exhaustive analysis of Crane’s dealings, and there was something in the article that apparently caught MLB by surprise. It could have been the war profiteering accusations. Perhaps there was no one thing. With MLB furiously working to take the Dodgers from Frank McCourt, maybe things just kept adding up in Selig’s mind, and to this date, he has been unable to give his approval. Maybe it’s not one thing delaying the approval. Maybe it’s looking at Crane’s entire history and taking a moment to consider whether he should be allowed to buy the club. This deal was a shock because he angered MLB by walking away from a deal to buy the Astros almost three years ago. When I reported several months ago that Crane and McLane were close to a deal, a former Astros employee texted, “Jim Crane? You’re kidding, right?” Yet Crane stepped up and offered the second-highest price ever paid for a big league team, and it’s funny how $680 million can bring a couple of guys together. Now that money sits in a bank somewhere with McLane’s name on it. Only McLane can’t get at it and has no idea if he’ll ever see a penny of it. Selig is a handshake guy. The Wilpons are in a mess with the Mets, but they have Seligs full support because he trusts them as people, their character, etc. He clearly does not trust McCourt, does not believe McCourt is the kind of man MLB wants owning a franchise. I have no reason to think Crane’s deal is completely dead, but I know how MLB works. Selig is not confrontational. He’s a consensus builder. He’s brilliant in this way. As McLane said, “Sometimes I’ve voted for things that I’m against because the commissioner is so persuasive.” Instead of rejecting Crane outright, MLB could be allowing the deal to die of neglect, hoping McLane and Crane will see the writing on the wall. There has been some thought that Andrew Friedman’s dad, Kenny, could be substituted for Crane to head the group, but MLB officials say they don’t know Kenny Friedman well enough to suggest such a thing. This deal may still get done. In fact, it could be done tomorrow. Maybe Selig will have all his questions about Crane answered, both from a business standpoint and a character standpoint. But we’re not to that point yet, and given the delay in approval, it may never happen.
For the first time, I am VERY concerned about Crane and this process. MLB asking Uncle D not to have that press conference speaks volumes about how much we've taken this process for granted.
If this doesn't go through, this franchise will suffer for a long long time. You'll have an owner who has checked out. He'll just continue on with the same failed front office execs that have helped to bury this team. He'll have no reason to attempt a rebuilding process when he didn't want to be a part of it in the first place. Then he'll have to spend all his resources trying to find a new ownership group that will likely not pay nearly as much as Crane, etc. were. I'm not saying it is a slam dunk that Crane was going to be the savior of the Astros. But not getting this done now so that Crane can get his team in for the off season could be disastrous if this doesn't go through.
There will still be a team with a nice stadium which doesn't incur much relative cost from the owner. There will still be a young team with a low payroll. There will still be a team with a new TV package that is owner friendly. If there are potential owners out there, the Astros will be bought.
I don't doubt they'll be bought. The issue is having a lame duck owner with out a succession plan. What if it takes another year or more to find and approve a new owner? That's up to 2 more years of no real leadership...no impetus to improve.
Didn't really affect them all that much with signing this year's draft picks. Shouldn't be in the position to sign any big-name free agents or have any huge trades approved (to take on payroll) over the next ~3 years anyways. Also, Drayton has been secretly trying to sell the team for awhile without a "succession" plan in place. It will be business as usual.
this is the truth of it right here. he's known for quite some time his kids don't want the team. he's been "selling" for quite a while now.
http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/2011/08/just-when-i-was-realizing-how-much-im-going-to-miss-drayton-it-looks-like-he-might-not-be-going-away-after-all/ FML. Why does this team keep getting screwed by Selig? Now maybe Crane not getting the Astros turns out to be a good thing and maybe there's a better owner out there. But the last thing this team needs is to go into another year with the current "lame-duck" brass at the helm, especially after this long approval process. If there were legitimate issue in his hiring practices how could that not been discovered long before now? This will only prolong the rebuilding process. And you know what, if Crane doesn't get it...then Mark Cuban better wake the hell up and make a bid. What on earth does he have against this market as opposed do Dallas/FW....up until a few years ago the Rangers didn't exist in this state.
I don't understand why it took this long...that's why I BELIEVE that ultimately this is all about the AL thing and leverage. Because Crane has been close too many times before for this news from the 90's to be news all of a sudden.
The McCourts were using the team as their personal ATM, trying to live the lavish dream life. Their PERSONAL life and personal choices got in the way of the club as much as their leveraged deals. McCourt had a chance to have a multi-billion dollar Dodgers TV deal with Fox to stay solvent. But Selig blocked it cuz he wants McCourt out (understandably). Though would he have approved something similar for someone he "liked"? They're wanting it where it takes a Mark Cuban and above to buy a team? Are there THAT many deep pocket would-be owners out there?
He's off to a fantastic start!!!! Here...enjoy your $60 million payroll team while I agree to a charter shift for this franchise you've been rooting for in your city for 50 years....remember, I had to do it!! I was forced!!! I mean, what with all these allegations against me of war profiteering and EEOC complaints, I had to agree to just about anything.
Yeah, really appreciate you agreeing to move your hometown team to the AL because your were a POS businessman and you want to save some money and for the fact that you are not willing to spend said saved money on the ball club. Go f**k yourself, San Diego!
