Due to "mounting debts in the neighborhood of $63 million"
and "increasing turmoil" within the organization, two minority
owners of the Brewers are planning to sell their stock in the
team, according to Bruce Murphy in the November issue of
MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE. Murphy cites several "knowledgeable sources"
who confirm the Brewers circulated an offer to purchase 22% of
the club with an October 15 deadline. The same sources also
suggest that Leona Stearns, the 91-year old widow of former
Brewers Owner Roswell Stearns, plans to sell her 14% share in the
club and Mary Ellen Ela, widow of former Owner P. Goff Beach,
will sell "all but a tiny amount" of her 8% ownership. Murphy
notes Brewers majority Owner Bud Selig, who owns about 26% of the
team, is "controlling" the sale and has offered to buy back the
stock himself at a price, which Murphy calculates, "pegs the net
value of the team at about $28 million." Murphy's sources add
Selig then plans to sell the stock to an outside investor,
believed to be John Canning, part-Owner of the Class AAA Norfolk,
VA Tides (MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE, 11/96).
MOTIVATION: Murphy reports going into the '96 season, the
Brewers had accumulated $55M in debt and are expected to lose
another $8M in '96, with projections of a $4M loss for '97. The
debt has allegedly led to "some dissatisfaction with Selig's
leadership." Brewers VP Wendy Selig-Prieb would neither confirm
nor deny the $63M loss figure (MILWAUKEE MAGAZINE, 11/96 issue).
