McLane Grants Group Exclusive Negotiating Rights To Buy Astros

Astros Owner Drayton McLane has granted "exclusive negotiating rights to purchase the team to a group that includes" former IBAF President Harvey Schiller and an unidentified N.Y.-based investment banker, according to Fallas, Justice & Feigen of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. McLane granted the group negotiating rights "through the end of January," but vowed that "no deal is close." While McLane declined to name "any of the individuals involved," sources indicated that Schiller is part of the group. Schiller recently was "part of a group that briefly pursued" the MLB Rangers. Industry sources are "skeptical that he will be able to find enough investors to satisfy McLane's asking price, believed to be" around $650M. McLane yesterday said, "It has to be the right trust. As I've told you before, owning a baseball team involves a sacred trust with a city." He added, "We haven't put the team up for sale. We're not soliciting buyers. We're doing this for estate-planning purposes. But we've owned the Astros for 18 years and would be happy to plug along another 18 years." MLB Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday indicated that he "does not believe the Astros will be changing owners soon" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/12).

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? In Houston, Richard Justice writes this news that McLane has an "exclusive deal with an investment firm means nothing." The group asked McLane to grant those negotiating rights through the end of the month, and "so far, he has heard nothing." McLane contends that he "won't sell the Astros until he makes sure the new owner has the money to operate the franchise and the passion to do things right," and to find someone with "deep enough pockets to operate the franchise is a tall assignment." Justice notes the Astros have been a "well-run operation in the 17 seasons since McLane arrived." He generally has "put a good product on the field, and he led the effort that resulted in the construction of one of baseball's most beautiful ballparks" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/12).