By Bob Van Voris and Dawn McCarty
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Texas Rangers, the Major League
Baseball team controlled by billionaire Thomas Hicks, filed for
bankruptcy to facilitate a sale to investors led by team
president Nolan Ryan and his partner Chuck Greenberg.
The Arlington, Texas-based ballclub listed assets and debt
of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents
filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, Texas.
Alex Rodriguez, now the third baseman for the New York
Yankees, was listed as the Rangers’ top unsecured creditor.
“I want to assure all our fans that this process will not
affect the day-to-day management of the team as we continue to
compete for a playoff spot in 2010,” Ryan said in a letter to
fans posted on the team’s website.
The club is the second Major League Baseball team to enter
bankruptcy in less than a year after the Chicago Cubs in October
joined owner Tribune Co. in Chapter 11 as part of that team’s
sale.
The team has asked the bankruptcy court to approve the sale
at a hearing in 45 days, according to a posting on the team’s
website. The sale should be completed by mid-summer, Ryan said.
Hicks bought the team in 1998 from an investor group that
included then-Texas Governor George W. Bush. The value of the
team, purchased for $250 million, fell to $405 million last year
from $412 million in 2008, Forbes magazine reported in April.
Former Nats
The franchise, which began play in 1961 as the expansion
Washington Senators, moved to Texas for the 1972 season. The
team has made the playoffs three times, never making it past the
first round. In 2000, the Rangers signed Rodriguez to a 10-year,
$252 million contract, then the biggest in history.
Hicks, 64, who served as chairman of private-equity firm
Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. from 1989 through 2004, is trying
to sell the Liverpool Football Club, the 18-time English soccer
champion that Hicks co-owns with George Gillett.
Rodriguez was traded to New York in February 2004 in
exchange for then All-Star second baseman Alfonso Soriano and
infielder Joaquin Arias. Texas also agreed to pay about $67
million of the $179 million that remained on Rodriguez’s
contract.
A message left at the office of Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s
agent, wasn’t immediately returned.
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Texas Rangers, the Major League
Baseball team controlled by billionaire Thomas Hicks, filed for
bankruptcy to facilitate a sale to investors led by team
president Nolan Ryan and his partner Chuck Greenberg.
The Arlington, Texas-based ballclub listed assets and debt
of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents
filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, Texas.
Alex Rodriguez, now the third baseman for the New York
Yankees, was listed as the Rangers’ top unsecured creditor.
“I want to assure all our fans that this process will not
affect the day-to-day management of the team as we continue to
compete for a playoff spot in 2010,” Ryan said in a letter to
fans posted on the team’s website.
The club is the second Major League Baseball team to enter
bankruptcy in less than a year after the Chicago Cubs in October
joined owner Tribune Co. in Chapter 11 as part of that team’s
sale.
The team has asked the bankruptcy court to approve the sale
at a hearing in 45 days, according to a posting on the team’s
website. The sale should be completed by mid-summer, Ryan said.
Hicks bought the team in 1998 from an investor group that
included then-Texas Governor George W. Bush. The value of the
team, purchased for $250 million, fell to $405 million last year
from $412 million in 2008, Forbes magazine reported in April.
Former Nats
The franchise, which began play in 1961 as the expansion
Washington Senators, moved to Texas for the 1972 season. The
team has made the playoffs three times, never making it past the
first round. In 2000, the Rangers signed Rodriguez to a 10-year,
$252 million contract, then the biggest in history.
Hicks, 64, who served as chairman of private-equity firm
Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. from 1989 through 2004, is trying
to sell the Liverpool Football Club, the 18-time English soccer
champion that Hicks co-owns with George Gillett.
Rodriguez was traded to New York in February 2004 in
exchange for then All-Star second baseman Alfonso Soriano and
infielder Joaquin Arias. Texas also agreed to pay about $67
million of the $179 million that remained on Rodriguez’s
contract.
A message left at the office of Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s
agent, wasn’t immediately returned.