UTK Special 3/11/21

The Owners List 2021

I did the “owner’s list” last year because of all the discussion about how much discussion there was about how the owners of MLB clubs were losing money. The pandemic was hard on everyone, but looking at the markets and checking the news, I don’t think any owners went bankrupt. I don’t think any teams folded. Baseball may not have made a lot of money in 2020, but the owners are in very good positions both this time last year and again this year.

These aren’t the one percent. This is the 0.1 percent, maybe not the richest of the rich - there’s no Bezos, Musk or Zuckerberg here. There’s no Gates — but his two founding partners own teams in other leagues. In most cases, these are top businessmen and billionaires of the second tier who want the ego boost and the asset of being a major league owner. Let’s face it - you probably wouldn’t know most of these if they didn’t own your team, a team, and in fact, I bet most fans couldn’t name their owner in a lot of markets.

Oil, hedge funds, real estate, and inheritance continue to be the top ways to join this club, but there’s a variety of paths, including getting a bunch of your rich friends to go in on it with you and letting you be the managing partner. It’s a year before the CBA is up so while the league cries poor, you’ll know exactly who your owner is and how many millions he can stack up, post-pandemic.

Also, this post gets more long term traffic and, with two major changes and some updates, I think this bears updating on at least a yearly basis. My guess is we’ll see at least that many changes next year, perhaps more.

ARIZONA: Ken Kendrick

Kendrick was a long time bank executive in Texas, then started Datatel, a software company. He owns a T206 Honus Wagner card, which he bought at auction for $2.8 million, which is more than what the Dbacks would pay Madison Bumgarner this year under the proposed deal.

ATLANTA: Liberty Media

The only team owned by a public corporation still makes MLB mad. They do have to make some records open, but John Malone’s investment is small compared to what he owns in SiriusXM/Pandora, Formula One, a third of LiveNation, and INRIX, which supplies navigation to nearly every company, including Google.

BALTIMORE: Peter Angelos

Angelos bought the team with a gaggle of partners, which included Tom Clancy, Barry Levinson (“Diner”), and Pam Shriver. He bought the team with $40m of his own, of a $173 million total. Good investment for the longtime product liability lawyer with a big focus on asbestos, drug makers, and tobacco companies. There’s an estimate he made $330 million personally on a landmark asbestos case. His son has been the team President and has taken over much of the control of the team, though he’s never held a job aside from working for his father. There has been some rumor that Angelos would like a local partner, though he wants his son to maintain control.

BOSTON: John Henry

The quantitative genius also has a raft of partners, once including the New York Times, to buy the Red Sox. He had bought the Marlins for $158 million and got the Red Sox in the three-way trade that created the Washington Nationals. He owns a racing team, a soccer club (Liverpool), iRacing, and the Boston Globe. John Henry & Co ceased to manage assets in 2012, but Henry himself is valued north of $3 billion dollars. Henry attempted to sell to a SPAC, but instead was forced to change tacks with a private sale of 10% pending in the Fenway Sports operation, so any Sox ownership is fractional.

CHICAGO CUBS: Thomas Ricketts

Ricketts and his family purchased the Cubs for about $900 million, based mostly off his father Joe’s $2.8 billion fortune from Ameritrade. His brother Pete is currently governor of Nebraska. He launched his own TV network (Marquee) and opened a hotel across from Wrigley Field. There is some question about the family ownership structure and how much Joe’s political activism has gotten in the way of relationships.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX: Jerry Reinsdorf

Reinsdorf and several friends put their money together back in ‘81 and bought the White Sox, then the Bulls in ‘85. (Good timing.) Reinsdorf used a real estate loophole, where you could sell a property, lease it back, and get all sorts of tax benefits, to create a billion dollar fortune. Funny thing - he’s worth an estimated $1.5 billion, which is less than the White Sox or the Bulls alone. No, he doesn’t own 100 percent of either, but you have to assume both are undervalued and that his real estate is worth nothing to believe that valuation.

(21 update - Reinsdorf, through Allen & Co, have been looking for a buyer willing to be a minority owner now. They’ve vetted a couple candidates, including one local possibility, but nothing has moved forward. At least one was nudged aside after MLB indicated he wouldn’t pass vetting.)

CINCINNATI: Bob Castellini

Castellini used to own part of the Cardinals. This is a pattern — minority owners often become majority owners later. They’re already vetted and in the club. Marge Schott inherited car dealerships. Carl Lindner was bananas and insurance. Castellini? Tomatoes. Seriously, his namesake controls a significant amount of the vegetable food chain, especially tomatoes.

CLEVELAND: Larry Dolan

Larry Dolan isn’t nearly as hated as his nephew James, who owns the New York Knicks. Both got their money from family ownership of Cablevision, though Larry likes to remind people he’s a lawyer. His family trust bought the Indians for $323 million and put him in control. As a part owner of AMC Networks, Dolan’s biggest property isn’t the Indians, but “The Walking Dead.” Make your own jokes, people.

COLORADO: Charlie Monfort

The Rockies were once owned by the brothers that started Phar-Mor, a big box pharmacist that I remember as the place I bought Metallica’s Black Album. Why did a pharmacy have the Black Album? Clearly, it’s not around any more and the production on the Black Album is it’s own problem. Charlie and his brother Richard ran a meatpacking and trucking company and if you don’t see the interrelation with some other people on this list, I can’t help you. Like other owners, Monfort has his own golf resort, the Hyatt Indian Wells in California.

DETROIT: Christopher Ilitch

Ilitch took over ownership of the Tigers and Red Wings from his father Mike, the founder of Little Caesars. Say it with me - “Pizza Pizza.” The Ilitch’s own almost all the arenas and teams in Detroit, save the Pistons and Lions, and have done a lot for the struggling community. I’m not sure who eats all those pizzas, but Little Caesar’s is worth about $2 billion and is family owned and debt free. His mother controls the casino just up the street from Comerica Park as well.

HOUSTON: Jim Crane

Castellini does vegetable supply chain. Crane does the whole damn grocery store. His Eagle USA did a significant amount of supply chain activity for everyone, including former Astros owner Drayton McLane, who built his fortune on selling groceries to WalMart. (Noticing that everyone seems to know everyone?) Crane dabbled in oil and gas, bought a massive golf club from Wayne Huizenga (who owned the Marlins before selling to John Henry) where he held his recent wedding, and is a scratch golfer.

KANSAS CITY: John Sherman

MLB’s newest owner isn’t. He was already an owner, a partner in the Cleveland Indians since 2016. Sherman’s billion dollar wealth comes from oil, or at least having his oil companies acquired. LPG merged with Dynegy. He formed Inergy, which merged with Crestwood, which is still publicly traded and if you can figure out MLPs, be my guest. Sherman’s rich and seems to have a lot of crossover with the other oil barons who own teams.

LA ANGELS: Arte Moreno

Moreno was born in Arizona to immigrant parents and served his country in the Army. After his service in Vietnam he went to college, then became a billboard mogul. He sold his Outdoor Systems company to Infinity for $8 billion, then bought the Angels for $180 million from Disney after he failed to buy the Diamondbacks. Stunningly, Disney had bought the club for $150 million and did a major renovation on the Stadium, so they might be the only club that was ever sold at a loss in the modern era.

LA DODGERS: Mark Walter

Walter helped found Guggenheim Partners in 1999 - yes, like the museum and foundation - and bought the Dodgers as the cherry on top of a run of deals including the creation of Verizon, the takeover of Dick Clark Productions, and the launch of several Guggenheim-branded ETFs. Despite partners like Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, there’s some indication that Walter may be exiting, with a new partner, Alan Smolinsky, linked to a possible managing partner shift.

MIAMI: Bruce Sherman

Wait, not Derek Jeter? No, Jeter only owns a fractional share - there’s no evidence he put up any money - and is the front man for the offshore holding company. Sherman owns Private Capital Management, which is about as boring as it sounds. He was the money manager for one family - the Colliers, like Collier County, Florida? - and parlayed their money into big deals. He sold Dairy Queen to Warren Buffett (it was a Collier holding). He sold Garan Inc - Garanimals! - to a big conglomerate for big bucks. He lost out on Bear Stearns, but he obviously did quite well for himself as well as the Colliers. He lives in Naples, Florida … in Collier County.

MILWAUKEE: Mark Attanassio

Attanasio bought the Brewers from Bud Selig for north of $200 million in ‘05. His Crescent Capital Group, which controlled Trust Company of the West, was a step-child of Drexel Burnham Lambert, Michael Milken’s junk bond kingdom that collapsed in 1990. Attanasio started Crescent with several DBL colleagues and kept the illegal parts out. They sold to a big French bank in 2001, then ended up buying it back for pennies on the dollar in 2010, just after the financial crisis. Good timing. His brother Paul was the show runner for House MD and wrote Donnie Brasco.

MINNESOTA: Jim Pohlad

There’s not as many legacy owners in MLB as there are in the NFL. Pohlad is one. His father Carl’s banking fortune bought the Twins in 1984 and offered to contract the team for $150 million in 2001. It’s worth at least five times that now. Pohlad’s banks are now USBank and the Twins are run like a business again rather than a cash machine. His brother Bob produced Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years A Slave, and Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic that starred Paul Giamatti.

NY METS: Steve Cohen (NEW!)

“The Mets almost sold for billions to Steve Cohen, widely believed to be part of the inspiration for Bobby Axelrod, the lead character of Billions, which also has Paul Giamatti as a lead.” That’s how last year’s version started, discussing the then Sterling/Wilpon owned team. That deal finally came through as the pandemic made the cash-poor but very-rich Wilpons deal the team. Cohen bought out not only the majority stake, but most if not all of the minority holders as well, for a nice profit. Cohen is a hedge fund king, conservatively estimated around $12b, which would make him the current richest owner in sports, depending on how you value the Paul Allen estate. Cohen paid a billion dollar fine to the SEC and sat out of investing for a while, but is back in with his Point72 fund, which is largely his own money - a “family office.”

NY YANKEES: Hal Steinbrenner

With the recent passing of his brother Hank, Hal has near complete control of the Yankees despite minority ownership. There’s a lot of partners in the Yankees, but back in the 1970s, John McMullen (who later owned the Astros and New Jersey Devils) famously said that “nothing is more limited than being a limited partner of George Steinbrenner.” Odd fact - Hal is just 50 years old, a couple years younger than Brian Cashman, who has been the only GM during Hal’s tenure. George had more GM’s during a lunch. There is no more valuable franchise in America, if not the world, than the New York Yankees.

OAKLAND: John Fisher

Moneyball and everything since has made the A’s seem like the poor, downtrodden, no-money franchise in all of sports. John Fisher’s parents founded The Gap; his brother is still the Chairman. Fisher owns nearly all of the team, plus the San Jose Earthquakes and Celtic, one of the most celebrated soccer clubs in Europe. He and his brothers spent $9 million opposing Obama’s re-election, joining a “dark money” fund run by Joe Ricketts. That kind of money would pay for a lot of minor leaguers.

PHILADELPHIA: John S. Middleton

Funny story - I met Middleton for the first time in Indianapolis, during the Winter Meetings. The Phillies medical staff had won the Martin Award for best medical staff and I was invited to present it. David Montgomery introduced me to a number of people, including Middleton. I didn’t know who he was but said “like the cigar?” “That’s me,” he said, and handed me one. Middleton bought 15 percent of the Phillies for $18 million in 1994. After selling his family’s cigar business, he bought up almost a majority of the team and focuses on philanthropy.

PITTSBURGH: Robert Nutting

If I asked a group of baseball writers which ownership group is most likely to have a valid claim of being poor, I bet a bunch of them would quickly say the Pirates group. Robert Nutting owns newspapers and ski resorts in Pennsylvania. I’m just a writer, but those are not exactly appreciating businesses. Somehow though, his fortune is estimated at well over a billion dollars and Forbes listed him in the top ten richest owners in sports! If that’s poor, give me some of that.

SAN DIEGO: Peter Seidler (NEW!)

Peter Seidler and his brother Robert co-own Seidler Equity Partners, an investment firm that owns things like Quick Quack Car Wash, PADI, and LA Fitness. Oh and Rawlings, the company that makes all the balls for MLB. That’s already becoming a bit of an issue, despite the fact that the co-owner is … MLB itself! The Seidlers are the grandsons of Walter O’Malley, who brought the Dodgers west. They tried to buy the Dodgers before going in with a group to acquire the Padres. They took majority ownership in December after previous managing partner Ron Fowler decided to spend more time doing things like building a stadium for San Diego State.

SAN FRANCISCO: Charles B. Johnson

No question about who the richest owner in MLB is. It’s Johnson, by a pretty big margin, if you believe several public sources. Johnson’s family firm, Franklin Resources, is a massive mutual fund and money management firm. Johnson himself is worth upwards of $6 billion, though he’s turned control of the business over to his son. Johnson owns a significant portion of the Giants through an investment group. He just made the largest gift to Yale University ($250 million) to build new residences.

SEATTLE: John Stanton

VoiceStream Wireless? Western Wireless? Yeah, Stanton’s fortune is in … wireless, duh, but have you ever heard of either of those? Basically, it’s the foundation of what you now know as T-Mobile. Yep, you’ve heard of that and T-Mobile Field suddenly makes more sense. VoiceStream was sold to what became T-Mobile for $35 billion. He’s now in control of wireless companies in New Zealand and Bolivia but, yeah, it was the big sale to T-Mobile that counts. He’s on the board of Microsoft and Columbia Sportswear, which is about as Seattle as you can get.

ST LOUIS: William DeWitt

DeWitt is so rich, he bought George W. Bush’s oil company to keep it from going bust. Then he bought the Rangers so that Bush could sell it to raise the money to run for governor. DeWitt used to be a minority owner in the Reds and Orioles before the Rangers, with his father, a protege of Branch Rickey, owning stakes in the Browns, White Sox, Reds, and Tigers. Younger DeWitt bought the team in 1995 for about $150 million, with the Busch family retaining some stake. Nothing’s cooler than this though: DeWitt was a batboy for the St. Louis Browns and Eddie Gaedel’s famous fraction jersey was actually one of DeWitt’s.

TAMPA BAY: Stuart Sternberg

Sternberg was a specialized options trader at Goldman Sachs before buying the Rays. He’s stayed with his New York roots and has long thought to be the most likely next owner of the Mets in some sort of swap deal. That deal could bring baseball back to Montreal, the way the last swap deal (Marlins/Expos/Red Sox) took them out.

(‘21 Update — Sternberg was never a bidder for the Mets in the last round and seems happy with his Rays despite the stadium situation. There’s been some discussion of local owners the Glazer family having a bit of involvement. They own the Bucs and Manchester United, so we’d get a John Henry baseball rivalry to go with their soccer one. Most of what the Glazers could do is get a stadium, somewhere near Raymond James, but you know what’s close to that already? The Yankees spring training facility.)

TEXAS: Ray Davis

Owning a baseball team isn’t glamorous, but you usually know more about the kind of billionaires that own teams. Not so with Ray Davis, or his partner, Bob Simpson. They bought the club out of bankruptcy for around $600 million. With a new stadium ready for them, the Rangers are probably worth twice that. Davis definitely is, as his oil pipeline businesses have given him a fortune of $1.5 billion or more, depending on then price of West Texas Intermediate, of which his company ETP effectively controls the supply.

TORONTO: Rogers Communications

Rogers is a public company, but with the accounting done, Rogers Sports & Entertainment is a unit of a private entity within it. I won’t try to understand or explain, but the Rogers family is the controlling body of both the public company and the Blue Jays, as well as pretty much every other sporting franchise in Drake’s backyard. They bought the franchise in 2000 for $160 million (American). They’re one of few fully-owned franchises in all of American sport.

WASHINGTON: Ted Lerner

Lerner was the big stack in MLB until Charles Johnson took over Giants control from Larry Baer (and he’s now further down behind Cohen.) Now, the Nationals are effectively controlled by Lerner through his development company, which has bought major buildings funded by Guggenheim Partners, including several on K Street. He owns Chelsea Piers in New York, malls all around the country, and the Nets, plus he has a major investment in Vici, the company that now owns several casinos, including The Venetian and Caesars Palace. The 95-year-od Lerner ceded control of the Nats to his son, Mark, after their 2019 Series win. Go out on top, I guess.