The Texas Rangers may be fading from the wild card playoff hunt, but the auction for the team is just heating up. Private equity legend and majority owner Tom Hicks began looking for minority investors that wanted to take up to 49% stakes in both the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars and Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers before the baseball season began. The billionaire is raising the cash to pay creditors who declared his sports group in default earlier this year. (See our Baseball Dealwatch
here.)
With the sale expected to be completed by the end of the year, a number of serious suitors are reportedly still in the auction, which could fetch $450 million to $550 million for a minority stake in the Rangers alone.
According to Reuters the potential buyers are:
- Houston businessman Jim Crane, CEO of freight company Crane Worldwide Logistics, who is pursuing the Rangers after losing out in the auction for the Chicago Cub;
- minor league baseball team owner and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg;
- former sports agent and current Chicago White Sox executive Dennis Gilbert.
Meanwhile baseball blog
Baseball Time in Arlington reports that "former Padres CEO and major league umpire disciplinarian Sandy Alderson is rumored to be cobbling together a potential group of investors to also bid on the team."
Yahoo! Sports adds that "all of the potential buyers are supposedly meeting with [MLB] Commissioner Bud Selig this month."
People taking a pass on the auction include previous owner, former President George W. Bush, and former Rangers ace Nolan Ryan. -
George White
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