Orioles to be sold

[Squirrel]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39425417/reports-orioles-sold-2-private-equity-billionaires

[Parfigliano]

$1.75 billion.  Isnt that about what the Twins are valued at?

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

$1.75 billion.  Isnt that about what the Twins are valued at?

Depends if they're asking for help paying for stadium renovations or if they're asking for higher paying broadcasting rights.

Man, what a weird ride the Angelos' took that team. They were previously owned by some non-Baltimore natives and stunk the half decade they were run by those guys. When Peter Angelos, a local guy, bought the Orioles and they became competitive again and everyone was quick to say it was because he cared about the franchise and the other guys were secretly Yankee or Red Sox fans.

Then they hit the end of the 1990's, they stink, and stink for most of the next two decades. I know they blamed the Nationals for eating a huge chunk of their broadcasting map, but they went from being one of the league's top spenders to one of the lowest really quick.

 

[Riverbrian]

I'm disappointed because my bid to buy the Orioles fell a little short. 

 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

4 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I'm disappointed because my bid to buy the Orioles fell a little short. 

 

 

 

[Riverbrian]

20 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I know right. So Close!

The bank approved the 2nd mortgage on my house. My wife put a lot of work into selling all that stuff in our basement that we haven't used in years on Facebook marketplace. 

All that work... So Close! And now we don't have that Sno-Cone Maker anymore.  

[jmlease1]

38 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Depends if they're asking for help paying for stadium renovations or if they're asking for higher paying broadcasting rights.

Man, what a weird ride the Angelos' took that team. They were previously owned by some non-Baltimore natives and stunk the half decade they were run by those guys. When Peter Angelos, a local guy, bought the Orioles and they became competitive again and everyone was quick to say it was because he cared about the franchise and the other guys were secretly Yankee or Red Sox fans.

Then they hit the end of the 1990's, they stink, and stink for most of the next two decades. I know they blamed the Nationals for eating a huge chunk of their broadcasting map, but they went from being one of the league's top spenders to one of the lowest really quick.

 

You have to wonder how much of a problem Peter's dementia has been for them as an organization, but also the fact that the Angelos family made their money off of Peter getting a massive windfall in tobacco litigation that wasn't repeatable. I suspect most of their money IS the Orioles, and they're one of the ownerships that doesn't have a gazillion dollars to invest in the team and/or infrastructure because growing the valuation of the team as an asset doesn't help them unless they sell. I mean, no sympathy for them: they're going to be all insanely wealthy after this sale. But it probably limited the team's ability to compete in the AL East.

Camden is a great ballpark, and so glad more teams followed that example in design sensibility rather than the ChiSox.

[ashbury]

Not so fast.  John Angelos still must pass a physical before the transaction can be approved.

[Mike Sixel]

The next time someone says the owners are taking financial risk, remember this and roll your eyes. 

[Squirrel]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

So Close! And now we don't have that Sno-Cone Maker anymore.  

Do you really need it in winter? All you need is an ice cream scoop and the outdoors, and some flavoring.

[Riverbrian]

12 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Do you really need it in winter? All you need is an ice cream scoop and the outdoors, and some flavoring.

It was Xmas gift from a decade ago that has never been used... straight down to the basement where it has sat so it's the sentimental value that can't be replaced.

You are right though... We have plenty of snow cone resources up here in North Dakota. I don't even bother with the ice cream scoop. I just go into the backyard and pour blue raspberry juice on the snow, kneel down and lick... It seems to work fine. 

[ashbury]

4 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I'm disappointed because my bid to buy the Orioles fell a little short.

I'm disappointed in that, too.  The documentary movie or TV series they would make about your tenure would make Ted Lasso look like the Andy Griffith Show. 

(Well, the homespun humor of Lasso does have at least a little in common with Griffith already.)

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

The next time someone says the owners are taking financial risk, remember this and roll your eyes. 

I'm no financial expert, but by my reading of the article the selling price is almost exactly 10X what it was 30 years ago.  That works out to about an 8% return per year.  By contrast, the Nasdaq index in mid-year 1993 was around 700, and today it's about 15,000, or roughly 20X (11% return - ah, the magic of compounding). 

If they were in it for just the money, they might have done better simply investing their millions in an index fund and have three billion-plus now - and they could be better investors than that.

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

It was Xmas gift from a decade ago that has never been used... straight down to the basement where it has sat so it's the sentimental value that can't be replaced.

You are right though... We have plenty of snow cone resources up here in North Dakota. I don't even bother with the ice cream scoop. I just go into the backyard and pour blue raspberry juice on the snow, kneel down and lick... It seems to work fine. 

If you get to a green patch ... I'd stop licking ... 

[Mike Sixel]

23 minutes ago, ashbury said:

I'm no financial expert, but by my reading of the article the selling price is almost exactly 10X what it was 30 years ago.  That works out to about an 8% return per year.  By contrast, the Nasdaq index in mid-year 1993 was around 700, and today it's about 15,000, or roughly 20X (11% return - ah, the magic of compounding). 

If they were in it for just the money, they might have done better simply investing their millions in an index fund and have three billion-plus now - and they could be better investors than that.

Sure, not the point at all. No owner sells at a loss ever. There's no real risk. 

[ashbury]

14 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Sure, not the point at all. No owner sells at a loss ever. There's no real risk. 

I think you have a different idea of the word "risk" than CFOs do. 

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, ashbury said:

I think you have a different idea of the word "risk" than CFOs do. 

I have a master's in finance and have worked with those people. Let's be real, they have so much money, risk is truly irrelevant to them. But they make neat market rate with no downside risk. That's the key. No downside risk at all. They would buy every bond ever if they got seven percent with no risk 

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

I think you have a different idea of the word "risk" than CFOs do. 

Also, this ignores the annual cash flow as part of the return. It's much higher than the simple math shows. 

[lecroy24fan]

I'd like to say the #SellTheTeam movement paid off but it wasn't supposed to be the Orioles!