Miami Marlins: Rumored Handshake Agreement to Sell The Team
It finally looks as though the Miami Marlins may be getting out from under the worst owner in baseball.
A couple of months back, when the idea that the Miami Marlins could be sold for $1.7 billion was made public, I suggested on this very site “It seems prudent to say a sale at that valuation won’t happen but in this day and age, would a multi-billionaire group paying for the privilege of ownership really surprise anyone with a shocking, overinflated purchase when a team rarely comes on the market any more? ”
Initially reported by Forbes, it seems that the valuation was not that far off as a rumored hand-shake agreement on a $1.6 billion dollar deal for the Miami Marlins between Jeffrey Loria, the much beloved current owner of the team and a group of investors led by New York-based Charles Kushner, owner of a collection of Manhattan real estate holdings and father of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior advisor to president Donald Trump.
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According to reporting from Jon Heyman, it would seem that Charles Kushner is not part of the proposed Marlins’ new ownership group and MLB released a statement saying that talks have not progressed to a stage where the league has any knowledge of an agreement between the Marlins and Kushner, with both points obviously indicating that Kushner is not the proposed majority buyer.
Even if Kushner was setting himself up to be the majority owner, most reports speculate that Kushner would not be approved by the league’s other owners because of a 2005 conviction for witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion.
Where does this deal leave Miami baseball fans? Mitt Romney had been linked earlier as a potential buyer but at this price is likely not interested.
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Miami fans have reason to be relieved as very few owners in modern sports have put their fan bases through what Jeffrey Loria has put Miami’s (and Montreal’s) through–see: World Series team dismantling; low payroll; taxpayer issues with new stadium; Washington Nationals–but any relief must be tempered by the fact that until the proposed investor group is made public, Marlins fans will feel a little apprehension about any move that Jeffrey Loria is involved in and how it will ultimately affect a weary fan base.