June 27: The Guardians formally announced Blitzer as a new minority owner this morning.
June 16: Major League Baseball owners have approved the sale of a minority stake of the Guardians organization to David Blitzer, commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed to various reporters this afternoon (via Bob Nightengale of USA Today). The agreement is still pending a closing, but Zack Meisel of the Athletic writes that it’s expected to be finalized in the coming days.
According to The Athletic, Blitzer will own somewhere between 25% – 30% of the team initially. Of greater interest is that he’ll have an option to acquire a majority stake six years from now, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweets. The sale price of the deal has not been announced.
None of this comes as a new development, as Sportico and Heyman reported last December that Blitzer was set to acquire a minority stake in the franchise with a long-term path to majority ownership. It’s nevertheless a notable step for the organization that the sale process appears to be reaching its end.
The Dolan family purchased the franchise back in 1999. They’ve remained in majority control since that point, but the Dolans have sought to sell a stake since former minority owner John Sherman divested his interest to purchase the Royals in August 2019. That search process eventually led to Blitzer, who also has stakes in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Blitzer and partner Josh Harris had previously entered the fray during the 2020 sale of the Mets that eventually went to Steve Cohen; Meisel writes that, at least as of last week, Harris was not involved in the Guardians purchase.
Last summer, the Cleveland organization agreed to extend its lease at Progressive Field through at least 2036. Meisel writes that Blitzer could eventually oversee development projects around the ballpark, although it’s unclear if that’d take place before he assumes majority control.
It also remains to be seen whether Blitzer’s addition will have any impact on the team’s spending habits, although that seems unlikely to come into play unless/until he takes majority control. Dolan has come under fire throughout his tenure for the team’s low payrolls. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Guardians opened this season with an approximate $68.2MM player payroll. That’s the league’s fourth-lowest mark, ahead of only the noncompetitive Orioles, A’s and Pirates.
I hope he rains some money on Cleveland
Your avatar offends me!
i’m kidding, man. You are what i consider a
“True Indians, err Guardians fan.”
Good luck to this guy acquiring majority;
and hopefully spend more than the current owners.
And changes the name to “the Cleveland Tribe” 🙂
Hopefully he spends less, fans have been complaining about for years and yet Cleveland has been one of the most successful franchises
Don’t hold your breathe. He will milk the fans and season ticket holders for everything they have.
I couldn’t wait to give up my Sixers tickets after this year.
Cash infusion!
Cleveland has a very smart front office. If they can keep that in place and increase the cash flow, they’ll take it to another level.
“Increase cash flow” … also means fans get ready to dig deeper in your pockets.
The dude is a gazillionaire. It’s not coming out of his pocket, it will be coming out of yours.
Maybe he’ll find courage and change the name back to Indians once he’s majority owner.
prov356 – I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. I suspect that ship has sailed, my friend.
I know. It was a manufactured controversy and it sucks they bought into it.
Let’s say that’s 100% the case and it was no big deal and people shouldn’t worry about a sports team’s name…
Do you have any explanation for why you still care? It’s over. Gone.
It’s a team name, no big deal, right?
Why do you still care?
For many people, it’s just history. Indians are a historical franchise. And like changing any historical name, it’s just….different. For the upcoming generations, it probably won’t matter at all because they won’t know any different.
In terms of the current name, Guardians, I think there were many names better suited for a baseball team &, from what I gather, more reflective/representative of the Cleveland area (although I am not intimately familiar with the city). Same thing goes for the Braves (or any other team, really), if their name were to ever change.
Heck, I’m still mad they moved Brooklyn to LA & NYG to SF, and my parents were still babies when that happened…. Lol.
The Guardians — who’s that going to appeal to . . . other than maybe some of the moviegoers who spent over a billion dollars on tickets to the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies?
Your definition of courage is perplexing.
I have sympathy for lifelong Cleveland fans who grew up rooting for the Indians. It must suck to have to deal with the name change.
For those who aren’t fans of the Indians and are just mad about the change, I don’t remember you voicing your displeasure about the Devil Rays change. So stop being so offended about it.
Teams change their names all the time. It’s not like Indians is Cleveland’s original name. It’s about their fourth.
Nice to finally see a path away from the Dolans. If they can manage to keep Antonetti here and a good manager after Francona leaves, we will have a bright, consistent future in Cleveland. I be interested in seeing what, if any, this means financially. We got some moves to make as well with what you do with Reyes as we are just flat out are better without him. A good Civale coming back and maybe an addition at the deadline, we could make the playoffs and maybe some noise.
I love the idea of another investor in the team, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
I’ve talked ad nauseam in these comments and elsewhere about how great it would be if this organization spent more on the roster every year, but the flip side of that is that they have no bad contracts and nothing but a (still team friendly) deal for Jose and cheap guarantees to Straw and Clase on the books after this year. I want higher payrolls but part of what’s kept this team competitive is the strength of their front office and ability to find talent on a limited budget. They haven’t really “torn it down” in arguably 30 years and for the most part they’ve been pretty competitive year in and year out — especially in the last 8-10 years. I think I’d trade all that consistency for one title, but even that isn’t a guarantee because the playoffs are basically a crapshoot.
Dolan is very cheap and has only rarely showed an interest in adding to payroll when the team was in a competitive window; Encarnacion was signed when Sherman was a minority investor and Swisher/Bourn were signed for pennies on the dollar when their free agent markets dried up. This is by far the most consistently well-run organization in Cleveland, and I do think the Dolans deserve credit for that. It’s possible to hate them for not spending more when the team is contending, but it’s simultaneously possible to respect the way they’ve run an organization. Obviously a new owner wouldn’t necessarily guarantee that continuity.
I’ve always felt the Dolans have gotten unfair criticism from fans regarding their spending. They have consistently had a competitive, well-run organization during their tenure without ridiculous, bloated contracts that hamper organizations. A franchise’s first responsibility is fiscal responsibility and solvency; it should be able to stand on its own without an owner pouring his/her own money into the coffers to sign (often bad) free agent contracts. The real culprit in the Guardians’ situation is the lack of real revenue-sharing and lack of a salary cap in baseball. Without them, get ready to see the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox win the majority of World Series until the end of time. That’s SOOOOOOOOO interesting (yawn).
You had a good post going until you mentioned a salary cap.
NBA has a salary cap and the warriors have won how many titles?
Nhl Tampa bay has been to how many finals?
Nfl Patriots won a couple super bowls didn’t they?
Salary caps are horrible for the players as well stop mentioning them
The Dolans mistake, and as it’s turned out Cleveland’s, was they had enough money to purchase the Indians way back when, but never had enough to run them like a major league team. Getting away from limited financially local ownership has to be an upgrade. Word has always been that Steinbrenner, another local, was rebuffed when he attempted to purchase the Indians prior to his Yankee ownerhsip. Sigh!
Here are the last 5 World Series winners: Braves, Dodgers, Nationals, Red Sox, Astros. No repeat Series winner since Yankees in 1999-2000 (and Yankees haven’t been to the Series since 2009).
Hot take: the Dolans were fine as owners. They kept the front office in place and left them be. They kept the team in Cleveland (and through the name change and lease extension set them up to stay long term), and they did increase spending to record high payrolls when they were competing. Running a roughly $145m payroll in this market, when they were still finishing in the bottom 10 in attendance and with one of the lowest paying cable contracts, was more than reasonable.
Remember we all celebrated Loria leaving Miami. But that team got (somehow) even cheaper after he left. A new owner doesn’t change the fact that this team is bottom 5 in attendance in down years and bottom 10 in good years. Doesn’t change that the TV market is small, meaning they’ll never have the cable revenue big markets have despite the fact that they get more viewers than a few of them (The Angels being notable).
Maybe I’m too cynical, but I’m not actually confident that this will leave the team better off at all.
But at least we won’t have Dolan sticking his foot in his mouth to the press anymore – no more “Enjoy him” moments.
Shortly after taking control of the franchise, the older Dolan started telling GM John Hart what to do with player moves. Hart had been left alone by the previous owners. So Hart quit – said he was retiring. Shortly thereafter he became GM of the Rangers. In turn Paul Dolan took over the Presidency of the franchise, and left the Baseball Ops people alone. Apparently what Hart did woke the Dolan family up.
When Terry Francona was fired by the Red Sox and blamed for the team not winning a pennant, then vilified in the media by leaks coming from ownership and executives, he was apprehensive about taking another managerial job. He had spent a year or so in Cleveland and got along fine with the baseball people. So although it sounded far-fetched at the time, Francona took an offer to manage a so-so Cleveland team when had he waited for a year he’d have had his choice of plum jobs.
In truth, Shapiro and Antonetti were in circles with their analytics, jumping from one trend to another. It was when Francona came on that they started to understand how the sport was played, and how to acquire and train players both for the farm system and the ML team. It didn’t happen overnight. When they acquired Trevor Bauer and his unique approach to pitching, Shapiro sent Francona and Antonetti to a barn in Texas where a coach worked with pitchers, including Bauer. That began a process of developing a way to work with pitchers which helps them to this day.
Point being: The Dolans backed off and have left the baseball people alone. Their crime was being underfunded when they bought the franchise. But MLB allowed that purchase.
As for Mr. Blitzer, he’s a minority owner that can cause some static if he wants to, but it isn’t going to change anything as long as Paul Dolan is there. It’ll take him years to learn the innerworkings of owning an MLB franchise. Yes, they may have more operating capital for a bit to increase payroll, but they brought the payroll down and rolled over some funds to use as this rebuild unwinds (they will not do what the White Sox did). The Dolan’s will get out of it as this run exhausts itself and at that point Mr. Blitzer will do what he will do.
I agree, Dolan gets way too much crap.. He is loyal to keeping the team in Cleveland, even though it is a football town. They had the payroll over $100 million for 4 straight seasons. Even now, they are in rebuild mode but still have a competitive and fun team on the field.. instead of going into a full tank rebuild, like the White Sox and Tigers did.
I wonder what value the Ramirez deal added to the franchise? It should/could change the franchise’s outlook for the next 5 years
I’m still trying to figure out how Mr. Blitzer is going to be able to divide his time, energy, and money among so many sports franchises. With no ties to the Cleveland baseball team, this feels like purely a business decision and nothing more.
It’s always a business decision for owners
It is. He is likely more interested in developing the areas around the ballpark.
Is he even a minority though?
Well, he’s Jewish, and the Public Religion Research Institute says only 1% of religiously affiliated Americans are Jewish — so, yeah, that would seem to make him a minority, Dan.
Couple of years behind but get the point. Interesting 30% ownership. 1% national https://forward.com/culture/435993/who-are-the-worst-and-best-jewish-owners-in-pro-sports/
Perhaps he will rename the team the Cleveland Blitzers when he becomes a majority owner…
I’m hungry now for a good cheese Blintz! Mmm
Different sport… But when Michael Jordan acquired the Charlotte Bobcats… He changed it to “Charlotte Hornets”
This gives me hope… but nothing close to “Indians”
Perhaps, we can find a compromise. Cleveland LeBrons?
Cleveland Spiders
Cleveland Steamers?
Of course, Blitzer could just be Sherman 2.0. Maybe in a couple years he buys one of the other teams & this is just his foot in the door first step. Like Sherman, he is now a member of the insiders club & so his approval as a majority owner is easier. It just doesn’t have to be the Guards. I suspect Dolan made a nice little chunk of change in the Sherman deal & if Blitzer winds up selling his share back in a few years I wager Dolan makes out that way, too.
Next step, Albert Belle day at the ballpark.
Anyone named Joey gets in free of admission.
Maybe they can do an Albert Belle bobble head of when he ran someone over on the base paths! That would be epic…
Does a free beer come with that?
Last time I checked orioles playing competitive baseball
Just wondering if this affects the Royals in any way? Does Sherman now have more power to start spending money in KC? Firing people? Was this even an obstacle in the first place? I’m wondering if the reason all the coaches/gm/dayton seem to have such job security is some kind of conflict of interest type stuff, and now that’s gone Sherman can start to tear it down. Hope so, but just wondering if anyone knows more about this?
forever indians
Cleveland Indians.
If they spent like the yanks they’d win most of the titles.