Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis said that he was recruited by Jeb Bush to "join the ownership group that’s now made up of former rivals in the Marlins hunt," according to Douglas Hanks of the MIAMI HERALD. Bush united with Tagg Romney and Quogue Capital Founder Wayne Rothbaum to "pursue the baseball franchise." Lemonis said that Bush "called him out of the blue several weeks ago" about joining his group. Lemonis agreed to invest in a Marlins purchase when Bush was "planning to be in charge of the franchise once the sale went through." Now Rothbaum, who sold his pharmaceutical company in '15 in a deal that could be worth up to $7B, is set to be the "leading partner in exchange for investing the most money." Lemonis has family that lives in the Miami area, and he "recently joined" the Univ. of Miami BOD. Meanwhile, he said that the "key to a Marlins turnaround would be engineering a local embrace of a team that moved from Miami Gardens to a new ballpark in Little Havana five years ago but still struggles with attendance." Lemonis: "I don’t think the people of Miami ever fully made it their team. I think you have to figure out how to engage here. Having ownership engaged in Miami, interacting with the community, I think will make a difference" (MIAMI HERALD, 6/27). Bloomberg News' Scott Soshnick cited sources as saying that Shoney's Chair & CEO David Davoudpour also is "an investor" in the Bush/Romney/Rothbaum bid as well (TWITTER.com, 6/26).
