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“When I took over as president and CEO of the Orioles, we had the goal of restoring the franchise to elite status in major league sports, keeping the team in Baltimore for years to come, and revitalizing our associated group,” John Angelos. he said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “This relationship with David Rubenstein and his partners validates that we have not only met but exceeded our objectives.”
Rubenstein’s investment group includes Michael Arougheti, founder of Ares Management, a private equity firm that went public in 2014, and Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., NBA great Grant Hill, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, Michele Kang, who also owns of the Washington Spirit of the NWSL, and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke is also in the group.
If MLB owners approve the deal, Rubenstein would become the Orioles’ “control person,” a term MLB uses to designate the primary decision-maker for each team. John Angelos took over that role from his ailing father, Peter, in 2020. Peter Angelos has ordered his family to sell the team when he dies, according to documents filed in a since-resolved lawsuit, and several people familiar with the deal suggest it includes a option for the Rubenstein-led group to buy the remaining 60 percent of the team when that happens.
But as long as the deal is in place, a partial sale to Rubenstein is not necessarily imminent. Major League Baseball owners must approve the measure, and can do so by vote only after an owners committee conducts due diligence on financing and logistics. It’s unclear whether that process has begun, but several people familiar with the situation said Wednesday that they do not expect the other 29 owners to vote on a sale at their quarterly meetings in Orlando next week. That process likely won’t happen until the next owners meetings, which will take place this summer.
It’s also unclear how a potential sale might affect the situation with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which broadcasts Orioles and Washington Nationals games and has been the source of decades of consternation for everyone involved. Under the deal MLB made with the Orioles when the Nationals moved into their territory in the early 2000s, the Orioles control the Nationals’ television rights in perpetuity, though they are obligated to pay Washington’s fair market value. every year.
That agreement states that, “In the event that the Orioles, Nationals or RSN (regional sports network) are sold… all subsequent purchasers, transferees or transferees will be unconditionally bound by all the terms and conditions of this Agreement. .” In other words, Rubenstein would inherit the Nationals’ television rights along with those of the Orioles.
But there has long been optimism and speculation among interested parties that a potential sale of the Orioles could open the door to some realignment as a condition of approval of the sale. Neither MLB nor the Nationals were willing to comment on such a possibility Wednesday, and the league has long made clear that the existing agreement is binding.
Disk reported for the first time about the agreement Tuesday night.
The Orioles are the only team in the four major professional sports to own the television rights to two franchises, and their ownership group has never before indicated any interest in giving up that distinction. A court recently ruled that the Orioles owed the Nationals approximately $60 million annually for each year from 2017 through 2021, though no one at either team has been willing to say whether those fees have already been paid to the Nationals.
Angelos bought the team in 1993, a year after the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, one of the sport’s most prized stadiums. His family has secured funding for improvements as part of a 30-year lease in recent months and saw an elite young core lead Baltimore to a surprising American League East title in 2023.
Meanwhile, Rubenstein made a name for himself as one of the founders of Carlyle and as a donor to many Washington causes. On Monday he resigned as president of the Kennedy Center.
When the Lerner family announced it was exploring selling the Nationals in April 2022, Rubenstein emerged as a potential buyer in partnership with Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics. Leonsis, who is in near-constant contact with the Lerner family and remains interested in purchasing the Nationals according to people familiar with the situation, has prioritized the expansion of his Monumental Sports Network, which to this point has had no reliable summer programming outside of the WNBA. .
Several people familiar with Leonsis and the Nationals situation have suggested that Leonsis could be seeking the rights to the Nationals or the Orioles to fill out his network’s local sports programming, and a possible sale of the Orioles to Rubenstein could pave the way toward a deal, although no one affiliated with either has indicated that such a deal is imminent.
This story has been updated.