As Orioles pitchers and catchers reported to spring training in Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday, David Rubenstein, who is heading an ownership group that has agreed to buy the team, shared on Bloomberg Television his reasoning for investing in the ballclub.
“I would say I’m interested in it because I want to give back to my hometown, I enjoy sports, I think it’s a very good investment opportunity,” he said Wednesday morning. Rubenstein hosts a show on Bloomberg Television but spoke about the Orioles on the program “Surveillance” when asked by the hosts about the deal.
Rubenstein pointed out that he and his ownership group have not formally acquired the club, but have agreed to a deal with the Angelos family, the Orioles’ longtime owners. Once the deal is approved, Rubenstein would become the team’s “control person,” MLB’s term for a club’s lead decision-maker.
MLB owners discussed the sale, which values the team at $1.725 billion, at meetings last week in Orlando, but it has not yet been voted on and approved. The sale is expected to move more quickly than other MLB team sales, sources have told The Baltimore Sun.
“Hopefully it’ll be approved at some point in the not too distant future,” Rubenstein said on Bloomberg Television, which is owned by a company co-founded by Michael Bloomberg — who is a part of Rubenstein’s ownership team.
“We’re gonna bring back a lot of people that are well known in Baltimore,” Rubenstein said. “Cal Ripken, is a good example, will be investing with us and other things, so I think we can assemble a good group of people who care about Baltimore and one of those people who care about Baltimore is a guy named Mike Bloomberg.”
Rubenstein noted how much Bloomberg, the billionaire former Mayor of New York City, has given to Johns Hopkins. The school’s website states that he has given more than $3.5 billion to JHU.
Rubenstein, 74, grew up in Baltimore “rooting for the Baltimore Orioles” and attended Baltimore City College before graduating from Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School. He co-founded the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm based in Washington, in 1987.
Rubenstein noted the rising value of sports franchises — the Orioles, for example, were sold for under $3 million in 1954 — and when asked if he thought the values of sports teams were reaching their ceiling, he pointed to the record-breaking viewership numbers of the most recent Super Bowl.
“There are a lot of people out there who like to watch sports, there’s nothing wrong with it,” he said.
Asked about the process of purchasing a team and if Rubenstein had to explain to current owners his commitment to Baltimore, he said: “I actually think that anybody that sells a sports franchise doesn’t want to sell it to somebody who’s going to ruin the franchise, so you have to say why you think you can make it even better than somebody [who’s] already had it, did with it. So I’m thinking we can do a good job with it.”
