Don Deal, a crucial player who signed a two-year contract with Baltimore, resigned after two years.
CNN) — A person familiar with the negotiations says that billionaire David Rubenstein’s group has agreed to purchase the Baltimore Orioles baseball team from Peter Angelos and his family, who have owned it for more than 30 years.
The cost is $1.725-2.75 billion. That is nearly ten times the $173 million that Angelos and his associates bid in 1993 to purchase the Orioles.
Major League Baseball and the owners of the other 29 teams still need to approve the deal. For Baltimore supporters, there is a cherry on top: the individual with knowledge of the agreement states that Hall of Famer and Orioles legend Cal Ripken, Jr., is anticipated to be a part of Rubenstein’s ownership group.
A request for comments from the Orioles was not answered. Rubenstein said he would not comment.
Angelos is selling a big-league team that is ascending. With 101 wins, the Orioles were the best team in the American League and the second-best in all of baseball in 2023. They also won the American League East last season. The Orioles finished the previous season with their best record since 1979, but they disappointed fans who were hoping for a World Series by losing in the division round of the playoffs.
The Orioles have spent the majority of Angelos’ ownership as either mediocre or downright horrible. Ten years prior to Angelos purchasing the team, in 1983, the team won its final world championship. In the thirty years that Angelos owned the Orioles, the team had a losing record in seventeen of those years, and in that time, they made only six trips to the playoffs.
The new owner, Rubenstein, is a native of Baltimore and a co-founder of the massive private equity firm The Carlyle Group, which is based in Washington, DC. The 74-year-old, an avid Orioles fan, has been in talks to purchase the team for a while.
Rubenstein will take over as the group’s controlling partner and primary decision-maker in the event that the sale is approved. According to the person familiar with the deal, Rubenstein put together a group of investors that includes Ripken and Michael Arougheti, the co-founders of Ares Management.
Rubenstein will not immediately own the majority of the team, even though, with approval, he would eventually purchase the entire team. After the sale, Angelos will continue to be involved in the club as an adviser, with Rubenstein initially holding just 40% of the shares. 100% of the club will be owned by the Rubenstein group upon the death of 94-year-old Angelos.
According to Forbes, the Orioles’ $1.7 billion valuation is almost three times what the team was valued at in 2014. This puts Baltimore just ahead of the Colorado Rockies and Milwaukee Brewers as the 18th most valuable baseball team.
