Aug. 28: MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that “barring something unforeseen,” the sale from Glass to Sherman “will happen.” That certainly moves the ball forward from yesterday’s uncertainty regarding the seriousness of the talks, although it also suggests that no firm agreement is in place. Sherman, notably, would need to be approved by the other 29 ownership groups in the league and by MLB itself, though Heyman adds that Sherman is viewed as a “sure thing” for approval from the league (as one would expect from an executive who is already an established minority owner of another franchise).
Aug. 27, 6:20pm: The Royals have issued the following statement on the matter:
“The Kansas City Royals are not in a position to make any comments on the published speculation regarding any potential sale of the ball club. The Royals will make no further statements at this time.”
5:35pm: Royals owner David Glass is discussing a potential sale of the club with Kansas City businessman John Sherman, Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic report (subscription required). ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the two are discussing a price worth north of $1 billion. Glass purchased the Royals in 2000 for a reported sum of $96MM.
Sherman, 64, is currently the vice chairman of the division-rival Indians, having purchased a minority stake in the team back in 2016. As Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explored last year, Sherman was a Royals season-ticket holder at the time who’d made a fortune in starting natural gas and energy companies (LPG Services Group, Inergy L.P.) and selling them to larger entities. Sherman would, unsurprisingly, divest himself from the Indians organization if a sale is indeed agreed upon (per Passan).
There’s no indication that the two parties are close to an agreement, nor is there any indication that Glass is exploring other sale possibilities in the event that a deal with Sherman cannot be brokered. Asked about the report, general manager Dayton Moore told MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link) that commenting on any potential sale of the club would be “inappropriate.” Glass has not publicly acknowledged the reported negotiations.
Under Glass and Moore, the Royals emerged from irrelevance to appear in consecutive World Series, culminating in a 2015 championship achieved by the core of Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Danny Duffy. But the Royals have faded from contention in the American League Central in recent seasons and acted to cut payroll in each of the past two offseasons. Though the team was reportedly willing to sign Hosmer to a nine-figure deal to lead the club through the current rebuild, he took a more lucrative offer in San Diego while other stalwarts of that 2015 club have signed elsewhere in free agency or been traded.
The Royals’ Opening Day payroll in 2017 reached the unprecedented (for them) peak of $143MM, but since that time the figure has plummeted rapidly. Kansas City opened the 2019 season with a payroll a bit greater than $96MM, and with Alex Gordon set to come off the books, they have just $59MM in guaranteed salary on next year’s payroll. Offseason trades involving veterans such as Duffy, starter-turned-closer Ian Kennedy, quiet superstar Whit Merrifield or breakout slugger Jorge Soler could further reduce that commitment, though it’s not yet clear how motivated the Royals will be to make any such moves.
Moore has been targeting near-MLB-ready assets in trades and college pitchers in the draft in hopes of architecting a quick turnaround, though certainly a sale of the club could impact not only the offseason direction of the team but the very composition of the front office and the field staff. Flanagan reported within the past week that the Royals are nearing a new television contract with Fox Sports Kansas City, which would more than double their annual rights fees (albeit from an average of $20MM per year to $48-52MM per year), and such an agreement would obviously impact the financial evaluation of the franchise and its baseball operations directives as well.
Glad to see it’s a KC native. Hopefully that means he’d want the team to stay in KC.
There’s not much chance the Royals would be relocated anyway.
Instead of relocate, how about disappear? MLB contraction would be good. Target the Royals.
and that benefits who? the 10 loudmouths complaining about the “watering down” of “MLB talent”
Highly Profitable Enterprises tend to stick around. Don’t hold your breath. Bad baseball is still highly profitable baseball.
Exactly. Hence the $1B price tag.
dumb
It benefits the league. Stadiums filled at 30% capacity is bad. Having five to ten teams without a hope of competing is bad. The Royals, Marlins, Padres, Rangers and Orioles could all be cut from the league and it would be good.
that’s just terrible damn logic
You could be banned from this site and it would be good.
More people watched a MLB game last season than any year in history. There were massive increases in streaming of games on MLB.tv last season to 22 million and there are nearly 50 million subscribers this season. Over a 100% increase. The Royals are more than doubling their TV revenue. MLB increased its revenue by more than 20% in 2018 and its going to go up again this season.
All of what you said is categorically wrong. Baseball is making more money and attracting more fans than at any time in its history.
404 less are going to each game on average, but about 28 million more watched games on streaming.
What do you expect when the average ticket is $37, parking is $20-25, a beer is $10 or more, and a hot dog or peanuts are $6?
The Royals made consecutive World Series appearances just 5 years ago. That’s not even close to being “without a hope of competing.”
Except for when they are good. If you wanted to get real, Tampa and Oakland should go first because they don’t have stadiums.
Is there a comment flag for stupidity?
Royals have made more WS appearances than the Cubs this decade, yet they aren’t competitive…Ejemp, you lack logic in your statements. Be better.
Why in the world would the Rangers be cut from the league? They’re in a top 5 market with a huge TV contract and will open a new stadium next year. They’re rebuilding right now but they’re still spending and adding players. They’re 5 games under .500 but they aren’t stripping down like the like of the Marlins and others. They could of shipped off all their vets and completely re-set but they’re trying to rebuild quickly. They’ll add again in Free Agency. Sure they’ve had some rough seasons here and there but they’ve largely stayed competitive/playoff bound the last 10 years (averaged 85 wins, not many teams can say that):
’09 – 87 wins
’10 – 90 wins (WS appearance)
’11 – 96 wins (WS appearance)
’12 – 93 wins
’13 – 91 wins
’14 – 67 wins
’15 – 88 wins
’16 – 95 wins
’17 – 78 wins
’18’ – 67 wins
Sure the last few years are rough but the nucleus of those WS teams got older, retired, or left via free agency. It’s natural to need to rebuild a new nucleus after that many years.
I support the idea of contraction. More likely the A’s.though.
Find two buyers, set the buy-in at $300-million, times two and divide $600-million among the 30 teams. 32 teams in the MLB.
Go back to East/West divisions, this time 8 teams. Only this time Atlanta and Cincy play in the East. 14 games against each divisional opponent, 7 cross-division. 8 Interleague games.
Expand the game, grow the game and give 52 more players a chance. Then the Logan Morrisons will find a home and 30+ vets may receive a second chance at success.
Sorry but that comment proves ignorance. Padres draw more fans than contenders like the nationals, Indians and twins, as well as big markets like the white Sox, and Mets. Just a clueless statement.
Include the pirates in that as well.
You are a special kind of stoopid. Much to your chagrin, there are going to be two new teams soon after the new CBA is signed for the 2022 season.
And take the Marlins and Orioles too.
I see it exactly opposite, who cares about attendance? Its all about market share and TV deals. I think the way forward is simply building the new stadiums somewhat smaller and not worrying so much about attendance. There is no freakin way that half the teams that were mentioned should be cut from the league, what a silly comment.
Las Vegas Royals
London Royals
London Silly Nannies
Vegas Royals
London Smacked ##ses.
The Cardinals new AAA affiliate Kansas City Royals.
Indianapolis Royals.
Do you think people will go to Las Vegas to watch a baseball game?
Mexico City would draw more fans. Probably break the 4 million mark.
No one cares who finishes second. KC has won the same number of World Series’ in the last 35 years as STL….including that glorious one in 85.
Of course he is! LOL
Listening…
Pretty sweet return on investment…
1 billion? for the Royals? this should help the union and players in the next cba
This has nothing to do with the players salaries.
You are kidding yourself if you think that the value and profits of owners on valuation has nothing to do with the pie players want a slice of.
The valuation of a company for sale is not the same as revenue. It’s based almost entirely on speculation. Speculation doesn’t write checks.
This.
Right on point, well said Dodgethis.
DodgeThis must have dodged basic finance in school.
Stupid comment of the week! Revenue ABSOLUTELY has impact on valuation. And while the valuation may not influence collective bargaining by the CBA, revenue does.
Valuation of a company for sale is typically 4-8 times annual revenue. That assumes they are profitable. The Royals valuation is about 4 times their revenue.
what?
Wish the Braves sell the team!
Rogers wont be happy if the Royals set the sale market at only $1B. Then again, they’ll make a killing off the Skydome err Rogers centre alone so really I’m sure they’re not too worried.
It’ll probably go for more than what the Miami Marlins sold for.
Blue Jays are worth over $1.5 Billion american which means about $2-Billion Canadian dollars. Royals are worth about $1-Billion. Rogers will be happy to know that KC received value and they should expect the same.
Weak point on your part.
Hm at Danny Duffy declared core over Gordon. (I know, it was an omission..kidding. Wouldn’t really call Duffy core, though.)
^
Gordon was indeed the core of the group. The others mentioned will always be Forever Royal also.
96 million to 1 billion. What an investment
Owners flying on private jet then and now. Once they cross multimillion in positive cash flow assets, life can’t jump much. Especially since the US doesn’t allow a rich man to maintain concubines.
Reading his biography he is a very smart man never have liked the Glass family owning the Royals, as for me I hope this happens and he is a KC native
To anyone who has met him, the fact is clear that Mr. Glass has always had his eyes on the bottom line.
Hard not to when you own a business.
I remember years ago Glass used to brag to the media how ALL the revenue sharing money went straight into his pocket! Hmmm…..
jorge with another profound statement. wow.
I don’t think it be a good idea to sell any of those players that you suggested. For one thing Jorge Soler can opt out of his current contract & request more by going to arbitration. And the Royals are NOT the Miami marlins (Meaning we’re not going to sell ALL our veterans), Plus I really can’t see any new owner wanting to trade Whit when there’s no one that can be as versatile as him in the royals minors! He currently plays around six positions for KC at times. Why can’t big market teams grow their own farms & leave the little guys alone? Plus IF Alex Gordon does decide to retire, I would much rather have Whit Merrifield in left field then stupid Brett Philips.
Well obviously you’d rather see Whit out there than Brett Phillips. Marlins fans would rather see JT realmuto than Jorge Alfaro but that’s not the idea. The idea is that you get a prospect like Sixto Sanchez that will help a good Royals team more than a mid 30 year old Whit Merrifield will.
I guess you’ve never watched a Royals game. I’d rather watch Whit Merrifield. I don’t like Brett Philips. Plus there are some guys in the Royals farm system that I’m looking forward to that will be so much better than Brett.
Frackers are today’s oil barons. So much money from destroying the planet. At least he likes baseball!
Please soap box on npr.org website. No one cares what you have to say anyway.
Oil frackers don’t deserve crap, especially Major League baseball teams.
Glass is nearly 90. I am surprised that he did not sell the team sooner. I guess being in the World Series convinced him hold on a few extra years. Sherman has done a tremendous amount of philanthropic work for education and Multiple Sclerosis in the KC area and would be a good fit for that city and that organization.
he’s almost 84. And supposedly there was a report that he has some medical / health issues, So that’s why he’s considering selling the team
Sitting here wishing this article was about Nutting selling the Pirates.
I just said the same! Wishing with you man
Pirates are spending a higher percentage of team revenue on player payroll than many teams. Why are Pirates fans so down on Nutting?
Is this a serious question?
He is right about them spending a higher percentage of their revenue most years. They spent 43% last year which is more than the Yankees, Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox, Phillies, Mets, Braves, Brewers, Reds, and several other clubs.
Y’all are crazy with your contraction talk. It will never happen. First, most teams in the MLB are worth at least a billion dollars. There are billions of dollars in TV contracts. Most of the teams in MLB have a relatively new stadium which each cost a billion dollars. So where the hell is this money going to go? Are billionaire owners going to give up their teams with no return on their investment? Ha! What a joke. I’ve heard some dumb arguments but contraction? That takes the cake.
They should consider expanding to 32 teams. Will the talent pool suffer? Sure. Almost always does. The exposure to new markets only strengthens the game. That should be the goal.
The talent pool argument is extremely weak. It’s been 21 years since the league has expanded, and since then, the game has grown exponentially throughout South America, Asia, and even places no one would expect like Australia, Denmark, and a few others.
Talent now is more concentrated than ever before in baseball history. The only thing holding back expansion is the ridiculous idea that cities should pay for billion dollar stadiums while owners reap the benefits while the cities simply get the pleasure of having a team stay within their city while they still buy tickets and special packages to watch the game.
Even with the Kauffman renovations, Jackson county spent $250 million. Glass spent $96 million to buy the team. Now he will sell it for a $900 million profit.
Oh, and the idea that baseball stadiums are “multi-use’ and benefit cities in other ways other than baseball is nonsense. The total amount of non-baseball related activities that took place at Kauffman since renovations is ONE: Billy Joel’s concert.
I can guarantee you that every single one of those owners would cry “socialism” if anyone suggested Medicare 4 All or free state university education.
Socialism for the rich, “f-you I got mine” for everyone else.
bcdroyals, never before have I read a comment where I agree with absolutely every part. Perfectly said.
That’s just bad stadium usage planning on the Royals part if they have only used the stadium for one non-baseball event. Plenty of other stadiums have full schedules of MLS games, concerts, kids events, etc and do fit the description of “multi-use”
Bernie, is that you??
I hope this is a domino effect of another small market team cough pirates owner selling the team. Until the MLB requires a salary cap these teams can’t sustain contention. Royals pirates Athletics Rays padres Detroit to name a few. You’ll have simultaneous years where the royals and pirates made the playoffs and royals won it all but it’s not sustainable. If not a salary cap there has to be a floor. And the way these owners are cashing in they should start the floor at 100 million.
Your exactly right for years now I’ve always said MLB needs a salary floor more than it needs a salary cap! How much money have the Dodgers and Yankees spent in the last decade or even two decades and only ONE ring between them both! Just shows you money can’t buy you championships!! So in this day and age to have a $100 million floor is nothing!
Salary floor WITHOUT a cap is a terrible idea and would perhaps be only marginally better than current situation, at best.
Need both.
No we don’t need a salary cap. Teams should sell after world series wins and bear misses.