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Moores said he is ready to move
on and "sit in the cheap seats" |
Padres outgoing Chair John Moores said he has "no clue" as to why the team's sale to Vice Chair & CEO Jeff Moorad has yet to be approved by MLB, according to Nick Canepa of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Moores for more than a month "has been ready for closure on the sale of his 51-percent share of the team," and he was "known to be
pretty much ticked off in January when his fellow owners shelved what was thought to be an 'imminent' deal to pass full ownership" to Moorad. Moores said of the hold-up, "You got me, bud. You probably know more about what’s going on than I do. There are lots of things I understand; this is not one of them. At some point, it has to be dealt with, but it’s nothing I have control over. I don’t understand all the issues and don’t know the time line." He added, “I don’t know what people are thinking. I don’t even know a lot of the owners. I don’t know how the vote will go. I do know [MLB Commissioner Bud] Selig likes unanimous votes.” Canepa notes there are "all kinds of storylines here, one being that a block of owners doesn't want Moorad in total control of a team." Reports have also indicated that MLB "doesn’t want to approve the Padres’ new, all-important TV deal with Fox until ownership is resolved." But Canepa writes of MLB, "It wants the ownership thing finished so the lucrative TV package can get done, but it won’t OK the ownership deal because it fears Moorad will use TV dough to pay off his investors instead of shoving it back into the team." Moores said of TV money being passed on to investors, "I can only speculate, but I don’t think that would be accepted by Major League Baseball. I don’t think that’s (the TV deal’s) an issue. If it is an issue, I don’t think it’s keeping the deal from getting done." However, he said, "I’m ready to move on. After 17 years, I’m ready to close the door. I’m ready to sit in the cheap seats" (
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/29).
