This is crrrraaaazzzzy!!! The Padres are for sale!!!
According to sources, Padres owner John Moores is going to sell 49 percent of the team as part of a divorce settlement with his wife Becky.
I think we all figured it was going to happen, but it still comes as a shock. I'm superduper psyched for when Becky owns half and somebody like Mark Cuban owns half. It'll be like some kind of crazy romantic comedy with Becky wanting to hire sexy ballplayers and Cuban wanting to do ridiculous stunts for the media.
Quick! How much you guys got on you? If we pool our resources, we'll be able to own a Brian Giles butt cheek!
Dang, yo.
So many questions... Is Moores being forced to split the asset? Why wasn't the whole thing sold and then split? Is this a way of making it harder on Becky? Who will the new Padres owners be? What if Alex Rodriguez buys the team? Does that mean A-Rod will play short or third? How many Gaslamp Ball t-shirts would we have to sell to get a share? Will they go public? Wouldn't it be cool to have a share of the Padres hanging on your office wall?
[Note by Dex, 10/09/08 3:53 PM EDT ] Drama digs up the following:
John Moores bought 80 percent of the Padres in 1994 for a reported $80 million. His net worth has been estimated in recent years by Forbes magazine at about $750 million. The magazine projected the value of the Padres at more than $360 million.
The Forbes valuations have always been suspect in my mind. It will be interesting to see how the valuation stacks up to what somebody's willing to pay for 49% of the asset. I'm not sure how Moores' 80% splits down to 49%. By the math I just did in my head, that'll leave Moores with 31% of the team and additional cash in the neighborhood of $180 million.
[Note by Dex, 10/09/08 4:14 PM EDT ] So what happened to this?
For those who may be wondering, John Moores intends to maintain his principal ownership of the Padres into "the foreseeable future" and have a significant impact on any sweeping changes that may be made to the club in the offseason.
Does 31% count as "principal ownership"? Is "the foreseeable future" about 3 weeks?