A Baseball Team Just Sold for $1B

Kansas City businessman is buying his hometown Royals
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2019 4:15 PM CDT
A Baseball Team Just Sold for $1B
Omar Infante of the Kansas City Royals holds his World Series ring at Kauffman Stadium in 2016.   (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

A Kansas City businessman has made a $1 billion offer to buy the Royals from David Glass. John Sherman has raised the needed capital, per USA Today, and the deal will be ready for approval by Major League Baseball's owners in November. Glass, 83, paid $96 million for the Royals in 2000; Forbes puts the franchise's value at $1 billion, per KMBC. Glass, who was an executive at Wal-Mart, per CBS, decided to sell the team because of his health problems. Sherman, a native of Kansas City and energy company entrepreneur, will have to sell his stake in the Cleveland Indians.

In ranking the Royals 28th in value out of 30 teams, Forbes pointed out that the franchise has hit a rough patch since winning the World Series in 2015. TV ratings were down, though still No. 2 in baseball, last season. Attendance fell, the team's minor league operation ranked low, and the Royals lost 104 games last year. The team is 47-88 this year. But the Miami Marlins were ranked 30th, and they sold for $1.2 billion two years ago. (More Kansas City Royals stories.)

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