John Moores is selling the Padres once again. Say what you will about the man. He knows how to make his money.
Here are some notes and tweets from the conference call yesterday. Notes taken from Darren Smith. Tweets taken where you see them.
- John Moores met with the limited partners group. Hadn't met a lot of them before.
- Also talked with Ron Fowler. Going to work with Fowler about the sale.
- Said he didn't decide to sell the club until after talking to the minority owners.
- "Nobody should feel sorry for anybody who owns a Major League Ball Club." Who feels sorry for John Moores again?
- "Owning a Major League club is a absolute joy... It's just time..."
- John Moores is not an economist, by his own reckoning. In light of the Dodger deal and the big TV deal, it's a good time to check out the market. John Moores noticed that the Dodgers sold for $2.15 billion.
- Moores wants out completely. Won't have RSN stake or anything.
- Expecting substantial interest in the Padres.
Broker Steve Greenburg to handle sale..."Will take 6-months to get done-refuse to put dollar value on team"
— Lee Hamilton (@hacksaw1090) April 10, 2012
#Padres prez Garfinkel: "The marching orders are to keep marching."
— Tom Krasovic (@tomkrasovic) April 10, 2012
#Padres owner John Moores says he wanted to leave the club in better shape than he found it. "This is just time to finally get it done."
— Tom Krasovic (@tomkrasovic) April 10, 2012
Moores thinks baseball will look at the process of how MLB teams are sold.He wouldn't be surprised if there were fundamental changes.
— Andy Masur (@PadsCast) April 10, 2012
I've always been a little bit of a Moores apologist. I appreciate him for getting the team to the World Series and getting Petco Park built, and from what I've and from people I've talked to, he really did operate the team at a loss for a good amount of time.
That said, I can't shake the feeling that there was a very long dark period of sucky Padres teams that he presided over. And the whole idea that they had to get Petco Park built in order to compete has always been a shaky argument. And now selling the team again after the last couple of years. Well... Exactly how much money does a guy need?
Instead of people begging for billionaire owners, we should be demanding that Moores sells quickly at a fair price. Call it $600 million, which was his original asking price. The last thing I want is for some ownership group to overpay for the Padres and jack the prices on everything. I like that the games are affordable.
Hopefully this will all get settled soon, but I can't shake the feeling that we may end up with Moores for a while longer yet.