Natural Gas Execs Help Finance Greenberg-Ryan Rangers Takeover

Ryan Will Head New Rangers Ownership  Group With Greenberg

Rangers Baseball Express (RBE), the group that has reached a definitive deal to purchase the MLB Rangers, is "apparently drawing a significant chunk of its bankroll for the $500[M]-plus acquisition" from Ft. Worth-based XTO Energy Chair Bob Simpson and former Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners co-Chair & co-CEO Ray Davis, according to Jack Smith of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Simpson and Davis, who "made their fortunes from natural gas and benefited from the riches of North Texas' Barnett Shale," will be co-Chairs of the board of RBE, which is headed by Pittsburgh-based attorney Chuck Greenberg and Rangers President Nolan Ryan. Meanwhile, Smith notes the purchase of the Rangers "could be consummated by April 4, the team's season opener." The deal is "expected to pass muster from baseball's executive committee and eight-man ownership committee," though the 40 lenders who hold $525M "in Hicks Sports Group debt also are to review the agreement" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/26).

STAYING ON BOARD: Outgoing Rangers Owner Tom Hicks, who will assume the role of Chair Emeritus under RBE's ownership, said of the deal, "The key is we all love the Rangers and we all expect to be big fans and still plan to go to the games and we have an official connection. The way the deal turned out, at the end I was given a choice of owning significantly more of equity in the team and taking less cash or taking a small ownership role and much bigger cash and land considerations and I chose the latter for business reasons. I’d rather complete the transaction and be a fan." In Ft. Worth, Jennifer Floyd Engel writes to pretend Hicks' time as Rangers owner "has been an unmitigated disaster is just wrong." Hicks: "Doing this for 12 years, in hindsight, I learned what I did that was smart and what I did that wasn’t so smart. And I feel good about how I’m leaving it. I insisted I had some ownership in the deal because I want to celebrate in the locker room. I want a World Series ring. I want to get dirty with champagne again." Hicks added he does "not now" have any plans to sell the Stars. Hicks: "It will depend on a lot of things." Hicks also indicated that he does not "have any plans at all to sell" his stake in EPL club Liverpool (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/26).

NO TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT: In Dallas, Mike Heika reports the sale of the Rangers "probably will not improve the Stars' ability to spend money this season, and it might not even change how they look at free agency this summer." Hicks in an e-mail said, "The Stars will continue to operate in a business-as-usual manner. Our biggest goal is to make the playoffs and to have success in them as we did two years ago." Heika notes this means the Stars have an internal budget of about $45M "that probably won't change." If GM Joe Nieuwendyk "wants to make a trade, it likely will have to be a dollars-in-for-dollars-out deal, and he probably will have to move assets from an area of strength to fill perceived weaknesses" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 1/26).