It Would Appear Rangers, Stars Bound Together Even After Tom Hicks is Out of the Picture

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Jun. 28 2010 at 8:37 AM

Categories: Biz, From the RTF Dept., Sports

Well, well, well -- the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners have filed a "revised" Chapter 11 plan, and Maury Brown, so far, seems to be the one guy who thinks this might could maybe be the redo that gets this sale over the hump. Or not. Which may not be the most interesting development in a case I hope is being made into a TV movie: Dan Kaplan at Sports Business Journal sorted through some filings in this case and discovered that Chuck Greenberg and whichever Canadian winds up with Your Dallas Stars are tethered to a "joint venture" following the expiration of their contracts with Fox Sports Southwest in 2014.

Right now it looks like the Rangers would get the better end of the deal -- 70 percent of ownership of whatever that "joint venture" may be. That probably makes sense: Hockey falls somewhere between curling and buzkashi in terms of highly rated broadcast sports. Still, it sucks for the future owners of both franchises, who Tom Hicks has managed to keep in the same potato sack long after he's gone. Writes Kaplan:

The commitment could tie the hands of each team's buyer, experts say, and close off other media opportunities.

"It could become very complicated in terms of length of a deal, rights fees per game and how to treat sponsors," said Mark Lazarus, the former Turner Sports executive who now is president of media and marketing services for Career Sports & Entertainment. "I wouldn't want any restrictions on things I could do, to be burdened with another franchise's issues."

Update at 11:01 a.m.: Dan Kaplan is also reporting that Jeff Beck -- no, not that one, this one -- wants to buy the Rangers. 'Course, once upon a time, he and son Scott were gonna redo Deep Ellum too. And that didn't happen either.

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