Bye-bye Bud!

[Endymion]

The Selig family is planning to sell the Brewers. Hopefully this will mean a new owner who can rally the community and get everyone excited about the Brewers again. The State of Wisconsin still feels like it got fleeced by the Seligs in getting them a new stadium. With the All-Star fiasco and the firing of Payne this off-season, it put lots of Brewer fans at the end of the Selig rope.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1710656

Let's hope for a new beginning!

Endymion

[KCBOOMER]

Endy, That is indeed good news. Lets just hope it isn't a case of exchanging the devil you know for the one you don't know.

[Wolf Hopper]

I wonder if this sale will be as smooth as the recent sale of the Dodgers and Expos. :willis:

Odds are, it will smell as much as the recent Red Sox and Marlins sales.

MLB will probably "loan" someone a few hundred mill to buy the team.

[JamesI]

Selig should have sold the team when he became acting commisioner.

[Elmo]

It being our little Buddy - I would...see what the actual deal is before saluting the departure....

[cubfan33]

1) Going to be tough to sell. Herb Kohl couldn't move the Bucks last season.
2) This could mess up Doug Melvin. As much heat as the Brewers are taking, they're doing the right thing in building for the future since we KNOW they sucked now.
3) Let's say this sale goes more like the Dodgers than the Angels (which is just stunning, when you think about it.) That puts them right in the crosshairs of reopening contraction in 2006 (along with the Expos or maybe some other team from a Bay area).
4) If this deal looks remotely screwy, I'm not sure if Bud can do what it sure looks like he wants to do - stay past the date he said he'd leave the office of the Commissioner. Looks like we've still got that devil we do know ...

[tyruschen]

But if Bud decided to sell his team, doesn't that mean he'll be the commish longer...?

[Endymion]

My fear is that MLB buys the team from the Brewers at a premium for all of Bud's years of service to the sport, and the contracts both Montreal and Milwaukee. Maybe MLB pays the rent for the remaining 27 years at Miller Park.

I find it odd they announce there will be a Montreal decision by the All Star game and the same day we find out the Seligs are selling the Brewers. That's the conspiracy theorist in me talking at least.

[lonelybrewerfan]

I think they will find a buyer. Remember, just a few years ago they were MLB's most profitable franchise. Increased luxury tax revenue will help and if they continue to improve, the team will be drawing more next year. They also had one of the largest walkup attendances last september. Also, just the fact that the Seligs are selling will make more people go to games.

Look at it this way. The new owner will be instantly more credible than Selig. They still have a new ballpark, capable of producing a ton of cash when semi-full. They have no players tied to obscene long terms deals, and they have one of the best farms systems in baseball. The person who buys this team can't go anywhere but up with it.

[Elmo]

I think they will find a buyer.

Me too - he retired all that stadium 'debt.' slashed payroll, they have a honey of a state-funded park and guaranteed profitability for some time to come given the revenue sharing formulas. The only thing that would hold it up IMO is if Bud is too rapacious about it.

The rumour I heard is that Bud might want to do a little hokey pokey for him to get Montreal as a Washington/Northern VA franchise - so he gets to move into 'major' market and as commissioner, pay Montreal prices to do so....This solution would be quite slimey of course, but would have the advantage of having Bud leave the Commish's office as I don't think even Bud would have the chutzpah to do a Milwaukee for Montreal/Washington trade for himself as owner while he was commissioner.....

[Ytown Tribe fan]

That $110 million debt is a real problem.

The franchise was born of a bankruptcy and may end that way too, which would be a damned shame for the fans of Milwaukee, who have been chumped ever since the Braves left.

It would take years of shared revenue for a new owner to just break even -- years of low payroll, low attendance and low income, and low expectations.

Like everyone else, I'm assuming that anyone but Selig would be an improvement, although I hate the thought of him festering as "Commissioner" for even longer.

[pathogan]

...Selig brought Pilots to Milwaukee and kept them there ,built a pretyy damn good team in the early 80's, tried free agents[Sal Bando, Larry Hisle?}.If it werent for selig, I do not think the good people of Milawukee would have a team at all. This by way ,of course, of not excusing his disasterous handling of the franchise in the 90's nor his truly insipid job as coffe boy for the owners. Still, the whole picture is important, and I hope the team gets good new blood{like Keith Richards in Switzerland twice a year} :D

[Elmo]

That $110 million debt is a real problem.


If it actually exists. That's a team figure and a relatively small figure even if it is accurate - A team that conservatively makes a cash profit (prior to revenue sharing and luxury tax payments of over 25 mil) is probably able to service a 110 mil debt and still make rather handsome dividend payments. The club value is around 300 mil again MLB figures, so probably depressed to make it look how they want it to look, 200 mil if you take the debt into account.

In reality that debt is probably partially loans taken out to pay himself and the other owners/officers bonuses (a pretty common mlb trick), some stadium related debts which are probably only paper (and probably without any firm obligation to pay - they probably have options as regards maintenance for Miller which already eliminated 10s of millions of debt), and other loans for which the debt is actually an advantage to ownership over cash expenditures.

[balla45]

I think they will find a buyer, but it might take time. All I know is that I'm waiting for a new commissioner... =)

[jzmet]

Who knows if this will be good for baseball or the Brewers, but the simple fact that the Commissioner owned(yeah, I know, he owned it "in trust") the team was either a joke or a crime(or both) and should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. The sad part is that this probably means many more years of poor stewardship of the game, since Bud has no overt conflicts and is unlikely to be going anywhere.

[rcartman28]

I don't see much of a line forming to buy this team, especially with the debt hanging over their head. The people of Milwaukee deserved better than this, although for the first 20 years or so, it was a very respectable franchise. A shame of MLB ends up buying them out and contracting them with Montreal.

[tyruschen]

Bye bye Mr. Commish Bud,
Drove my Brew Crew Crazy,
And the (revenue) sharing was dry.
Then good old boys,
Were drinkin' whiskey and rye,
Singin' this'll be the day that I die,
This'll be the day that I die. :)

[sweaver]

I anticipate the Brewers and Expos being contracted at the end of the current bargaining agreement with the players, as we will be kept informed that there are no serious bidders for the Brewers.

Oh, what will Milwaukee think of Bud then....

[Endymion]

Does anyone know what the Brewers "Iron-Clad" contract with Miller Park is? If they were to be contracted would MLB be responsible for the remainder of the lease for the next ~25 years?

I am really conflicted as a Wisconsite who roots for the Brewers. Their would be no MLB in Wisconsin if it was not for Bud Selig, so I am grateful for the time/money/energy he invested in that. The other side of me does not trust a word the man says and thinks he has done horrible things to the game during his tenure as Commissioner, as well as to the Brewers over the last decade as he uses the mantra of the little guys can't compete, give me money. Especially when you look at the hoops he jumps through to help Boston and the other big revenue teams that pay him back by supporting his Baseball socialism. He's been a disaster.

So, thanks Bud for keeping baseball in Wisconsin, but shame for making it worse everywhere else in the country.

Hopefully his selling the team means he will be stepping down as commish and the team gets sold to some folks who are willing to inject some enthusiasm into the product they put on the field.

Endymion

[Elmo]

Does anyone know what the Brewers "Iron-Clad" contract with Miller Park is? If they were to be contracted would MLB be responsible for the remainder of the lease for the next ~25 years?

I am really conflicted as a Wisconsite who roots for the Brewers. Their would be no MLB in Wisconsin if it was not for Bud Selig, so I am grateful for the time/money/energy he invested in that. The other side of me does not trust a word the man says and thinks he has done horrible things to the game during his tenure as Commissioner, as well as to the Brewers over the last decade as he uses the mantra of the little guys can't compete, give me money. Especially when you look at the hoops he jumps through to help Boston and the other big revenue teams that pay him back by supporting his Baseball socialism. He's been a disaster.

So, thanks Bud for keeping baseball in Wisconsin, but shame for making it worse everywhere else in the country.

Hopefully his selling the team means he will be stepping down as commish and the team gets sold to some folks who are willing to inject some enthusiasm into the product they put on the field.

Endymion

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brew/jan04/201166.asp

http://roadsidephotos.com/baseball/bbblog.htm

The first is a discussion of what the Brewers are committed to and the second is Doug Pappas' invaluable weblog on business issues.

MLB responsible for the lease? Not exactly, but the lease would put a lien on the franchise and would require that the lease be dealt with, even in a bankruptcy situation.

Milwaukee had GOOD baseball for some time with Bud - abd then he believed his press and Milwaukee has had bad baseball for a long time. Miller Park actually could've re-energized the team...but Bud is so invested in the owner rhetoric that he believes it - and of course it makes his pocket fuller.

We'll see whether it is good for Baseball, Milwaukee or the game....

[sweaver]

The first sign of trouble is when you start to believe your own press releases....