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Those Wacky Red Sox
Dec. 21st, 2001 04:04 pmSo the Red Sox were sold, finally, yesterday. And dear Lord, what a cockup.
In the end, you had four groups contending for the team. The previous owner was a charitable organization, with an obligation to sell the team to the highest qualified bidder. But the man who controlled the sale, John Harrington, badly wanted to be part of the MLB in crowd. So things did not go down as smoothly as one might hope.
Bud Selig, baseball's commissioner, is using the threat of contraction -- eliminating two teams -- as a lever in contract negotiations with the union. One of the teams under the gun is the Montreal Expos. One of the difficult part of contraction is convincing a team's owner to pack up and go home.
But the owner of the Expos is interested in buying the Florida Marlins. And the owner of the Florida Marlins, John Henry, is part of one of the groups bidding for the Red Sox. That group didn't get involved in the bidding process until Bud Selig unveiled his contraction plans. I bet you can see where this is going.
In the last few days, there's been plenty of backstage negotiations. Despite the fact that the groups aren't supposed to work together, or even be talking, Bud Selig's been brokering meetings between Henry's group and two of the other groups. (The final group was legitimately unlikely to pass muster as a qualified owner.)
What that left was three realistic bids: Henry's bid, a bid from Cablevision Systems (Charles Dolan), and a local group of investors led by Joseph O'Donnell. The O'Donnell group withdrew the night before the decision. O'Donnell owns Boston Concessions, by the by, which becomes important in... well, let's talk about that right now.
O'Donnell had been considering merging with Henry's bid, and chipping in $300 million. That deal fell through when the two groups couldn't agree on final control. A few hours later, John Harrington awarded an eight year contract extension to Aramark, current concessionaire for Fenway Park. Aramark was also the second largest stakeholder in the Red Sox pre-sale.
Hm. Interesting that Harrington would make such an important move right before he gave up control of the team. Interesting that it creates a debt between Aramark and Harrington. Interesting that Aramark's vote subsequently went just the way Harrington needed it to go.
O'Donnell subsequently dropped out of the bidding. He has not yet commented on why.
OK, that leaves us with Henry and Dolan (Cablevision) and a fairly dark horse. The bids were finalized. Henry had the lowest. Dolan had the highest.
Dolan had met with Bud Selig as late as Monday, and Selig assured Dolan that he was as qualified as anyone. Harrington didn't return any of Dolan's calls Wednesday or Thursday -- again, interesting behavior. But Dolan knew he had the high bid, and the commissioner himself had told Dolan he was qualified.
Well.
Harrington decided that Henry was the winner.
Fun times in Beantown this winter. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
In the end, you had four groups contending for the team. The previous owner was a charitable organization, with an obligation to sell the team to the highest qualified bidder. But the man who controlled the sale, John Harrington, badly wanted to be part of the MLB in crowd. So things did not go down as smoothly as one might hope.
Bud Selig, baseball's commissioner, is using the threat of contraction -- eliminating two teams -- as a lever in contract negotiations with the union. One of the teams under the gun is the Montreal Expos. One of the difficult part of contraction is convincing a team's owner to pack up and go home.
But the owner of the Expos is interested in buying the Florida Marlins. And the owner of the Florida Marlins, John Henry, is part of one of the groups bidding for the Red Sox. That group didn't get involved in the bidding process until Bud Selig unveiled his contraction plans. I bet you can see where this is going.
In the last few days, there's been plenty of backstage negotiations. Despite the fact that the groups aren't supposed to work together, or even be talking, Bud Selig's been brokering meetings between Henry's group and two of the other groups. (The final group was legitimately unlikely to pass muster as a qualified owner.)
What that left was three realistic bids: Henry's bid, a bid from Cablevision Systems (Charles Dolan), and a local group of investors led by Joseph O'Donnell. The O'Donnell group withdrew the night before the decision. O'Donnell owns Boston Concessions, by the by, which becomes important in... well, let's talk about that right now.
O'Donnell had been considering merging with Henry's bid, and chipping in $300 million. That deal fell through when the two groups couldn't agree on final control. A few hours later, John Harrington awarded an eight year contract extension to Aramark, current concessionaire for Fenway Park. Aramark was also the second largest stakeholder in the Red Sox pre-sale.
Hm. Interesting that Harrington would make such an important move right before he gave up control of the team. Interesting that it creates a debt between Aramark and Harrington. Interesting that Aramark's vote subsequently went just the way Harrington needed it to go.
O'Donnell subsequently dropped out of the bidding. He has not yet commented on why.
OK, that leaves us with Henry and Dolan (Cablevision) and a fairly dark horse. The bids were finalized. Henry had the lowest. Dolan had the highest.
Dolan had met with Bud Selig as late as Monday, and Selig assured Dolan that he was as qualified as anyone. Harrington didn't return any of Dolan's calls Wednesday or Thursday -- again, interesting behavior. But Dolan knew he had the high bid, and the commissioner himself had told Dolan he was qualified.
Well.
Harrington decided that Henry was the winner.
Fun times in Beantown this winter. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
