This sale of the team is all so confusing and everyone involved seems so shady. Three years ago the team was being sold for $530 million. After the reported 20 year / $1.2 billion TV deal the team is now being valued by its owners at $800 million. The Padres received $200 million up front from the Fox deal and that's being included in the present value of the team, which seems to make sense at least from a business perspective.
It appears as though Major League Baseball is about to let John Moores do what it would not allow Frank McCourt to do: extract a large portion of money for personal use from a new television deal that could be used to improve his team.
XX Sports Radio: Scott Miller with Darren Smith (MP3)
The difference is that this TV Deal is in place.
Moores figures to exit with that $200 million as part of the sale price.
Now I'm pretty sure MLB frowns upon using TV deal money for anything but improving the product on the field. They certainly don't want TV money to be used to purchase the team as it was suspected that Jeff Moorad had planned. But if the Fox money is part of the value of the team and John Moores sells that Fox money with the club he's able to cash out that money that was set aside for the team.
I'm thinking about that Fox money as a gift certificate that can only be used on baseball operations. By including it in the sale of the team, Moores is in a sense cashing out the gift certificate. Is that a fair analogy? Is there anything ethically wrong with that?
#Padres have been waiting for increased TV revenue for years.They're just going to let Moores walk with $200 million of it??
— Darren Smith (@DSmithShow) June 30, 2012
In any case the O'Malley's and Moores/Fowler are presently in an exclusive negotiating window. How long that lasts I have no idea. Scott Miller tells Darren Smith that he thinks the last minute negotiations could be over the parking lots surrounding Petco Park, which Moores owns. Sound familiar?