Bidders Looking To Buy MLB Rangers Will Meet With Management

Ryan Reportedly Part Of Group Bidding For Rangers

The groups interested in buying the MLB Rangers from current Owner Tom Hicks will meet with the team's management next week "as they prepare their bids," according to sources cited by Ben Klayman of REUTERS. Sources said that the goal is to "have a winner identified by late November and a sale completed by year end." But a timeline to sell the team is "not set in stone." Analysts indicated that the Rangers are "expected to attract bids" of $500-550M. Potential buyers include Crane Worldwide Logistics Founder Jim Crane, Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg and White Sox Special Assistant to the Chair and former MLB agent Dennis Gilbert. Greenberg's group is believed to include Rangers President Nolan Ryan. Crane earlier this year bid to buy the Cubs. A fourth unidentified group "has been approved by baseball officials to view the Rangers finances, but sources said that group is not viewed as seriously as the others" (REUTERS, 10/15). In Ft. Worth, Barry Shlachter cites a source as saying that that neither Hicks nor Ryan will "meet with the bidders." The three groups instead "apparently will receive a presentation on Rangers operations" from GM Josh Daniels, team attorneys, accountants and "other front-office employees." A source said that all bidders "have been given access to secured Web pages containing detailed team information, including financial data, contracts and agreements." Shlachter notes it remains unclear "how seriously bidders are taking various signals from Hicks' camp that he would somehow like to hold onto a stake, if not majority control, of the Rangers" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 10/16).