John Henry & Co. debating selling the Red Sox?

[Clem Fandango]

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/09/13/boston-red-sox-could-be-on-block/

 

The owners of the Boston Red Sox are mulling a potential sale of the storied baseball franchise, and have even begun quietly shopping the team to potential buyers, the FOX Business Network has learned.

 

The team is owned by the Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the English football team Liverpool FC. While no final decision has been made about a potential sale, and the talks appear to be in the early stages, executives at Fenway Sports are debating whether they have the financial resources to run both teams, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

 

 

Financier John Henry is the principle owner of Fenway Sports, which bought the Red Sox in 2002 and produced immediate results, winning the World Series in 2004 and 2007. But the last two seasons have been dismal ones for the team, plagued by injuries and overpaid talent.

 

Recently, the team unloaded a slew of underperforming players, saving as much as $250 million through 2018.

 

Also likely weighing on the consideration to sell the team is the poor performance of Henry’s investment company, John Henry & Co. this year, these people say. The firm, which specializes in the futures market, has had a volatile year, with funds such as his Global Analytics losing nearly 16% this year, according to the company’s website.

 

Sounds like he can't do well at either sport... this sounds eerily familiar

 

But according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, the biggest challenge for Henry is running two expensive sports franchises. Fenway Sports purchased the Liverpool team for $476 million in 2010, and has been widely criticized for overpaying for players who have under-delivered

[Cubswin11]

Frank McCourt recently had some capital and equity freed up :D . He was close to buying them the last time they were for sale.

[Guest]

Here is what John Henry said just now about the report that the Red Sox are up for sale:

 

"A sale of any kind is so far from our thinking it hasn't even come up apart from technical planning issues involving death or disability. This report is completely without foundation.

 

"Regarding unnamed sources: Any sale discussions that may have taken place were missing three key people — Larry [Lucchino], Tom [Werner] and me. The Sox and any of the other components of FSG are not for sale and will not be for the foreseeable future."

[Clem Fandango]

Well that settles that

[TruffleShuffle]

Sounds like he can't do well at either sport... this sounds eerily familiar

 

well the red sox, fenway park and 80% of NESN were bought for $700m in 2002, which is looking like a pretty nice bargain since the dodgers just went for over $2 billion.

[Clem Fandango]

Sounds like he can't do well at either sport... this sounds eerily familiar

 

well the red sox, fenway park and 80% of NESN were bought for $700m in 2002, which is looking like a pretty nice bargain since the dodgers just went for over $2 billion.

 

I was referring to how many Liverpool fans consider that they overpaid for under performing talent. If they were to sell the Red Sox they'd make a huge return on their investment, obviously.