Denver Post Selling Colorado Rockies Interest

story originally appeared on mercurynews.com

DENVER -- The Denver Post is actively marketing its minority ownership stake in the Colorado Rockies, according to Digital First Media, which operates Denver Post owner MediaNews Group.

The paper is seeking to sell the stake in the baseball team as it pursues a digital strategy focused on content creation and advertising sales on multiple platforms, according to Digital First Media chief executive John Paton.

The Post holds a 7.3 percent stake in the Rockies, which is majority owned by brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort.

In March, Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $464 million, up 12 percent from the previous year.

Ed Moss, CEO of the Denver Post and Executive Vice President of Digital first Media said that there has been a recent increase in market value of Major League Baseball teams, and they would sell the interest if they could receive the right value. Otherwise, he says, they can just old onto their interest in the Colorado Rockies.

New York-based Digital First Media took over management of MediaNews Group in the fall of 2011. The Bay Area News Group is among the other MediaNews Group newspapers managed by DFM.

Park Lane, a sports-focused investment bank based in Los Angeles, and Katten Muchin Roseman LLP, a sports law group, will field offers for the Post's ownership position in the Rockies.

DODGERS IN BANKRUPTCY

The Los Angeles Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, blaming Major League Baseball for rejecting a television deal that would have given the storied baseball team an urgent injection of cash.
The filing marks a dramatic attempt by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who is embroiled in a bitter divorce from his ex-wife, to prevent the league and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig from seizing the team, which McCourt bought in 2004.
In a court filing, the team said it had been on the verge of running out of cash but that the Chapter 11 filing will allow it to meet payroll, sign players, pay vendors and continue playing baseball.
It is becoming rather clear and likely inevitable that Frank McCourt will end up selling part or all of the franchise. The back-and-forth between him and Major League Baseball leaves them where they won't be able to coexist much longer.
Selig responded to the bankruptcy filing with a statement blaming the Dodgers' financial woes on McCourt's excessive debt and his diversion of club assets to address personal needs. He said his goal from the outset has been to ensure that the Dodgers are being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future for their millions of fans. He feels the ideas and proposals that he has been asked to consider have not been consistent with the best interests of Baseball.
On June 20, the league vetoed the Dodgers' proposed $3 billion, 17-year television contract with News Corp's Fox Broadcasting Co, saying it ran contrary to the best interests of the team, the game and fans.
The deal promised an upfront payment to the Dodgers of $385 million, but Selig has criticized the proposed use of part of that money to fund McCourt's divorce.
McCourt has said the payment was crucial to the team's health. According to a court filing, the Dodgers need to pay or set aside more than $28 million for payroll by July 1.
McCourt said that they brought the commissioner a media rights deal that would have solved the cash flow challenge that he presented to him a year ago. McCourt feels that Selig has turned his back on the Dodgers, treated them differently, and forced them to the point they find themselves in today.
Forbes magazine in March ranked the Dodgers as baseball's third-most valuable team, worth $800 million. That is more than twice what McCourt paid, and trails only the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, it said.
Monday's filing punctuates a stunning fall for one of baseball's marquee teams, whose roots date to 1884 when it played in New York as the Brooklyn Atlantics.
The team became the Dodgers permanently in 1932, and broke Major League Baseball's racial barrier when Jackie Robinson began playing in 1947. It began playing in Los Angeles in 1958 and has called Dodger Stadium home since 1962.
This year, the team has a 35-44 record and has seen home attendance decline sharply. The Dodgers have won six World Series championships, but none since 1988.
Selig took over day-to-day control of the Dodgers in April amid worries about team finances, and security concerns that followed a brutal Opening Day beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
Monday's filing comes less than a year after the Texas Rangers baseball team emerged from bankruptcy, owned by a group that includes Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
Another marquee franchise, the New York Mets, is also overloaded with debt, and its owners, face a $1 billion lawsuit by the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
The owners are in talks to sell part of that team to hedge fund manager David Einhorn for $200 million.
Other teams to file for bankruptcy in recent years include the Buffalo Sabres and Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League.
The Dodgers arranged a $150 million, one-year financing from lenders so the team can operate normally while in bankruptcy. The variable interest rate on the loan would be at least 10 percent, and the team could draw $60 million immediately and $90 million later.
The Dodgers' filing in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware shows between $500 million and $1 billion of assets and between $100 million and $500 million of liabilities.
Four other related entities also filed for protection from creditors, including one that owns Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers said the team's largest unsecured creditors include former outfielders Manny Ramirez and Andruw Jones, who are owed $21 million and $11.1 million, respectively.
Ramirez retired in April rather than accept a 100-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, after serving a 50-game suspension in 2009. Jones plays for the New York Yankees.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon scheduled a one-day trial in August to decide whether the Dodgers belong to Frank McCourt, or whether the McCourts should split the team.
The McCourts' lawyers on June 17 said the pair had resolved all issues in their divorce except for the Dodgers' ownership.
The Dodgers have historically been one of the greatest brands in sports. Buyers may view this as a chance to buy in with the knowledge they can rehabilitate the brand, rebuild the fan base, and add to its value over time.

Baseball Caravan to U.S. Diamonds Helps Mizuno Hit Against Nike

Bloomberg

 

Mizuno Corp., the Japanese maker of baseball gloves and bats for major league stars Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, is on a summer road trip to win a better position on U.S. baseball and softball diamonds.

The company has deployed a caravan of royal blue-and-white vans bringing gear and glovemakers to stadiums, amateur fields and sporting-goods stores in California, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky as it tries to boost its sales in the $1.8 billion diamond-sports retail market by 33 percent within five years.

Mizuno is fighting Nike Inc., Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. and Spalding for shelf space after the Osaka-based company’s baseball sales in the U.S. peaked at $75 million in 2008 -- almost doubling from 2000. The company aims for sales of $100 million by 2015, and it pulled out of Europe and Latin America to funnel resources into that effort, said Hideki Tsuruoka, director of its baseball division.

“The company who rules the U.S. market can rule world markets,” said Tsuruoka, who played baseball at the University of Washington in Washington state. “We will fight with gloves and spikes.”

Mizuno ranked No. 6 in the U.S. baseball and softball retail market last year with an 8.2 percent share, according to data compiled by SportsONESource LLC of Charlotte, North Carolina. Easton-Bell Sports Inc. led with 22 percent, followed by Rawlings, Wilson Sporting Goods Co. and Nike, the world’s largest athletic-shoe maker.

Players Decreasing

Mizuno’s overall sales dropped to 148.7 billion yen ($1.74 billion) in the fiscal year that ended March 30, down from 162 billion yen a year earlier, as demand for golf products declined and shoe prices fell. The company, which also makes running shoes, skiing and tennis equipment, had net income of 1.6 billion yen.

Mizuno is making its baseball push as the number of U.S. players declined 13 percent to 13.8 million last year from 15.8 million in 2000, according to data from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. The company is willing to accept narrower profit margins because baseball is the “flesh and blood of our business,” Tsuruoka said.

The field also is getting more crowded. Spalding, based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is returning to the market after a 10- year absence.

All-Star MVP

“Baseball is kind of a no-brainer with our heritage,” said Dave Coradini, senior director of diamond sports for Spalding, founded in 1876 and now a division of Atlanta-based Russell Corp. “Mizuno and Rawlings are certainly the two strongest in terms of entire baseball-equipment brands. Now we are going to compete against them.”

Russell was acquired in 2006 by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Rawlings, owned by Jarden Corp. of Rye, New York, makes the official baseball for Major League Baseball and is endorsed by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. Jarden had revenue of $5.15 billion in 2009, down from $5.38 billion a year earlier.

Mizuno’s efforts in the U.S. also rely on its MLB ties, Tsuruoka said. About 170 players -- including Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, Matsui of the Los Angeles Angels and last month’s All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves -- have contracts to use Mizuno gear.

“We must make better use of 51 and 55 to penetrate our targets,” Tsuruoka said, referring to the uniform numbers of Suzuki and Matsui, respectively.

Those players, stars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league before moving to the U.S., appear in Mizuno advertisements. The company controls about 40 percent of the Japanese market, which the Yano Research Institute Ltd. in Tokyo said will be worth an estimated 78.2 billion yen this year.

Former Yankee

“I’ve been using Mizuno since my childhood because of its quality,” Matsui, a former Yankee, said in an e-mail. “Some of my teammates have come up to me and said, ‘I want to try that’ or ‘I want to borrow that.’”

Mizuno started in 1906 selling sundries, including baseballs, from an Osaka storefront. It moved into the U.S. market in 1969 and launched its first caravan nine years later.

Recreational vehicles carrying equipment and glovemakers traveled to every MLB team to pitch their wares and repair gloves and cleats, Tsuruoka said. The first major leaguers to wear Mizuno mitts included Pete Rose and Bobby Valentine.

“It was very difficult for a foreign company to enter the baseball world,” said Valentine, who managed the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines. “The craftsmanship was so spectacular and all of the details were made to perfection. Many players appreciated that.”

Mitt Steamers

The company has increased its number of field representatives, who work with schools and baseball leagues, to 11 from two and will install glove steamers at U.S. shops to help customers break in their mitts. It installed about 500 steamers in Japan since 2000, said Noriko Ueda, Mizuno’s spokeswoman.

Mizuno USA also has a new marketing plan for its website and social networking sites that will start in the fourth quarter of this year and extend into next year, Bram Krieger, vice president of sales for diamond sports, said in an e-mail.

“There’s a huge amount of respect now for Japanese baseball among American sports fans,” Jim Small, MLB’s vice president for Asia, said in Tokyo. “People are saying, ‘Hey, look at that guy. He’s cool, he’s using Mizuno.’”