FRIDAY: Jeter’s primary investor is Bruce Sherman, the former chairman of Private Capital Management, reports Heyman. Sherman was previously willing to chip in $200MM to aid Jeter, but he has since increased his commitment by an unknown amount. Jeter would only put $25MM toward a purchase, which could prove to be an obstacle for someone who wants to be the control person of an ownership group, notes Heyman. The retired shortstop’s faction has also received something “tantamount to a loan at a high (14 percent) rate of interest” from Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, and Heyman doesn’t believe MLB would sign off on it. Mas, meanwhile, is seeking extra investors in an effort to improve his chances of landing the franchise.
THURSDAY: The Marlins sale process has quieted considerably since it became apparent that a deal wouldn’t be wrapped up before the All-Star Game, as once had been hoped. To this point, three primary bidding groups were said to be vying to purchase the club from Jeffrey Loria.
While there’s still no evident movement toward resolution, that same inaction may have contributed to the loss of one possible buyer. It now seems the Fish are down to two prospective new ownership groups. Per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the group that had included Wayne Rothbaum, Jeb Bush, and a host of former players is now out of the hunt. (Previously, that group had lost Tagg Romney but picked up Bush in the ever-changing bidding landscape.)
Rothbaum was the chief investor of that party, and reportedly was willing to lead the charge at a valuation of $1.17B. With that offer apparently waving in the wind, and with no resolution in sight, Rothbaum evidently determined it was no longer worth pursuing the club.
That said, it’s also possible that the Rothbaum group’s bid was never going to be quite to the Marlins’ expectations. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag suggests that the aggregation of would-be owners may have been sitting in a lower range — $1B to $1.1B.
Whatever the case, the chase for the Marlins now seems to be down to two possible bidding groups. One, guided by Miami businessman Jorge Mas, seems to be a fairly straightforward outfit led by one primary investor who’d also be the control person. Per Heyman, Mas remains the “best-financed” pursuer. But there’s still a possibility that MLB legend Derek Jeter could make a deal happen; while it’s somewhat odd that he’d represent the control person, given that he would not be investing a significant portion of any sale price, Jeter (like Mas) is said by Jackson to have “made progress in assembling the financing needed.”
Please kill me now.
It’s a done deal except for who gets the monstrosity in center.
Just sell the Marlins already. I can’t take any more of the suspense.
Most of the shuffling won’t happen until the off season anyway. The one thing I dislike is that Loria is keeping the team hostage. He knows extremely well that franchise isn’t worth 1.4B with all of it’s financial baggage. Let a better businessman turn that franchise around and let Miami fully support it, once and for all already.
Says you, right? Valuation has little determination on selling price with multiple parties bidding against each other.
Well it is my opinion. You’re right on the valuation part. That might explain why the team hasn’t already been sold. Who knows, maybe it’s worth 2B, right?
Isn’t Miami known for not supporting its teams?
Both florida teams are known for it. There were a whole 10,000 some people in attendance during a recent game with the Sox. It was sad.
Jeter will win the bid as he is the clutchiest clutch dude.
Lol
Yeah Jeets.
I think the ugly contraption in the outfield has been what’s holding the sale up.
Jeb!
Romney and Jeb! are the biggest losers again.
Tagg Romney, not his dad, was part of that group bidding on the Marlins.
Ah… they’re both losers.
America.
Worst story in baseball.
If Mas wins, there will be a Pitbull fragrance giveaway on the day after Opening Day 2018.
Mas and jeter should team up. Mas handles the financial side and jeter the baseball.
Thumbs up
That Would-be OK but I think the problem there is that jeter has a alpha-male type personality a little bit too much I think he would end up being a little bit too controlling and not want to budge on that.
Mas though may not want to spend a billion dollars and not control the baseball side through a front office he chooses
or, loria can just keep them, or sell part
Why can’t anyone see that if the team is sold to jorge mas It will make so many good things happen. The stadium will be sold out all the time which is what the marlins need considering they have 10 or all 15 fans in the stands So that’s a big plus. Not to mention that he is of the nationality that so much of Miami has evolved into . Hes a nice person does a lot for charity hes just an all-around good guy who wouldn’t want someone like that to own their ball club I mean come-on people how could anyone even come-up with anything negative to say about him buying the Team but they just need to get it done I don’t know what the hold up here is it shouldn’t take this long this is complete bullshit
Jeff Loria is BAD for baseball-he ran the Expos into oblivion -Now doing the same in Florida-for this he is going to receive a nifty 1.4 Billion dollars? Never thinks of the fans ,just his pocketbook.($1.4B-give or take a few million)
Two world series in the past twenty years, if they are in oblivion what about the rest of the league. As a Padre fan I will take two rings and a .500 baseball team right now.
He had a fire sale after each world series win so he could pocket more of the profits instead of trying to keep players the fans liked
14% interest? Seems a bit steep.
Michael Dell isn’t personally working on the Jeter bid but the support for the bid for the Marlins has already received an ok from MLB. The $175 million in financing from MSD partners, an investment firm associated with Dell, is in the form of preferred stock and is not a loan at all.
Sometimes I think Heyman makes things up from “unnamed sources” to keep his name in the news. In the weeks up to the deadline, almost everything he said was going to happen, didn’t. While he is on TV, he is basically a blogger. He doesn’t write for any of the major sports publications or websites.
Maybe he should just read publications that have fact checkers before he posts.