The Texas Rangers Are Deadbeats.
Once-upon-a-time club owner George W. Bush will throw out the opening day first pitch of a deadbeat franchise, the Texas Rangers, now that it is announced that the Dallas-born and previously wealthy owner of the club, Tom Hicks, has defaulted on $500 million in loans on his sports empire. Hicks, 65, was born into a radio family and later used his family connections to feast on leveraged buyouts in the 1980s. Soda pop deals led to a private equity group that lived on other people's money and big Texas talk until the bragging rights presented Hicks as another Texas billionaire, big house, private aircraft, single malt whiskey, and Bush family back-slapping -- with a most recent incarnation as a Rudy Giuliani chest-thumper. Never considered shrewd about baseball, but never regarded as a financial idiot, these days Mr. Hicks looks to be stale beer and stalling. Hicks claims that he is declining to talk. Hicks also claims he retired from big finance in 2006, at the top of the housing bubble. Hicks is collapsing with the sports bubble. One loud-mouthed, puffy-jawed Dallas guy owns not only the baseball team Texas Rangers, but also the hockey team Dallas Stars and 50% of Liverpool's heroically famous and worshipped Football Club. All deadbeats now. The other half of the Liverpool team, George Gillet, (above with Tom Hicks in rosier days) is trying to sell his baseball team the Montreal Canadiens. All cash offers considered. What we are watching is the last days of drug-addled superstar salaries and full stadiums or arenas with generous television contracts. Entire leagues are going to fail. How can any club survive when the guys who buy the stupidly expensive tickets are out of work or think they are? Also, the corporations who buy the luxury boxes are on the Big Mac dollar menu at the NYSE or have already accepted the TARP and must cancel all frills, such as aircraft, saunas and season tickets. Prom party is over. Light bill unpaid. Hicks is said to be seeking a minority investor. Try Tim Geithner at Treasury, then ring up Bernie Madoff. And aren't we just certain the the banks holding the loans that Hicks blew up, and holding all the other club loans, are the very same banks that are now insolvent except for the Fed? Does Ben Bernanke want to put all the major leagues at once onto his balance sheet? Rename them the New York Debtors vs the San Francisco Repos? Do I think it is a bad thing that sports is a toxic asset? No. Hundred million dollar fantasy contracts for enhanced libertines like Alex Rodriguez (Hicks did the deal) only make sense when Chuck Prince's Citigroup was trading above $40, and AIG was named Greenberg.
Babe Ruth Took A Salary Cut.
March 1933, Babe Ruth went to Florida without a contract from club owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert. Babe Ruth said, "Financial conditions throughout the country have not changed my mind about the contract." Colonel Ruppert offered the Babe a $50,000 one-year deal, which was a smashing reduction from the previous year's league-leading $75,000. What happened to the deal? Same thing that will happen when Big Sports blows up. The greatest man who ever took to the field of baseball took a cut to $52,000. Slow year for Babe on his way to retirement three years later. Batted .301 with 138 hits and 34 HRs and 103 RBIs. Joe McCarthy's bombers went 91-59 and finished 2nd. Tom Hicks would die for this, but now that he is a bankrupt, he is already dead. The Fed owns the Rangers. Babe Ruth owns hallowed ground in Valhalla, New York and an eternal contract to hit third and go deep over the Pearly Gates.
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WNBC TV in NYC let sports announcer Len Berman go and no one cared. Will the METS, YANKEES, JETS and GIANTS default on the notes for their new stadia? Some fans can afford 250 dollar tickets at Yankee Stadium, but fewer than 2 years ago.
Will Obama go after the "skybox deduction"? If BHO wants to create class envy, he can limit the business expense deduction on sporting events. He has stood firm on Charitable deductions, he may want to play the class card and go after skybox attendees. Better than AIG bonuses
Hub: 'Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in. '
'You just can't beat the person who never gives up.' B Ruth
'I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun.' B Ruth
'If I'd just tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around .600.' B Ruth
On my nearly 30-hour trip to Chennai last week, I was holed up in a Bombay airport holding pen (for transit passengers) for nearly 4 hours. Bleary-eyed, I noted a rather large, comfortably furnished room. Its ornate doors with a brass plaque announcing (Air India's) ‘Maharajah Lounge’ stood open. I saw only staff inside.
I decided to enter. "I'm an Air India passenger,” I said to no one in particular. There were six or so white-clad Indians present in various parts of the room. They rushed over to me in unison to explain that the lounge was meant for first class passengers only. The boarding pass tucked into my shirt pocket had given me away.
Unlike on previous flights along this particular route, this time I enjoyed two adjacent seats throughout. I concluded that people must be traveling less. And, obviously, there were very few (if any) first class passengers.
By the time six months have passed (when I expect to return), I can envision the Maharajah Lounge entrance (as well as others of the type, each administered by its own respective airline) all bricked up, like the murderous subterranean niche in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.
I agree 100% that the sports bubble needs to burst. Salaries for players have to come down. I live in the NY area and going to a game at the new Yankee Stadium can cost a small fortune. A seat in the first row near the dugout goes for over 2600.00 $ !! YES that is not a typo. A basic box seat can be any where from 75$ and up. A family of four would have to pay over 500.00 $ when the cost of food, tolls, parking and gas are factored in.A recent statistic stated that a box seat in 1967 was 3.50$, when adjusted for inflation, it translated to a current cost of twenty five dollars. Those were the days ! I love baseball but a front row seat next to by HDTV is a much more economical option.