The Angelos family is reportedly selling the Orioles to a group led by two private equity billionaires, David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group and Mike Arougheti of Ares Management Corp, per reports from Sportico and John Ourand of Puck News. It was reported back in December that Rubenstein, a Baltimore native, was in talks to purchase the club. The club is reportedly valued at $1.725 billion, about 10 times the $173MM it was purchased for in 1993.
This is a developing story and there will surely be many complex details to be worked out, but it could be a franchise-altering piece of news for the Orioles and their fans. The Angelos family has owned the club since 1993. It was at that time that Peter, now 94, was the principal investor of a group that bought the O’s. He collapsed in 2017 due to the failure of his aortic valve, leading his wife George and sons John and Lou to take on more sizeable roles.
Reports emerged in June of 2022, highlighting infighting between the family members about control of the club. The league evidently approved John as the club’s “control person” in 2020, but multiple lawsuits between the family members were filed. The reporting surrounding those legal disputes revealed that Georgia hired Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale of the club. The various family lawsuits were dropped about a year ago as part of a reported settlement. “I would say that there’s not a plan to change the principal ownership or the managing partnership and there would be no reason to,” John said in February of last year.
As that drama has been playing out behind the scenes, there has also been a lot of public uncertainty surrounding the club. Their lease agreement with the State of Maryland for Camden Yards was set to expire at the end of 2023 and John Angelos was reportedly attempting to leverage the negotiations for a new lease to acquire public land. The idea seemed to be to transform the area based on the example set by the Braves with The Battery and Truist Park, allowing the O’s to develop a mixed-use area including various retail and commercial spaces.
A new lease agreement was eventually approved in mid-December, just before the previous deal was set to expire. As part of that deal, the O’s are committed to Camden Yards for the next 15 years, which can be expanded to 30 years if a new development plan is approved in the next four years.
On top of that, the Orioles and Nationals have an ongoing dispute concerning MASN. The two clubs share ownership of the network but with the O’s in the majority, presently around 76% and dropping to 67% by 2032. Those details were part of the agreement between the O’s and MLB to facilitate the relocation of the Expos from Montreal to Washington and therefore into the Orioles’ territorial range. The two clubs have been battling each other over the rights free related to MASN for many years.
Then there’s the on-field product, which could perhaps be related to the ownership situation as well. The club has been rebuilding for much of the period after Peter’s health issues, but they quite clearly emerged from that rebuild in recent seasons. They posted terrible results from 2018 to 2021 but stockpiled young talent in the process. As their young players started graduating to the majors, they managed to go 83-79 in 2022. They followed that up with a 101-win campaign in 2023, winning the American League East.
Despite those better results of late, the club has made almost no moves that commit long-term money or give up on their young talent in order to bolster the current roster. Their stacked farm system has led to plenty of speculation about a blockbuster deal involving someone like Dylan Cease, but nothing has materialized. Meanwhile, their free agent spending has been limited to a one-year deal for reliever Craig Kimbrel.
Taken all together, there are plenty of questions to be answered about how the franchise will proceed. While many O’s fans will be happy to see the Angelos family depart, it’s unknown how different the new regime will be. If the deal is completed, a picture of the future for the franchise will gradually come into focus. As it does, it could have ramifications for the team and others such as the Nats, as well as the city of Baltimore and the State of Maryland.
Rubenstein, 74, is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity company. He was born in Baltimore and Forbes estimates his net worth as $3.7 billion.
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