12.21.2001 00:21
Boston Red Sox sold for a record $700 million
• Florida Marlins owner John Henry and Hollywood producer Tom Werner make the winning pitch to the Boston franchise.
BY ART MARTONE
Journal Sports Editor
After a day of intrigue and suspense that appeared to scuttle any hopes of an imminent sale, the Boston Red Sox last night announced that the storied baseball franchise is being sold to John Henry and Tom Werner for $660 million, more than double the previous record sale for a baseball team.
Henry is the current owner of the Florida Marlins, but is negotiating to sell the team. Werner, a Hollywood producer, formerly owned the San Diego Padres.
The announcement followed an all-day meeting of the team's limited partners that was chaired by John Harrington, who has run the Red Sox for the Jean R. Yawkey Trust -- which owns 53 percent of the team's stock -- since 1994. When the meeting was over, Harrington announced that the limited partners had voted unanimously to accept the trust's recommendation to sell the franchise to Henry and Werner.
"I am highly confident that, if approved by Major League Baseball, John Henry and his group will be outstanding owners who will carry on the Yawkey tradition of fielding a competitive team and contributing to the community," Harrington said after the meeting.
Harrington called the Henry/Werner bid the "highest qualified bid". He repeatedly said during the drawn-out sale process -- the Red Sox went on the market on Oct. 6, 2000 -- that the Yawkey Trust would accept the "highest qualified bid" and not necessarily the top price offered.
The group, which previously had been headed by Werner and New England ski mogul Les Otten, added Henry as a partner earlier this month. Henry, who has owned the Marlins since 1999, is both well known and well liked in baseball circles and it was felt his presence would ease the chances of winning approval from fellow owners. Interestingly, Harrington referred to the group -- which previously had been called the Werner/Otten group and later was known as Werner/Henry -- as "the John Henry Group."
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig is known to like individuals within the Henry and Werner group, which also includes former Sen. George Mitchell, of Maine.
Other owners in Major League Baseball are expected to vote on the sale within the next six months. Three-quarters of the owners must approve the deal.
Earlier in the day, chances of a sale seemed remote when an alliance between Henry/Werner and two Boston businessmen, Joe O'Donnell and Steve Karp, collapsed. The two had joined forces in the face of competition from two well-heeled groups: One headed by Cablevision's Charles Dolan, the other by New York lawyer Miles Prentice and the private equity firm Quadrangle Group. Their proposals to purchase the shares of all the limited partners -- in addition to the majority share of the team owned by the Yawkey Trust, Fenway Park, and the Red Sox' share of the New England Sports Network television company -- had pushed the sale price past its original estimate of $380 million into the $650 million range.
The Henry/Werner/O'Donnell/Karp merger seemed to have the perfect blend of money, baseball connections and local influence. Baseball officials apparently hoped to steer the sale toward the new group; the Boston Globe reported yesterday that Selig had urged the two to merge.
At 10 a.m., a Boston radio station announced that potentially deal-killing snags had emerged in efforts to finalize the marriage of the two groups. But 20 minutes later, the same station said the problems were resolved and sale negotiations were moving forward.
The meeting of the limited partners began at 11 a.m. Four hours later, a different Boston radio station reported the "super group" had fallen apart, throwing the sale back into flux.
Less than two hours after that, other media sources confirmed the breakup. One of the reports stated that on Wednesday night Harrington had sold the team's concession rights for the next 10 years to the Aramark Corporation -- which, incidentally, is one of the limited partners -- and that caused O'Donnell/Karp to back out of the bidding. O'Donnell runs Boston Concessions Group, a company that employs approximately 11,000 people in 30 states.
In a joint statement, Henry and Werner said the groups never solved the issue of control of the alliance.
But the meeting of the limited partners continued, and at approximately 8 p.m., Harrington announced the sale.
Thomas DiBenedetto, a minority shareholder, told The Associated Press the price was $660 million, which more than doubled the previous record of $323 million paid last year for the Cleveland Indians.
There was no immediate word on any personnel changes. Various Boston media outlets reported that the Henry/Werner/O'Donnell/Karp group would replace general manager Dan Duquette as soon as the sale was announced, but Duquette's status was unchanged as of last night.
Larry Lucchino, the former president of the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres, is likely to become Red Sox team president if the sale is approved.
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