11:35pm: The group led by Tagg Romney, which reportedly also includes Hall of Fame left-hander Tom Glavine, is still alive in the bidding for the Marlins, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link).
Charles Gasparino and Brian Schwartz of FOX Business provide a slew of new information, reporting that Bush and Jeter are expected to invest “no more than $200 million combined,” leaving as much as $800-900MM to be raised to complete the purchase with what the league will term an acceptable level of debt. However, as the FOX Business duo notes, it will also be difficult for Jeter and Bush to rally that type of financial commitment while still maintaining principal ownership of the team.
Furthermore, Gasparino and Schwartz report that the Romney group — notably, they make no mention of Glavine — bid $1.1 billion for the Marlins, though that falls well shy of the $1.34 billion figure from Jeter and Bush. The Jeter/Bush group has an “exclusive negotiating window” to raise the requisite capital to complete their purchase, and that window is “expected to last at least until June,” per the report. Gasparino and Schwartz cite a “senior executive inside the commissioner’s office” in reporting that the Marlins have yet to formally approach Major League Baseball about the Jeter/Bush bid. Should that bid ultimately fall through, there are other bidders that will step in.
1:48pm: Commissioner Rob Manfred has cast doubt on certain reports that have framed the Jeter/Bush group as having a deal in place. As the Sun Sentinel reports, Manfred says “there are multiple bidders for the Marlins” at this point. Importantly, too, he made clear “there is no agreement in place” at present, with the league still “working with more than one group” of possible purchasers.
Manfred later made clear that there were two bidding groups currently involved in the pursuit of the franchise. Resolution is expected in short order. “The timeline is relatively short,” he said. “It would be measured in days, not months.”
11:35am: We learned recently that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria had elected to try to finalize a sale of the organization with a bidding group led by Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush. As noted at the time, though, that hardly means that a deal is inevitable.
Reporting continues to emerge regarding the still-developing situation. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag writes that the Jeter/Bush group’s emergence from other bidders came as a surprise — and may not yet be backed by the needed financial commitments. The would-be owners are said to be contacting a range of sources, including some connected with other bidding groups, to bolster the amount of equity that’ll be needed to obtain MLB approval. (The league typically requires at least three-fifths of the purchase price to come from cash.)
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald hears similarly, reporting that Bush has been on the horn with possible co-investors this week. The team, though, is apparently confident that the needed cash (and, presumably, debt financing as well) will be found in due time. As Jackson expounds further (Twitter links), that belief explains why the club struck an agreement for some form of exclusive negotiation rights — the details of which remain unknown — with the new group. Bush, who’d be the control person, will apparently sit down soon with league officials to discuss the money situation.
In the aggregate, there’s still a fair bit of uncertainty, even if the Jeter/Bush team have the inside track to move into Marlins Park. Per Heyman, a look at the books led the second-place bidders (a group led by Tagg Romney and headlined by Tom Glavine) to back down from their initial willingness to commit something on the order of $1.4B. For Jeter and Bush, convincing others to put their cash at stake will require a compelling financial argument. We have heard indication both that the league approval process ought not be a problem and that the Jeter/Bush duo can find the rest of the equity needed to lock up a deal. If not, says Jackson, Loria could circle back to other prospective buyers.
Bobby Axelrod wants in…just saying
Bobby Axelrod? Can someone please pee on Creston? I think he has a thing for heels.
Lavar ball told me he already bought the Marlins
A-Rod has some money..
” bush has been on the horn with possible co-investors this week” I like the horn and not the phone. I think I’m going to go call people via a horn
Manfred bidding up the price for Loria? I would have thought a more appropriate response would have been “we don’t comment on the confidential process” but maybe Manfred figures if he can get Loria more money, it raises the bar for every other team. Activist Commissioner in the mold of Selig?
What did you expect? Manfred’s a lawyer, and lawyers are destroying the game.
Manfred: Still Two Bidders Chasing Marlins’
I personally don’t care who wins the bidding for the Marlins
Even if it’s the Jolly Green Giant, who is alleged to have ‘thrown up’ inside and all over Marlins Park
What I want to see is the 515 million (cost of Marlins Park) immediately paid back
I would LOVE to hear someone ask Rob Manfred this
If the Marlins are going to be sold for 1.2 Billion, 515 million should be given back to Miami-Dade County and their taxpayers!!!!!!!
We’ll see what kind of Commissioner, Leader, and Person Rob Manfred truly is!!!!
Although I’m 100 percent with you on this comment… Manfred serves at the pleasure of corporate elitist American which makes the reimbursement highly unlikely to happen. Sad. I guess the “bed tax” that Loria stressed while campaigning to get the funding from The Miami-Dade county paid off successfully… he’s walking with at least a billion dollars
Well, then the taxpayers should lean on Loria and Manfred.
I am willing to bet knowing Loria (or how Loria is) he orchestrated this.
He should only get what the actual team is worth and nothing more
If he does get more it’s an infamita!!!!
Totally agree. This and every other city that keeps getting fleeced by sport owners. Taxpayers cough up hundreds of millions only to have the owners walk away with insane profits. It’s past absurd.
I want Loria out of MLB but I don’t want him to walk away as if he won the lotto. There is likely only one half interested party and MLB and Loria are treating them as a mark in a con game. Wait Loria Out.
He’s 76 years old, one way or another he’ll be out soon enough.
If Jeter is part of this the Marlins will be back in pinstripe uniforms. But I hope the purchasers move the team to Montreal. Then let Tampa move to Miami to become the Florida Rays.
I agree, every penny of the sale should be put toward paying off that stadium before Loria sees anything. Loria will be out but another owner will do the same thing down the road.
Montreal had a team and didn’t care enough to keep them there. They don’t deserve another team to ignore.
Why not just save the process and move the rays to Montreal?
So I don’t know enough about this but, why does everyone hate Loria? Not that I do or anything, I just don’t know why everyone hates him. Is it just the monstrosity of a park? Other than that the Marlins seem to be doing fairly well, but I know that’s not really the owner’s doing.
Not that I like him*. I never finished that sentence properly.
the park is wonderful. I love it there. I love the home run sculpture, its beautiful.
I hate loria because 1. he ripped off taxpayers for the ballpark, 2. he never really invested in winning, and 3. look up the video of when Muhammad ali threw the first pitch at marlins park. I felt sick watching that. He is such a fraud of a human being and you can see it in his body language.
I hate that I love this team. I was 12 for the first WS win so ive never known anything in baseball except random shots of huge success followed by firesales and a stadium full of phillies and mets fans. I dont care who the next owner is as long as they give a damn about winning. Anything but Loria and his imp david samson.
He’s a scum bag owner who only wants profit and doesn’t care about baseball or Florida
I’m wondering if Loria is also negotiating with the state and city to get a “good riddance” payment…it’s got to be worth something to the taxpayer just to fumigate.
There’s too many reasons to list. He was a minority owner of the group that acquired the Expos, he wrested control from his partners and charged with RICO act violations in the process. After he took control, His business practices caused Labbatts to pull out. He shook down MLB to take the Expos off his hands and award him the franchise in Miami… On and on. This guy is a shady dealing, blue collar slum lord.
I spit out my water because I thought that said Mitt Romney. I was like how are multiple failed candidates trying to buy the Marlins lmao
because not many people are rich enough to buy both a sports franchise and the government
Jeb!
This is not a socialist country. Guess what. The voters spoke and they got a stadium. It is not Loria’s responsibility to pay off the voters stupid and self inflected debt.
Look at stupid California voters. They just raised the taxes on gas (now the highest in the nation) and raised yearly car registrations to the same. It was suppose to go to repair roads and now it’s discovered to go to everywhere but their. We get what we pay for.
On the other hand, Los Angeles went two decades without the NFL because no public funding is allowed in LA for sports.
That’s one thing other cities can learn.
There’s absolutely nothing to learn from LA on anything!!!