Just a few hours after a marathon auction of the team, a
hearing began Thursday to go over the team’s bankruptcy plan. If a judge signs
off as expected, it will clear the way for Major League Baseball to formally
approve a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher and Rangers president Nolan Ryan as
the team’s new owner next week.
The court-appointed restructuring officer is backing the
plan after earlier objections. And creditors who had stalled the sale said they
no longer oppose the plan because the auction resulted in a higher price for
the Rangers.
“I was wrong,” said Andrew Leblanc, an attorney for some of
the top creditors. “I’ve never been happier to say I was wrong.”
Just after midnight, the group led by Ryan and sports
attorney Chuck Greenberg won a showdown with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
for the AL West-leading Rangers. Court documents say the winning bid is valued
at $590 million.
Cuban and Houston businessman Jim Crane’s bid was valued at
$581 million, discounted some $17 million because of deductions and a breakup
fee of $10 million to $13 million that would have gone to Greenberg-Ryan had
they lost.
“This is quite a remarkable result,” said US Bankruptcy
Judge D. Michael Lynn. He said he wanted to thank Cuban, who “stepped aside
with grace when the time came.”
Some of Ryan’s best moments occurred in a Texas Rangers
uniform: turning the struggling franchise around after he was brought in as a
free agent in 1988, his 5,000th strikeout and his 300th victory.
But 17 years after retiring and two years after becoming the
team president, his best moment yet may have come in the federal courthouse in
Fort Worth after an auction spanning 10 hours. When Ryan’s group was announced
as the winning bidder, the packed courtroom erupted in cheers and a standing
ovation.
The Greenberg-Ryan group had Major League Baseball’s
endorsement since being named the new team owners after last year’s original
sale process. But the deal was stalled by angry creditors — and then
unexpectedly put in limbo by the team’s May bankruptcy filing.
“It was an emotional roller-coaster,” a smiling Ryan said
between hugs with colleagues and well-wishers. “You go to court one day and it
didn’t go your way, but you go back another day and it would. It’s a relief.”
In the middle of the Rangers’ best season in years, Ryan
attended nearly every bankruptcy hearing the past two months, wearing a suit
and tie while sitting quietly in the courtroom. He testified calmly that the
team should exit bankruptcy quickly so it has enough money to keep star players
and land new talent.
The Rangers haven’t made the playoffs since 1999 and the
ownership situation has been closely followed by the players as well as those
in the front office.
The much-anticipated auction started Wednesday afternoon.
The stop-and-start showdown was delayed for hours by closed-door haggling over
the complicated nature of each bid, but it heated up at night, with competing
bids and tense exchanges among the attorneys. Finally, just before 1 a.m.,
Crane shook Ryan’s hand in the corridor and said his group was dropping out
after reaching a predetermined limit.
Despite losing, Cuban was smiling after the auction. After
making an unsuccessful bid for the Chicago Cubs last year, he said he remains
an enthusiastic fan of the Rangers — and of Ryan, the native Texan who starred
with the Astros and now has banking and ranching interests.
“I wish them the best,” Cuban said before ducking out a back
door so the attention would remain focused on Greenberg and Ryan, adding, “It’s
their moment.”
Each group’s bid included $208 million of team debt — including
$24.9 million in deferred compensation owed to Alex Rodriguez six years after
he was traded to the New York Yankees.
Top creditors will only get about $75 million from the team.
But the judge has said lenders, who are owed about $525 million after team
owner Tom Hicks’ financially strapped ownership group defaulted on loans, can
go after Hicks’ other companies.
The auction had been the talk of the team Wednesday in
Seattle, where the Rangers beat the Mariners 11-6. The players learned of the
auction’s outcome about 15 minutes after the game, and a clubhouse shout of “We
have an owner!” drowned out another yell of “Aw, sweet!” from across the room.
“Ever since Nolan’s been part of our franchise, we’ve gone
nowhere but up,” said David Murphy , who hit the go-ahead, three-run homer — but
only wanted to talk about the new owner. “He’s not just a native Texan, a guy
who is obviously very, very respected and admired in the state of Texas, but
nationally he is one of the best pitchers ever. He’s one of the most respected
players ever.
“Of course we want a guy like that as our owner. In the end,
we wanted the best group to represent us. Obviously, how could you not want a
group with Nolan Ryan in it?”
