Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Franchises

Tigers Owner Chris Ilitch Says Team Not Up For Sale After Recent Roster Overhaul

Tigers Owner Chris Ilitch said that the team is "not for sale," according to a front-page piece by Daniel Howes of the DETROIT NEWS. Ilitch: "I am committed and we are committed to long-term Ilitch family ownership of the Detroit Tigers." Ilitch, the son of late Tigers Owner Mike Ilitch, dismissed "pointed public speculation that dismantling a perennial contender ... is a precursor to peddling the team." The Tigers in the last month have traded P Justin Verlander and OF Justin Upton, and Ilitch said, "My father would have done the exact same thing that we are doing. ... The approach that they’re taking right now is exactly the approach that he followed." Ilitch's comments closely echo his father's promise before his death in February that Ilitch Holdings' "myriad collection of assets" would "remain '100 percent' controlled by the family." Howes writes Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert has "long been rumored to covet owning the Tigers" (DETROIT NEWS, 9/14). Financial media outlet BENZINGA.com's Joel Elconin wrote, "I'm sticking my neck out with this prediction: The Ilitch family is going to sell the Detroit Tigers." The front office's actions this summer "closely resemble the repair of a home before it's put up for sale." Over the last month, the team "shed some major salaries and potential liabilities." The Ilitch family may also "have to pay an inheritance tax on its assets" in '17. If the family "doesn't have the ample cash, or doesn't want to part with it," one way the Ilitch's can "generate cash without tax on the gains" is by selling the Tigers (BENZINGA.com, 9/13).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/09/14/Franchises/Tigers.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/09/14/Franchises/Tigers.aspx

CLOSE