O'Malley's are pushing forward to purchase the Padres
Get your "O" face ready folks, Peter O'Malley and family are moving forward to try and purchase the Friars. This could be a match made in baseball heaven for this club and it's fans. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the boys are finally able to reel in an owner who has the financial backing as well as a desire to win who actually wants to be involve with the club on a daily basis. Link - Ken Rosenthal writes:
"Peter O’Malley, unsuccessful in his effort to regain ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now trying to buy one of the Dodgers’ NL West rivals.O’Malley, his son Kevin and nephew Tom Seidler are mounting an aggressive push for the San Diego Padres and want to close a deal by the All-Star break, sources say.The O’Malley group has signed documents permitting it access to team financial information, sources say, and apparently has raised sufficient equity to purchase the club.Initial indications are that the group values the Padres at less than half of the Dodgers’ $2.15 billion sale price, and perhaps significantly less.The Chicago Cubs, who play in a much larger market than San Diego, sold for $845 million in 2009 — and the price included the Cubs’ historic home park, Wrigley Field.Padres owner John Moores put his team up for sale this month after a failed effort by former agent Jeff Moorad to buy the club.O’Malley sold the Dodgers in 1998 to News Corp., the owner of FOX Sports, which in turn sold the team to Frank McCourt.Guggenheim Baseball, fronted by Magic Johnson and incoming team president Stan Kasten, recently agreed to buy the Dodgers from McCourt after unsuccessful bids by O’Malley and others.“Our family gave the Dodger pursuit everything we had,” O’Malley told the Los Angeles Times. “We were serious suitors. It didn’t happen. I support the new owners and I want them to do well.”But not as well as the Padres, if he winds up getting the team"
My opinion on this and nothing more is this...... While I think we all agree the Padres are worth less than the Dodgers,
to suggest that any franchise should be worth less than half the value
is pretty ridiculous even if other franchises like the Cubs sold for less than half. Sorry but MLB allowed a new precedent to be set, far more recently,
when they ok'd the out of control sale price of the Dodgers for $2.1b. With the new TV
contract in place, a relatively new, and incredible ballpark to play in,
a top farm system in place etc.... There should be no reason for this
franchise to sell for "far less" than half.....Seems like a starting
place should be around $1.2b, or just over half of what the Dodgers sold
for.....Again just my own opinion on this, and regardless of what it sells for it certainly appears like the O'Malley's are a really good fit here in San Diego. Good luck to them and the Padres going forward.
Planet Padres Writer- TPichierri
Play Ball !!!
