After a long saga, Forbes reports that the Miami Marlins will finally have a new owner.
According to the outlet, Jorge Mas, the co-founder of MasTech, has bought the team from Jeffrey Loria for $1.17 billion.
Mas and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria have agreed for Mas to buy the baseball team for $1.17 billion, according to baseball insiders. I wrote three weeks ago that Mas, chairman of the board and co-founder of MasTech, had begun his due diligence and was prepared at that time to offer $1.1 billion for the Marlins and the lease to Marlins Park.
Jeb Bush and Derek Jeter had initially planned to team up to buy the Marlins, but Bush decided to leave the group because he reportedly wanted to be “the control person.” Jeter stayed in the race but didn’t have the money in the end. That won’t be a problem for Mas.
The good news for Mas is that he will almost certainly be liked more than Loria. Loria fleeced Miami residents by taking public money to build a new stadium on the pretense that he would invest in a championship caliber team, then he immediately got rid of his best players. The city could be on the hook for $1.2 billion after debt service—more than the team is even worth—and the team hasn’t had a winning record since its new stadium opened.
Congratulations to Marlins fans on a new future. We don’t know how it will go, but we know it can’t get much worse.
[Forbes]