Dumping the Sports Teams

[mudhen]

This falls under the "news" more than rumor. Read in the
local paper today that Disney is in the process of looking
to sell both the Angels and the Mighty Ducks. Seems after
initial success (especially the Ducks), attendance is lagging
and, well, the Ducks went from being trendy to just plain
crappy.
Here's the kicker in both situations.........Guess who was in
charge of both franchise operations from the Disney side???

Yep, good ol' Paul Pressler. Seems Mike and the boys no
longer want to play with the toys they bought back when
the gettin' was good. Now, if they only get rid of ABC...........

 

[DisneyKidds]

There was an article in the NY Times today regarding the potential baseball strike and it had a big picture of ME standing in front of a Disney podium. The focus of the article was the teams owned by the media conglomerates. The gist was that the media owners were much more interested in settling and avoiding the strike, even if it meant giving in to the players to some extent. The article went on to discuss how the media conglomerates use the sports teams more to bring in television, cable and advertising money than they do to actually make any money on the teams themselves. In order to bring in this other revenue they are actually willing to take losses on the teams. Thought it was interesting.

What does it mean? Who knows. If the Disney teams are on the block they are on the block. Hopefully we can read into the motivation that perhaps Disney is realizing they need to refocus on their core business and not be distracted by these ventures, even if having them operate at a loss is financially beneficial for the company. Just trying to look for a glimmer of hope that someone is taking their head out of their **** and doing something for the right reason, not just a money reason. Probably not, but one can always hope.

 

[hopemax]

Somehow I can't get to involved in this latest round of "oh, we're selling the sports teams." It seems like everytime Disney announces poor earnings/poor next quarter outlook we hear about the sports teams. But after a month or so the talk fades away into nothingness until it's trotted out after the next poor earnings report.

 

[Eeyore2U]

You can't sell something no one wants to buy. I think that the Angels, with their good season and no strike becme marketable again.

 

[Another Voice]

The sports teams have been on the block for over three years now and many potential buyers have wandered through Pressler’s office to look at the books. The two biggest sticking points are Disney’s asking price and a team’s mobility.

Disney sunk a tremendous amount of money into the teams: franchise fees, purchase costs, running the teams, facilities, etc. Eisner has demanded a rather hefty return for that “investment” so that the Ducks and Angles don’t become one more money-losing hobby he’s taken the company for (i.e., he doesn’t want to answer any nasty questions from the board). He’d rather take the operating loss than take the hit to the books. It’s rumored that three potential buyers for the Angels walked away from deals when Disney refused to lower their price.

And Disney’s in a situation with the City of Anaheim. The city has poured over a billion dollars into Angels Stadium and The Pond, and city, county and state have poured billions more into the area surrounding Disneyland – billions that were committed based on the millions of additional tourists that were supposed to be flocking to Anaheim as the result of the Disneyland Resort expansion.

Well, more money was put into the freeway onramps and offramps than Disney put in California Adventure and those millions of people never showed up. The city is rather upset (as are many of us taxpayers). And, in fact, the renovations to Angels Stadium cost the same as California Adventure did as well (around $750 million). With so much public money wasted on its failed projects, Disney can’t allow the teams to be moved. Any buyer would be forced to keep them in Anaheim and that too has busted a few deals.

To most people it looks like they’d be buying Disney’s problems rather than buying a sports team.