Crane is dishonest, he got what he deserved. He agreed to take on a signed contract and tried to manipulate his way out of it. The Judge like many of us here saw through it. We wanted the right thing to happen here and it did.
I really don't care what happened today, since it sounds like we are not any closer to getting our teams on TV. Houston sports fans are the losers in this, and there is nothing to celebrate in my opinion until our teams can be seen by all Houstonians.
You say manipulate his way out of it. It was written into the contract that he could exit if payments were missed. That isn't manipulation, that is enforcing the conditions of the contract.
By not agreeing to Comcasts' proposals that the Judge agreed were crap? Why is it so hard to accept the idea that the parties had different interests and there was no agreement that made sense for all of them?
You were wrong on this one, just deal with it. Ok? The Judge also commented that it might not be a good thing to let Crane vote too.
The Judge expressed concern that Crane wanted the Network to fail. There are other here who have commented that he was a real jackass in the freight business too. Not sure why some here can't see the same thing happened in baseball too.
Nice job of losing a second debate over a court matter.... I did respond by saying the Judge had issue with Crane's objectivity.
Craine ended real baseball in Houston and he's doing a pretty good job keeping basketball off of TV in Houston as well. I never thought I'd say this but I miss Drayton.
Purposely tanking year after year to build the farm team is not a very honorable either. It's embarrassing to have Crane as our MLB franchise owner.
This is the quote Major is talking about: Isgur doesn’t say Crane wrong in rejecting Comcast carriage deals: “I think they (Comcast) were presenting rotten business deals to him.” You have stated from the beginning that Crane should have just bit the bullet and taken the deals he was offered. Apparently the Judge doesn't agree. Crane being or not being a scumbag has little bearing on whether he had the right to leave if he wasn't paid. The only way you have ever addressed this that I have seen is to continue to say Crane shouldn't be in the business, yada, yada, yada. You have not (as far as I have seen) made any comment as to whether he had the right by contract to leave the partnership because he wasn't paid the rights fees he was owed. And don't say "if he had taken those deals they offered him, he'd have gotten paid", as shown above the judge didn't even think those deals were good. A lot of us on here look like Crane apologists. That is because there are other who are skewed so far the other way, they can't admit that anyone else is to blame in this situation except Crane. In truth this probably could have been over with a long time ago, if the Ch. 11 suit wasn't filed. The Astros would have left on 10-1 and the whole thing would have blown up and most likely both teams would have made deals elsewhere. But Comcast filed suit to protect their interests in the deal. I don't fault them for that, but to overlook that and place all the blame on Crane for dragging the whole thing out is ludicrous.
I have CSN and love it. Seems like the Rockets love it too. I'm rooting for the interest of my favorite team since their success can contribute to the success on the court. It Crane hasn't endeared himself as the face of the franchise (he's the only face this team has ATM). His miscues only make me root against him and it's not the Astros that lose since all they are doing now is stockpiling cheap young minor leaguers.
Except that Crane had a responsibility to act in the best interests of CSN H and he didn't. The deal that was presented in court alone was rotten according to the Judge we don't know what he would say if other deals fell in place and the profitability was projected forward. I have stated that it was a calculated move by Comcast / Rockets to get this in bankruptcy court knowing Crane would make the move to terminate. They were at a stalemate with him and he was putting the Network on the road to bankruptcy anyway. It's funny you call us out on not assigning blame to anyone else but Crane when you assign none to Crane after he just got spanked in court. I can't believe any grown man of at least average intelligence would believe that Crane never received / heard of the most favored nation clause in a contract that important to the success of a franchise he was buying. That alone would make someone look like a Crane apologist.
If you will recall, I was the one here who stated at the very beginning that the judge would likely do something nobody saw coming. I still question whether this ruling would be upheld on appeal. I doubt we will know the answer to that as an appeal is unlikely. It would be very interesting to me to see the Astros file a motion to lift the automatic stay if their past due rights fees remain unpaid.
There will be a meeting of creditors held pursuant to section 341 of the Code. At that meeting, the US Trustee and any creditors can examine the appearing officer of the network regarding the financial information of the entity. At some point, a plan of reorganization will be drafted. In this case, by whom I have no idea. The US Trustee may draft it. That remains to be determined. Once the plan is drafted, the litigation commences. There will likely be objections to the plan by all parties who did not draft it. The judge will rule on all objections and then will determine whether the plan meets the statutory requirements for confirmation. If the plan is confirmed, then the provisions of the plan are binding on all parties. That's when things may start to get sorted out.
