The recent on-field performance of the Twins and Expos momentarily cooled the speculative talk of contraction in baseball, but the buzzword is officially hot again.
On Wednesday, commissioner Bud Selig reportedly issued a build-a-ballpark-or-leave ultimatum for the Marlins to a Florida state lawmaker. On Friday, Devil Rays owners were reportedly close to announcing the intention to sell the team.
Mark Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a Chicago-based sports business consultancy firm, says that the current Devil Rays ownership group would get more value from contraction than from selling. Ganis believes that the group -- which paid $130 million for their expansion fee and has since lost millions more -- could not get more than $125 million for the team if sold to another investment group. However, the Devil Rays could arguably get $35 million more if majority partner Vince Naimoli agreed to sell the team back to the league.
"The league could take the (Devil Rays') money from the central fund and use that money to get a loan for $160 million," Ganis said.
Other sports industry consultants say it's not that easy. "The process behind contracting a team is brutal," said David Carter, principal of The Sports Business Group, a California-based sports consultancy firm. "It will take so long to figure out the value of the team and what the owners want to pay, that it would take an act of god to get it done relatively quickly."
Dean Bonham, chairman of the Bonham Group, said "the appetite of other owners to be willing to write a large check of any amount in the face of what is likely to be the longest and most destructive work stoppage in the history of the game can't be very big."
Bonham also said that finding a buyer for the Devil Rays -- a losing team with no tradition -- is a tough proposition with the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement looming at season's end. "In Boston, there's a line of billionaires around the block, trying to write a check to get a piece of a team that's been valued at a half-billion dollars," Bonham said. "Then down the road in Tampa Bay, the team might not even sell unless it's at a fire sale price."
Bonham said the Devil Rays might sell for slightly more than the Royals, which were sold for $96 million last April. However, if there is no work stoppage, team values could go up 10 percent overnight.
Rogers Communications is the most recent purchaser of a major-league franchise. The company bought 80 percent of the Toronto Blue Jays in December for $112 million, making the team's total value about $140 million.
Darren Rovell covers sports business for ESPN.com. You can contact him at darren.rovell@espn.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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