Jennings Newcom, an attorney for the Royals, told the
Jackson County (MO) Complex Authority yesterday that the
sale of the team "could be delayed into next year,"
according to Jeffers & Crumpley of the K.C. STAR. At one
point, the team had set July 6 as the date for picking an
owner, then "later hoped" to present an owner for approval
at MLB's September owners' meetings. But Newcom said that
there was now a "significant possibility" that the team
would not meet the September deadline. Newcom: "No bidder
has come with a package with all the elements. There is a
likelihood that we will terminate the sale process. We're
hoping that's not the case." However, Dean Davison of
Barkley & Evergreen, the Royals' PR firm, said that Newcom
was "walking through all the possibilities" when talking to
the authority. Davison reiterated that the team hopes to
complete the process of picking an owner by season's end.
Jeffers & Crumpley write that authority members "seemed
surprised" by Newcom's statements. Authority Chair John
Bondon: "It sounds to me like they may not have a deal"
(K.C. STAR, 7/16). In K.C., Joe Posnanski writes that the
team "better not delay this process again" and says the team
should be sold to prospective owner Lamar Hunt: "The future
of this team depends on that. Baseball fans in [K.C.] are
sick of all this nonsense" (K.C. STAR, 7/16).
