The lawsuits which have revealed the Angelos household’s struggles over the management and way forward for the Orioles laid out preparations for a sale of the staff, together with the hiring of a regulation agency and funding financial institution, however staff chairman and CEO John Angelos desires to retain his household’s management of the membership, in line with folks aware of his considering.
Angelos, 55, prefers to promote a chunk of the Orioles whereas persevering with to retain his household’s majority management, two folks advised The Baltimore Sun in interviews. His ailing father, Peter Angelos, led a bunch that purchased the membership in 1993 and owns a transparent majority of the shares, but it surely’s not publicly identified how far more than 51% is in his arms.
John Angelos helps maintaining the membership beneath its native possession, avoiding the upheaval of an possession change and constructing on the success of a staff that has a top-ranked minor league system and is within the shocking place of contending for a postseason berth, they mentioned.
The two folks have direct information of John Angelos’ intentions, and one in all them is a staff official. They spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of no selections have been made about possession modifications. They cautioned that the state of affairs was fluid and that many eventualities, together with an outright sale, have been attainable.
“He does want to stay,” one of many folks mentioned.
John Angelos has publicly vowed that the staff will likely be within the metropolis “as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor.”
Team spokeswoman Jennifer Grondahl mentioned she was not instantly accessible Monday afternoon to offer remark.
Peter Angelos, 93, is incapacitated on account of well being issues, in line with paperwork filed within the lawsuits. In 2017, he granted energy of legal professional to his spouse, Georgia Angelos, who’s now 80.
The dispute over the way forward for the household’s best-known asset spilled into public in June, when Louis Angelos filed swimsuit in Baltimore County Circuit Court towards his mom and brother over what he characterised in court docket paperwork as John Angelos’ try to take management and possession of their fortune. He alleged John Angelos stalled and thwarted an earlier plan to promote the staff, unilaterally torpedoing curiosity from “one highly credible group of buyers.”
When Georgia Angelos responded along with her personal authorized submitting, these paperwork mentioned her husband indicated that the staff “should be sold on his death so Georgia could enjoy the great wealth they had amassed together.” And her attorneys indicated she was getting ready to take action, writing she “had retained Goldman Sachs and Jones Day to provide investment banking and legal services in connection with the sale of the Orioles.” It’s not clear from the authorized filings when the corporations have been retained.
That appeared to additional elevate the prospect of the household getting out of the baseball enterprise. But Georgia Angelos’ swimsuit additionally mentioned her husband believed any sale of the staff needs to be her determination. And it referred to efforts by John to promote “some or all of the club,” somewhat than specifying solely a sale of the household’s complete share.
Any sale by the Angelos household is much less seemingly whereas Peter Angelos is alive as a result of that may end in steep capital good points taxes. A sale after his demise might save the household a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Teams could retain funding banking corporations to deal with even partial gross sales, and Major League Baseball vets potential homeowners, even these in search of lower than a controlling stake. So, the hiring of Goldman Sachs wouldn’t by itself point out preparations for a sale of Peter Angelos’ majority share.
Jeffrey Nusinov and Paul Raschke, attorneys for Louis Angelos, didn’t reply to messages from The Sun in search of remark. Georgia Angelos couldn’t be reached by the staff or the household.
The unique patrons becoming a member of Peter Angelos in 1993 included the novelist Tom Clancy and tennis-star-turned-broadcaster Pam Shriver. The present group of 17 homeowners contains Peter Angelos; John Angelos; Louis Angelos; Clancy’s property; his ex-wife, Wanda King; Shriver; filmmaker Barry Levinson, and philanthropist Harvey Meyerhoff, in line with Major League Baseball’s web site. After Clancy’s 1999 divorce, The Sun reported he’d cut up his 24% stake within the staff evenly with King.
The breakdown of who owns how a lot isn’t publicly identified. “It is not something we disclose,” mentioned Major League Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney.
With her husband incapacitated, Georgia Angelos controls a belief that incorporates his belongings and he or she is successfully the staff proprietor, having the identical oversight authority Peter Angelos did. But John’s preferences matter as a result of he’s carefully aligned along with his mom and can also be the “control person” designated by Major League Baseball to make selections for the Orioles. He’s been chair and CEO of the staff since 2020.
After his father’s demise, John Angelos would contemplate promoting a chunk of the staff, in line with these aware of his targets. They mentioned he want to diversify the household’s investments financially, whereas enhancing the variety of the Orioles partnership with stakeholders from quite a lot of industries and ranging racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“When people think about a sale of a team, they forget there is a minority shareholder group,” one of many folks mentioned.
The staff official advised The Sun that beneath possession by John Angelos, the Orioles would additional interact with the neighborhood in numerous methods, akin to by turning into more and more energetic in applications in Baltimore’s public colleges. He has initiated health, wholesome residing and different applications for youth in Sarasota, the place the staff has its spring coaching headquarters.
Also, John Angelos has publicly expressed curiosity in Oriole Park internet hosting full-fledged concert events extra steadily; it’s held its first two simply within the final three years. His father was skeptical of such a use for the ballpark, telling The Sun in 2000 that he was “not going to have it become some kind of honky tonk for various and sundry rock ‘n’ roll bands.”
Peter and Georgia Angelos have been broadly seen locally, making giant public donations to and appearances at establishments akin to University of Baltimore, hospitals and cultural organizations; the youthful technology has been much less concerned. Peter, Georgia and Louis Angelos dwell in Baltimore County. John Angelos has houses in Baltimore and in Nashville along with his spouse, Margaret Valentine, a songwriter who owns a music administration firm, Pound It Out Loud.
There could be curiosity in acquiring items of the Orioles even with out majority management, mentioned Marc Ganis president and founding father of Sportscorp Ltd., a Chicago-based sports activities consulting agency that has been concerned in quite a few staff gross sales.
“In some cases, it’s a broader set of prospects. It’s a bigger universe that can invest $50 [million] or $100 [million] or $200 [million] or $300 million versus $2 billion,” Ganis mentioned. “The universe is broader, but the interest is less, because you’re not looking at control.”
Forbes values the Orioles greater than $1.37 billion. Peter Angelos and his fellow buyers purchased the staff simply over 29 years in the past at public sale for $173 million. At the time, that was almost $50 million greater than had ever been paid for a baseball staff.
Further complicating the membership’s future is that it has but to signal a brand new lease binding it to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The unique lease with the state started April 1, 1992, and was to run out on the finish of 2021. The events agreed in February 2021 to increase the settlement by Dec. 31, 2023, with the membership retaining the correct to train a one-time, five-year extension by Feb. 1, 2023.
Maryland Stadium Authority chairman Thomas Kelso mentioned Friday that lease negotiations have been ongoing, however declined additional remark. The authority labored with the staff and the General Assembly this 12 months to go a regulation that now permits the stadium authority to borrow as much as $1.2 billion to pay for stadium enhancements — $600 million every for the Orioles and Ravens. It specifies, nonetheless, that no bonds will be issued with out a lease in place.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com