Shama: Glen Taylor: Equity Group Not in Place for Wolves Sale

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jamiche said:
In my experience with transactions, generally the big talkers are the small walkers. I think they were poorly coached by their comms team when they did the media tour, particularly if the two primary audiences are the folks in Minnesota and the NBA owners. Using highly inflammatory language and talking in a bombastic fashion, particularly when not filling in a lot of blanks, generally doesn't play well. The response should have been short, simple, firm and then you turn it over to the lawyers.

They made Glen look almost sympathetic, which is pretty hard to do.
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How is Taylor not doing exactly what you are saying ARod/Lore are doing? He went to the media reiterating that he has sellers remorse due to the value of the Wolves going up, and the fact that they are now really good, and setup for the long run and he now wants to be a part of that.

Meanwhile just last October he stated: "It doesn't make much difference to me if it's December, March or July." As far as when the deal is completed. It took him 5 months to change his mind on that.

He knew three years ago that he was selling the team for a bargain and that it would take Lore/ARod several years to come up with the money, and Taylor still chose them to sell to. But now that the Wolves are good, that's suddenly a problem.

Taylor dangled the carrot of majority ownership in front of Lore/ARod, allowed them to make moves to improve the franchise because Taylor wasn't competent enough to make those moves, and now that they're working, he wants the credit/glory from it and to cut Lore/ARod out.

Either ARod/Lore will be right, they made the payment, and there is an automatic extension pending NBA approval in the contract. Or there's not, and they're lying publicly about it (which doesn't make sense to me), or Taylor has other legal ways out. Either way Taylor is the same snake he has always been.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Either ARod/Lore will be right, they made the payment, and there is an automatic extension pending NBA approval in the contract. Or there's not, and they're lying publicly about it (which doesn't make sense to me), or Taylor has other legal ways out. Either way Taylor is the same snake he has always been.
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The ESPN article noted that Taylor had always protected himself very well in his business dealings and the "source" indicated that Taylor had a number of offramps built into the sale agreement. I don't think this is a case of Luca Brasi holding a gun to Arod/Lore's collective head while Don Tayloreone insisted that either their signatures or their brains would be on the contract. Supposedly, Arod/Lore were sophisticated buyers and if they agreed to an agreement that let Taylor reneg on the deal and he has now done so within the law of the contract, that doesn't make Taylor a snake. That makes him a business man.
 

swede2 said:
The ESPN article noted that Taylor had always protected himself very well in his business dealings and the "source" indicated that Taylor had a number of offramps built into the sale agreement. I don't think this is a case of Luca Brasi holding a gun to Arod/Lore's collective head while Don Tayloreone insisted that either their signatures or their brains would be on the contract. Supposedly, Arod/Lore were sophisticated buyers and if they agreed to an agreement that let Taylor reneg on the deal and he has now done so within the law of the contract, that doesn't make Taylor a snake. That makes him a business man.
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You can be a businessman and a snake, and Taylor is most definitely one of them. There are plenty of businessmen who are not snakes though.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
How is Taylor not doing exactly what you are saying ARod/Lore are doing? He went to the media reiterating that he has sellers remorse due to the value of the Wolves going up, and the fact that they are now really good, and setup for the long run and he now wants to be a part of that.

Meanwhile just last October he stated: "It doesn't make much difference to me if it's December, March or July." As far as when the deal is completed. It took him 5 months to change his mind on that.

He knew three years ago that he was selling the team for a bargain and that it would take Lore/ARod several years to come up with the money, and Taylor still chose them to sell to. But now that the Wolves are good, that's suddenly a problem.

Taylor dangled the carrot of majority ownership in front of Lore/ARod, allowed them to make moves to improve the franchise because Taylor wasn't competent enough to make those moves, and now that they're working, he wants the credit/glory from it and to cut Lore/ARod out.

Either ARod/Lore will be right, they made the payment, and there is an automatic extension pending NBA approval in the contract. Or there's not, and they're lying publicly about it (which doesn't make sense to me), or Taylor has other legal ways out. Either way Taylor is the same snake he has always been.
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I'm referencing the inflammatory and highly personal language they used in their media tour. It was a bad look and it didn't help their case. If their contract was "iron clad," as they claimed, and if their funds are held in escrow and there are no non monetary defaults, their only concern is NBA approval. (A commitment letter from an investor/lender is way different from "they have the money" because commitment letters are always full of contingencies.) Lore/ARod's behavior on the media blitz isn't going to help their cause with the NBA.
 


It seems that ARod and Lore have gone quiet on the media front. I heard a podcast speculating that Adam Silver might have told all parties to stop fighting this dispute in the media. The NBA does not want this type of publicity, especially heading down the final stretch of the regular season.

the NBA, as I understand, has a procedure for handling this type of dispute. in the end, the NBA owners are the ones who will have to approve ARod and Lore as new owners - assuming they would come out on top in the legal dispute.

so it makes sense that Silver would have told everyone to shut the bleep up.
 

Interestingly, the voters in the KC area just voted down a referendum to fund a new stadium for the Royals and huge upgrades to the Chiefs' stadium, evidently because the owners weren't putting enough of their own cash in the deal. Given what the Chiefs have delivered, the defeat at the ballot box was very surprising to me. I would guess that whoever owns the wolves would have to put up at least 50% of the cost of a new building in order to get public money. If it's Lore/ARod, there's no indication to date that they have or have access to that kind of capital.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
You can be a businessman and a snake, and Taylor is most definitely one of them. There are plenty of businessmen who are not snakes though.
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There's a difference between being tough and being unethical. Taylor has taken a tough position with the buyers. That doesn't make it unethical.
 

jamiche said:
Interestingly, the voters in the KC area just voted down a referendum to fund a new stadium for the Royals and huge upgrades to the Chiefs' stadium, evidently because the owners weren't putting enough of their own cash in the deal. Given what the Chiefs have delivered, the defeat at the ballot box was very surprising to me. I would guess that whoever owns the wolves would have to put up at least 50% of the cost of a new building in order to get public money. If it's Lore/ARod, there's no indication to date that they have or have access to that kind of capital.
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one of the issues as I understand in KC is that the Royals want a downtown ballpark, but they keep going back and forth on possible locations. Their owner also set a deadline of 2030 to move out of the current park, and hinted that they could look at moving the team if they don't get a new park in KC. the Chiefs are not going anywhere - they just want to make improvements to the current stadium.
But - the Royals owner said his ownership group is prepared to invest up to $1-Billion into the project.

I agree that Lore and ARod don't have the money to swing a new arena.
 



jamiche said:
There's a difference between being tough and being unethical. Taylor has taken a tough position with the buyers. That doesn't make it unethical.
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It depends on what's in the contract and what the conversations were.

What if you had been buying a business from someone over 3 years, and that person has been telling you the same story for 3 years, you put a significant amount of time and money into that purchase and improving that business for when you take complete control, and you believe you have fulfilled the agreement to your understanding.

Then at the last minute that seller completely flip flops says I'm no longer selling it to you, I'm going to reap the benefits of the work you've done, and oh and by the way despite your partial ownership you can't step one foot in this business again.

You and anyone else in that position would be furious and think that seller is an unethical snake.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It depends on what's in the contract and what the conversations were.

What if you had been buying a business from someone over 3 years, and that person has been telling you the same story for 3 years, you put a significant amount of time and money into that purchase and improving that business for when you take complete control, and you believe you have fulfilled the agreement to your understanding.

Then at the last minute that seller completely flip flops says I'm no longer selling it to you, I'm going to reap the benefits of the work you've done, and oh and by the way despite your partial ownership you can't step one foot in this business again.

You and anyone else in that position would be furious and think that seller is an unethical snake.
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I'd be pretty damn upset, mostly with myself. If I didn't comply with the terms of the agreement, that's on me.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
one of the issues as I understand in KC is that the Royals want a downtown ballpark, but they keep going back and forth on possible locations. Their owner also set a deadline of 2030 to move out of the current park, and hinted that they could look at moving the team if they don't get a new park in KC. the Chiefs are not going anywhere - they just want to make improvements to the current stadium.
But - the Royals owner said his ownership group is prepared to invest up to $1-Billion into the project.

I agree that Lore and ARod don't have the money to swing a new arena.
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It was the usual kids vs. stadiums stuff even though the money never goes to kids.
 

jamiche said:
I'd be pretty damn upset, mostly with myself. If I didn't comply with the terms of the agreement, that's on me.
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According to you (Lore/Arod) you did comply with the terms of the agreement, and the agreement backs you up.
 



More info, if it's true, showing that Arod and Lore are short on cash. You don't dismantle a team like this because you want to, only because lack of finances force you to do it.

 

www.espn.com

Sources: A-Rod, Lore eyed cuts to Wolves payroll

As part of a failed bid to assume majority ownership of the Timberwolves, Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez submitted projections forecasting a retreat in payroll that Glen Taylor believed would jeopardize the team's ability to vie for a title, sources said.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

Adam Silver chimes in on TWolves situation. From the Sports Business Journal:

Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday following the NBA's board of governors meetings that there is “no role for the league” to solve the T’wolves ownership dispute and would not say whether prospective buyers Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez submitted their financing prior to a March 27 sales deadline. Instead, Silver said the $1.5B purchase agreement between Lore-Rodriquez and Wolves owner Glen Taylor contained a “dispute resolution mechanism” that will likely lead to independent mediation or arbitration.

However, Silver did say the odd structure of the deal -- a three-year incremental process that was supposed to grant 80% of the team to Lore and Rodriguez before Taylor took the team off the market last week -- “may cause us to reassess what sort of transactions we should allow.”
 

If Lore/ARod get control of the team, they can run it any way they want. It's theirs.

Regardless of arbitration, the NBA has the final say in all of this. What should happen is the NBA should quietly let the fellas know that they are wasting their time and legal dollars on this quest. They don't have the financial heft to run an NBA team without losing sleep at night. This isn't the '80's.

Secondly, a partnership with these guys as limiteds at 36% is untenable. ARod will be unable and Lore will be unwilling to meet capital calls. The team will have to be sold to a white knight buyer who will, hopefully, keep the team here.

This is messy as shit. These guys don't have the money. Never did. Not sure why Glen fell for their nonsense other than that's how he bought the club from Harv and Marv 30 years ago. (They let him run it for a few months before he closed.)

Maybe the most important thing to remember is the only person in this transaction who is a real billionaire is Taylor. Lore's actual take from the diapers.com sale was $477M.
 

Good leaking here by Taylor, and terrible PR for A-Rod and Lore.

The NBA needs to sit down with A-Rod and Lore to tell A-Rod and Lore that truth. They don't have the dough, and the sale isn't happening.

These guys are a joke.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Good leaking here by Taylor, and terrible PR for A-Rod and Lore.

The NBA needs to sit down with A-Rod and Lore to tell A-Rod and Lore that truth. They don't have the dough, and the sale isn't happening.

These guys are a joke.
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The team is finally getting somewhere and we have to deal with these guys. Yes, we know they traded the next decade away for Rudy, who really is having one helluva year.
 

jamiche said:
The team is finally getting somewhere and we have to deal with these guys. Yes, we know they traded the next decade away for Rudy, who really is having one helluva year.
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Right, they traded away the next 5 years. Now, A-Rod and Lore want to blow that up. So, the future was mortgaged only to wreck the present. Brilliant!
 

jamiche said:
The team is finally getting somewhere and we have to deal with these guys. Yes, we know they traded the next decade away for Rudy, who really is having one helluva year.
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Except they didn't trade the next decade away. Every young core player is locked up for the future.

You need to stop acting like giving up late 1st round picks is somehow mortgaging the future. The Wolves got back to the top of the 2nd round to take a 1st round talent in Miller and he doesn't play. They'll have their end of the 1st round pick this year, yet many are calling this the worst NBA draft class in history.

Unless you have one of the top picks, the NBA draft is a much as a crapshoot as the MLB or NHL. Without Rudy the Wolves are in the play in round again this year. It's amazing how several of you would rather have that over a team that can actually compete for a NBA championship.
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
More info, if it's true, showing that Arod and Lore are short on cash. You don't dismantle a team like this because you want to, only because lack of finances force you to do it.

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So Lore and ARod's master plan was to bring in one of the best GM's in the NBA, quickly build a championship caliber roster with Rudy, lock up their entire young core for the future, and then tear it apart as soon as they took control?

Sorry not buying it.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
So Lore and ARod's master plan was to bring in one of the best GM's in the NBA, quickly build a championship caliber roster with Rudy, lock up their entire young core for the future, and then tear it apart as soon as they took control?

Sorry not buying it.
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Like Taylor was going to fork over the lux tax
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Like Taylor was going to fork over the lux tax
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Well, he just scored 40% of $1.5 billion over a couple years. So that's $600 million to line his pockets.

If the business isn't profitable, he can make a cash call, and the owners need to pony up the percentage that they owe. If Taylor owns 60%, then he'd only owe $15 million ofnthe $25 million tax charge.

With good attendance this year and a decent playoff run, the team probably wouldn't lose much money if any at all.

The new media rights are coming up soon, too. So, a lot more cash will be coming in the door.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Well, he just scored 40% of $1.5 billion over a couple years. So that's $600 million to line his pockets.

If the business isn't profitable, he can make a cash call, and the owners need to pony up the percentage that they owe. If Taylor owns 60%, then he'd only owe $15 million ofnthe $25 million tax charge.

With good attendance this year and a decent playoff run, the team probably wouldn't lose much money if any at all.

The new media rights are coming up soon, too. So, a lot more cash will be coming in the door.
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Expansion Fees could bring in some good dough as well.
 

Ope3 said:
Expansion Fees could bring in some good dough as well.
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Oh yeah. It's a good time to be an owner.

Team values will dramatically increase when the new rights deal signed. There's talk that the NBA willnget $6-7 billion per year. That'd triple today's payments.

The cap is about to go way up. The Wolves might have to pay the tax one season, maybe two, before they'd be under due to a rocketing cap.

It'd be extremely shortsighted to cut pay with where the cap is about to go.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Oh yeah. It's a good time to be an owner.

Team values will dramatically increase when the new rights deal signed. There's talk that the NBA willnget $6-7 billion per year. That'd triple today's payments.

The cap is about to go way up. The Wolves might have to pay the tax one season, maybe two, before they'd be under due to a rocketing cap.

It'd be extremely shortsighted to cut pay with where the cap is about to go.
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Righteous bucks.
 




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