Officials with the Texas Rangers baseball club and Hicks Sports Group (HSG) hope that a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing will allow a deal negotiated and finalized in January to finally be completed.
So far, creditors for the team and HSG have successfully blocked the sale by saying that the price agreed on is well below market value. The Rangers Baseball Express, the group headed by Chuck Greenberg and current Rangers president Nolan Ryan, agreed to purchase the team for around $570 million, according to reports published at the time.
While most say the voluntary bankruptcy filing will make the sale a done deal, it is far more complicated than that. The filing seeks to separate the ball club from its parent company’s debts. In the bankruptcy filing, $75 million from the proceeds of the sale will go to the creditors of HSG as the Ranger’s portion of the parent company’s debt.
The rest of the proceeds will go to other unsecured creditors if the court approves the current sale agreement.
Former players Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Millwood will get the $24.9 million and $12.9 million owed to them. Other former players will get between $1.4 and $3.9 million a piece.
The remaining proceeds, reported to be between $280 and $290 million will go to the parent company to allow it to satisfy its debts, which are estimated to be over $500 million.
