An ongoing legal battle among the Angelos family, which owns the Orioles, has hung over for the franchise for a few months. Longtime owner Peter Angelos, 93, is in poor health, and the franchise’s long-term direction has been a point of contention. Angelos’ wife, Georgia, will inherit the team once Peter passes away, while their son John has served as the franchise’s official control person in recent years.
Louis Angelos, son of Peter and Georgia, recently initiated litigation against his mother and brother in an attempt to force a sale of the franchise. Louis alleges a sale is the desired outcome for both his parents and argues in his complaint that “John has been misleading his mother into believing that he has been working to achieve her goal of a sale of the Orioles.” John Angelos then released a statement reiterating his family’s ties to the franchise and firmly rejecting the possibility of the organization relocating from Baltimore. Georgia Angelos, meanwhile, has previously expressed her faith in John’s leadership and filed a countersuit against Louis Angelos last month.
Against that backdrop, Daniel Kaplan of the Athletic now writes the franchise hired financial firm Goldman Sachs a few months ago to look into the possibility of a sale. That isn’t a new development; Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun reported last month Georgia Angelos confirmed in court filings she “had retained Goldman Sachs and Jones Day to provide investment banking and legal services in connection with the sale of the Orioles.” Nevertheless, Kaplan hears that John and Georgia Angelos continue to explore their options for the franchise, even if there’s no guarantee they’ll eventually put the organization up for sale. Barker, meanwhile, wrote last month that John Angelos was interested in selling a minority share of the franchise while retaining the family’s overall control and keeping the team in Baltimore.
Both Barker and Kaplan suggest that any sale of the franchise, if it were to arise, could wait until after Peter Angelos passes away. While Georgia Angelos stands to inherit the franchise tax free upon her husband’s death, Louis Angelos’ court filings suggest a sale while Peter Angelos is still alive would have “a sizable tax hit.”
The nearby Nationals, with which the Orioles are still embroiled in a years-long suit over television rights fees, are currently going through a sales process themselves. The Lerner family announced in April they’d begun to explore a sale of the Washington franchise, and Kaplan hears from a source they’re seeking $2.5 billion in that deal. That same source suggests the Orioles could wait until after the Nationals’ sale is completed to begin any sales process of their own, given the likely market overlap. Angels owner Arte Moreno is also looking into a franchise sale, although that’s obviously in a much different geographical area.
There’ll certainly be more to come as the Angelos’ various litigations develop, likely over multiple months. The Orioles lease at Camden Yards runs through the end of next season. The team has the right to trigger a five-year option, extending the lease through the 2028 campaign, by February 1 of next year.
If they retained Goldman, they’re going to sell eventually.
Agree, though maybe they’re trying to get some kind of appraisal on the franchise to figure out how to pay everyone off.
Baltimore without the Orioles would be a devastating loss to that city. Baltimore without any of the Angelos family wouldn’t be so bad.
I don’t think they’ll leave.
Amen, brother. The Orioles and Orioles Park are Baltimore institutions.
There has to be a Veeck out there somewhere? Move them back to Saint Louis.
@uvmfigi;
Love “Veeck” reference.
Bill Veeck. The quintessential fans owner! Favorite fan story. His love of sitting in the cheap seats with the masses; enjoying the field action with beverage in one hand and cigarette in the other. A chain smoker, he would put out his butts by grinding them in to his wooden leg. Dude strong!
Also, the Branch Rickey of the American League!
If the new owners move the team to Nashville, will they keep the orioles or change mascots to the nashville bird?
The Nashville Bachelorette Parties
Timely comment. My sister-in-law’s sister just did that last week. Said there was music all around, on rooftop bars, until the wee hours of the morning. she said they did NOT go see the Nashville Sounds.. Told her to look up Al LeBoeuf my old Reading Phillies friend and Hitting Coach there, but she said they were having too much fun.
Kids these days…..
I live in Nasville. Any night of the week you will see a dozen bachelorette parties walking the streets.
BTW any team moving to Nashville will be called the Nashville Stars. It’s already been decided.
mlbmusiccity.com/
So, basically, Georgia and John Angelos can pay their bills without liquidating the O’s but Louis cannot.
Seems to pretty much sum it up
He wants his cut because reasons…..
Seems like a fun family to invite over for a potluck.
It’s just too bad Peter Angelos aged like we all do at one point or another. Even more discouraging
It’s to see his family fighting over his goods while he is still alive. Very sad. I guess money rules…
I’m holding out for the “Angels” ownership update…
Sell to Jeff Wilpon
Maybe the guy residing a couple of hundreds yards down Russell St at M & T Bank Stadium has an interest? Steve Biscotti (sp?)
He doesn’t sell enough cookies to own two teams…..
Doesn’t sell enough cookies?? Wait till the Starbucks deal goes through and he corners the Biscotti market.
Jeff Wilpon would be the worst decision ever….Maybe Mark Cuban would be interested he is a fan type owner
Hoping this family spat doesn’t chase GM Elias away.
Baseball will never leave Baltimore. Anything resembling that type of action would be a political nightmare for the league and a valid reason for Congress to remove the antitrust exemption the league currently processes.
And I would pepper my Congressman and Senators to make sure they knew I stand with you, @notagain27. Rhat antitrust exemption is BS in this day and age.
The Orioles are one of the best run organizations in MLB. They’re about to have one of the elite teams in MLB and should continue to contend for at least the next 5-7 years.
The St. Louis Browns were the first professional MLB team Branch Rickey ran. They had no money to run that franchise for years, so they stunk (compared to the Browns, todays Rays and A’s are prosperous). When they moved up to Baltimore and became the Orioles they were still using Rickey’s team building strategy of defense and pitching first (used by Paul Richards in the late 50’s – early 60’s to build a winning, championship team). When Earl Weaver was promoted from the minors to run the team he famously wanted “pitching, defense, and 3 run HR’s”. The Orioles Way, Cardinals Way, and Dodgers Way of playing baseball for decades was due to Branch Rickey being there and implementing his systems. They’re still used at least in some part today.
Branch Rickey would be proud of this Orioles team. They’re young, smart, poised, enthusiastic; and play smart, opportunistic, fundamental baseball. Last night the play-by-play guy went crazy on yet another impossible play in the hole Jorge Mateo made, saying “this is ridiculous”. After a few replays HOF’er Jim Palmer said that he’d played with both Luis Aparicio and Mark Belanger, and thought that Mateo was a better SS.
Most people here pretty much look at the O’s stats and highlights. That’s understandable. Within 2 years and probably in 2023, the O’s will be in the playoffs. This will allow more MLB fans to watch them play. It will be an enjoyable experience.
Orioles baseball fans are smart and supportive. The team’s not leaving. MLB has asked Cal Ripken, Jr. to be a part of any ownership group that buys the franchise. He shouldn’t have any trouble finding backers if/when it comes to that. MLB knows what it has in Baltimore and it’s not leaving (and MLB has to approve any sale).
Said Branch Ricky the 5th…..
aw, you got reverse ratioed
Baltimore is a pit. If there’s an opportunity to leave, they should definitely take it. I know there’s rich baseball history in Baltimore, but there’s not rich baseball future. Get me anything more than 2 blocks away from that park and I feel like I could get shot at any moment. Baseball needs to be out of Oakland, Tampa and Baltimore and needs to be in Vegas, Nashville and another Midwest city. The Midwest is such a great place for sports. Fans are loyal as can be.
I hope you are currently 2 blocks away then… lol
You have no idea what you are talking about. Back to your mommy’s basement with you.
Baseball also needs to be out of Seattle for the same reason and don’t even bring up expansion or relocation to Portland.
Baltimore is a much nicer than any big Midwest city save Chicago. And it might be safer and less heroin ridden than Chicago. And unlike Nashville it’s a real city. Outside of Texas and Atlanta the south is no place for the MLB.
New Orleans would do just fine so would Oklahoma City
New Orleans is the murder capital of the USA
If the Orioles leave Baltimore another team would move back to Camden within a couple years. Midwest cities not called Chicago or St Louis can’t compete with Baltimore as baseball cities or as cities in general — they’re too small and poor. And outside of Texas and Atlanta the MLB can’t make it in the south for much the same reasons. And unlike Nashville, Baltimore is a real city.
This is one of the most ill-informed comments I have ever read. Baltimore is a horrible area for a sports franchise. Every team can count on a certain locked in local fan base, but in order to really succeed, you need to have a national appeal and a large local market. Baltimore is a tiny market, squeezed even smaller by the Washington Nationals moving to town. The stadium is a nightmare to get to and to find parking around. The area surrounding the stadiums are cesspools of filth and crime.
You are even more misinformed. Camden Yards is one of the easier stadiums in the country to get to. It is surrounded by multiple highways traveling in all directions with parking lots that weee built to hold Camden Yards capacity. There are also enough parking lots touching the stadium to accommodate Ravens Stadium parking as well. You like most basement dwellers need to actually leave the house and go to a game.
Baltimore’s market is 3 million and there are numerous beautiful neighborhoods within walking distance of OPACY. Your ignorant opinions are formed selectively by what you have seen on TV only
I was born and raised in Baltimore, so don’t try to tell me what it is and isn’t. You walk 3 blocks away from the inner harbor in any direction and you are in horrible areas. Crime is horrendous, drugs and gangs are everywhere.
Don’t sit here and try to tell me what Baltimore is really like. You have no idea.
And this is to the coward who won’t let me directly reply to him because he knows I will rip him a new one and already have in the past:
bigbarn17
“You are even more misinformed. Camden Yards is one of the easier stadiums in the country to get to. It is surrounded by multiple highways traveling in all directions with parking lots that weee built to hold Camden Yards capacity. There are also enough parking lots touching the stadium to accommodate Ravens Stadium parking as well. You like most basement dwellers need to actually leave the house and go to a game.”
Camden Yards is right smack dab in the middle of the harbor area located right off of two of Baltimore’s main streets. While you do have the loop highways, they can’t handle the amount of traffic that flows on them and you can expect to take 3-4 hours while you sit on the rolling parking lots that are the Baltimore highway system. Parking is a nightmare unless you feel like getting robbed to pay for stadium parking. If you do manage to FIND a spot in one of the other off street lots, you get to face the gangs that reside inside of them and hope they are taking a break before you meet the guys that say, “Hey, if you give me $20, I will watch your car for you and make sure nothing bad happens to it.”
Then you get to walk through the awesome residents of Baltimore City to get to the stadium, you know, the parts you don’t see on television broadcasts.
Baltimore is a cesspool of a city with horrendous crime, gang, and drug problems. I lived in Baltimore and know exactly what it is like. I left Baltimore years ago and I am never going back.
You just posted a list of lies. I do not believe you have ever been to Baltimore. Traffic is incredibly easy to navigate and the highways are awesome. Neighborhoods like Mount Vernon, Otterbein, Ridgeley’s Delight and Federal Hill are beautiful, safe and upscale,
Keep watching The Wire, little boy. You have an anger issue as well as a problem with truth
I was born and raised in Baltimore and getting into the city or out of it during peak times is absolute stand still. While the route you take to the city is pretty easy, because there are only a few ways in and out (which is part of the gridlock issue), you will be stuck going absolutely nowhere for no reason at all other than the overcrowded roadways can’t handle the load.
I’ve not no problem with anger, but you have an incredibly horrible relationship with the truth. I have never watched “The Wire,” and don’t even know what it is. The truth is that gangs have taken over the two major parking garages around the harbor, especially the newest one that was built on the outskirts of Little Italy before you get to President St/83.
Crime is rampant and the city is filthy.
You need to stop lying to people.
Bullshtt – traffic exits extremely quickly, like few stadiums in the world do. You are such a snowflake you freak out about five minutes of slow driving?! Grow up.
You have no clue about Baltimore except for what they tell you on TV, idiot. You are the liar, troll
Hours of back up on the beltways is not five minutes. Then the real fun starts once you get down to the tiny streets surrounding the stadium and having traffic lights every block.
I lived in Baltimore right next to the harbor for many years, right on Fort Ave. I don’t know what fantasy land you’re living in. You aren’t going to convince me otherwise because I actually lived there and know exactly what I was talking about. I lived perhaps 4-5 blocks away from the Harbor where I worked at the time and it took me longer to drive to work and find a place to park than it did to walk there from my home.
Everybody walked. You could drive there in five minutes easily, but you would either have to pay for parking of park for free almost as far away as where you started
Driving there took 20 minutes because of all of the lights and traffic. It would take another 15-20 minutes to find a place to park, there is absolutely no free parking around the harbor proper, and the parking garages aren’t large enough to handle the load.
I weigh in more on the “dump” side of things, lived/worked in/around Baltimore for almost 40 years. I have family in law enforcement and can speak to that with authority.
Getting to the game is difficult if you’re driving. Yes, highways in and around, but the downtown streets, 395, 95, 895, 695 are all backed up at the times you’d be getting to a game. I suppose you can take the subway or the light rail. The problem is, when you LEAVE the game then its after 10, its dark, and you may be separated from your wallet before you get back to where your car is.
Walking around town now compared to 15 years ago, you’re no longer safe walking the Inner Harbor or Pratt St. corridor. People are getting jumped, and not just at night. Keep your head on a swivel.
The neighborhoods those speak of, crime has risen in all of them, especially muggings and car break ins, over the past 10-15 years. A lot of wannabe yuppies bought up rowhomes in Canton, Fells, Federal Hill in the late 90s and early 00’s, because of a deal where you could buy for $1 if you put $10000 into them. A lot of them were really fixed up nice. Those areas took a hit in the 2008 financial crisis. Then those people were now in their mid/late 30s and didn’t want their kids going to city schools, so they moved to the suburbs. The quality of resident even in those areas has dropped, combined with the intrusion of crime from nearby areas has made it not so pleasant. Even Little Italy, where the older folks could play bocce until it was too dark to see – now there are murders there not connected to crime syndicates. The crime has spread into the suburbs, many of the inner suburbs are getting to be places people don’t want to raise kids and walk dogs at night.
I don’t miss living in that area, or the east coast in general. I’m out west now. Much less humidity, barely any bugs.
I didn’t mention the subway or lightrail, but yeah, you COULD take them. The question is do you really WANT to? I guess that all depends on if you feel like sharing the car with the random insane street prophet that should be in an mental institution, but isn’t, while you are surrounded by the aroma of urine and feces. Then you get to figure out if some criminals want to take advantage of the fact that you go nowhere to go on a moving train.
You and I both live there, we really know what it is like. These other people maybe visited a couple of times and just went right to the stadium in their taxi from the posh hotel nearby.
Sorry, Baltimore is a nightmare and it has only gotten worse since I left it and I never want to go back. Not for my own reasons, not for the Orioles, and not for the Ravens. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back.
You two are just racist morons. I have been to many HUNDREDS of games at OPACY and never once had drugs offered, threats to car, threats to me. I can’t even name a friend who as had a problem like the ones you claim, If you did, realize this can occur in any city/suburb/rural area.
Somehow, two out-of-toner racists had all these problems? Bull fkking shtt
Your claimed “authority” is second hand!!! Way to make a fool of yourself about your “authority!” lmao.
Bet your cops are as racist as you are. Your hate of Black people comes screaming through with every post about Baltimore.
Where exactly did you live, liar?
Factually WRONG: the only $1 houses were in SOWEBO and Otterbeing, and that was in the 1970s, early 1980s, not in the 1990s at all!
Right next to Hill Top Pizza and subs on Fort Avenue, I believe the actual intersection was Riverside and Fort.
And where do you get off calling me a racist? What is racist about the truth of Baltimore. It is a crime ridden cesspool full of drug and gang related activity. You must be the actual racist in thinking that all gang and drug related action is only done by black people. I had more problems with white people I lived next to than anyone else.
The police are not “my police.” I don’t hire them and I am not their superior officers. Now you exposed yourself as the actual racist and cop hater. Congratulations. You are a pathological liar and everyone on this message board can now see it.
And it was a minimum $100.000 investment, not $10,000 as you falsely claimed.
There were no $1 houses in Canton or Fells Point – another false claim. In reality, fewer than 200 homes were sold through the past dollar homes program.
Incorrect. There was an urban renewal going on all along Riverside and the abandoned area across the street from Little Italy that looked like a bomb went off in an apartment complex. People were buying up the row homes intended for several families to live in, gutting them, and turning them into much larger single family dwellings. That was going on well into the 2000’s when I left the city for good.
Yeah, because nobody wanted to live in the crime infested area in a posh house with their posh Mercedes they would have to leave on the street to park.
Next you will tell us about your “Black friend.”
Not part of the “$1 House Program.” But nice try to claim any development is part of something you are not educated about.
And yet people with serious money do live in the $1 houses of Otterbein and Federal Hill, proving you are uniformed or a liar.
I have lots of black friends. I dated many black women and my current fiance is black. I have black family members.
What else ya got, you blatant racist?
Oh, there’s some money people in Baltimore, but they don’t live in the places around the Harbor like that.
I am proving that you are a goofball.
Thanksgiving must be a lot of fun at the Angelos house
Succession baby!
When are they going to get that cable TV channel battle settled?
My gosh, the lawyers must be getting rich!
Simple solution. One rich dbag buys the nationals and the orioles. 4 billion for the bulk discount.
Then combine the teams so one is the the AAAA team for the other (draft picks baby). World Series for one team (playoff money) and last place for the other (first pick and trade old veterans for prospects).
I know people will say it’s illegal but I already prefaced that issue by saying a rich dbag will drop 4 billion on both.
You are of course joking, but that said go have another joint and maybe when you wake up you will be sober. Dumber than a box of rocks.
“You’re joking, but I have some repressed anger I haven’t worked through”.
You’re not mad at me, you’re mad at your father.
Also, you living somewhere and working somewhere doesn’t make your statement a fact. It’s still an opinion. It’s just a joke Scott. You said it yourself. And your other “facts” just don’t apply to my joke about ONE person buying TWO franchises. They would both still be MLB teams in this scenario. If it makes you feel better we can make the team you like the better team? Would that calm you down?
You obviously have no Clue. Fact Baltimore city is a crap hole, I lived and worked there. Fact 2 The Stadium is one of top 3-5 in all of baseball. Fact 3 Tampa and Oakland have garbage stadiums and would move long before any other teams.
Moron.
How many teams are for sale now? Orioles, Nationals, Tigers, As, Angels, Reds…
I live in Villanova, Pa. but go to one O’s game a year to reunite with about a dozen old (Operative word!) frat brothers all of whom live within a two-hour drive of Camden Yards.
The last few years the O’s have been pretty bad, so when the attendance was announced, I wasn’t surprised at the low number. Given the team’s unexpected performance in 2002, I really thought a Sunday afternoon game on a sunny day would have seen 30,000+ fans show up fueled by playoff fever.
Alas, I think the announced crowd was around 12,000. Okay, the opposition that August Sunday was the Pirates. Not exactly a big time draw.
But c’mon, man! Your team is fighting for the playoffs and the stadium is only about a quarter full?
JMHO, but gonna see a number of MLB teams relocating. Tampa and Miami can’t draw fans. The A’s are gonna end up in Vegas. The Orioles? Nashville or Charlotte would be my guess unless the new ownership decides to stay in town.
Gotta build a trio of stadiums before teams can move.
Just like teams experience a lag of losing attendance when teams start losing, teams experience a lag regaining attendance when they start winning again.
Orioles attendance has risen 172% this year.
There was also the whole COVID thing…
Orioles are not moving.
Also, MLB wishes to expand to two new markets, so any franchise movement will be after expansion.
Expanding is the dumbest thing MLB can do. It’s obvious the league needs to contract. MLB does not need Tampa, Oakland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Miami…..They can’t have a competitive payroll they need to go….I’d say the Nationals need to contract instead of Baltimore if Baltimore gets different ownership. I prefer the Lerners over the Angelos….getting rid of those franchises will make the quality of baseball better.
While I respect that everyone has an opinion and they’re absolutely are entitled to doing so, the thought that the O’s would leave or are leaving Baltimore is absurd.
Although times have been bad the team has gone through a total overhaul both in the clubhouse as well as the front office. Baltimore fans whether they go to the games are not are very true to their Birds.
They’re riding up and the rest of MLB is taking notice.
Any franchise owner will make any move that makes financial improvement. If the best deal for the Orioles is to move elsewhere, get a better market, a new stadium, and a better TV network deal, they’ll do it. You think they care about you or the fans? You’re delusional.
Sure, whether fans show up to the games or not makes no difference…….
Nobody cares about the Orioles. There are no teams out there that are serious that look at the current Orioles and says, “Man, we better look out for this lot.”
Because people that know the Orioles and are intelligent know this team is a joke, and they aren’t trying. This was by accident more than by design.
They are getting lightning in a bottle performances from a number of names nobody has ever heard of before and they are gonna bank hard on these one year wonders just like they always do.
Sell the team, but keep them in Baltimore.
The best things that could happen for this franchise is for it to come out from under the Angelos family and for it to leave the horrible market that is Baltimore.