Texas Rangers Sale Down to Dotting the "I"s and Crossing "T"s

While the sale of the Texas Rangers moved past its 30-day window this past Friday, lawyers for Hicks Sports Group and the group headed by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan have been working almost non-stop to complete the sale. According to a source close to the negotiations, the process is down to “dotting the “i”s and crossing the “t”s” with the sale being completed “very, very shortly.”

The prospect that a deal could be reached by the weekend continues to be the effort.

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An aspect of the sale that has not been discussed involves Hicks’ retaining minority ownership and tax avoidance. If Hicks were to have sold the club outright, he would have had to pay capital gains tax in the tens of millions of dollars. In the recent $845 million sale of the Chicago Cubs from the Tribune Co. to the Ricketts family that has Tribune retaining a 5 percent ownership stake in the club, Tribune saved approx. $100 million in taxes. With Hicks staying on as a minority partner, he will avoid such taxes.

GREENBERG/RYAN GROUP RELEASES STATEMENT ON SALE OF TEXAS RANGERS

We have made extraordinary progress the last couple of weeks and have come too far to walk away now. We are fully committed and prepared to work around the clock if that’s what it takes to reach a final agreement. We are at a point where deals get done as long as both parties share a desire to cross the finish line together. There just isn't much left to resolve.

Sounds as if they are very close. Working through the weekend. It should be noted that in the sale of the Cubs, the exclusive negotiating window went well past 30 days.