Orioles strike deal to sell team to Baltimore native David Rubenstein for $1.725B

The Angelos family has reached an agreement to sell the Orioles to private equity billionaire David Rubenstein, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal told The Baltimore Sun. Rubenstein is set to take over as the team’s control person as part of the deal, which values the team at $1.725 billion.

The Angelos family has owned the team since Peter Angelos bought it for $173 million in 1993. Legal documents from 2022 revealed that the now-ailing owner wished for the team to be sold following his death so his wife, Georgia, “could enjoy the great wealth they had amassed together.” His elder son, John, has been the team’s control person since 2020.

Rubenstein, 74, is a philanthropist and founder of the Carlyle Group. He is a Baltimore native and an alumnus of Baltimore City College.

He will initially assume a 40% ownership stake in the Orioles with an agreement to purchase the remaining equity upon the death of family patriarch Peter Angelos, according to one of the sources.

The Angelos family would be subject to significant capital gains taxes if the team is sold before Peter Angelos’ death. Angelos, 94, has been in declining health for more than six years.

Legendary Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. is expected to be part of the ownership group, one of the sources said.

Included in the deal is the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the regional television network owned by the Orioles and the Washington Nationals, that source also said. The Orioles own the majority of MASN under a complex agreement that originated when the Montreal Expos moved to Washington — inside the Orioles’ media territory — in 2005. The two teams split rights’ fees and profits from MASN, with the Orioles receiving a bulk of MASN’s profits.

The Orioles and Nationals could not agree on how much each club should receive from a five-year period spanning 2012 to 2016, prompting multiple arbitrations and a decade of dispute. That litigation was finally settled this past summer and fees to be paid out for the following five-year span, 2017 to 2021, were quickly agreed to, avoiding more litigation that might have complicated a sale.

A spokesperson for John Angelos declined to comment. The Orioles, MLB and the Maryland Stadium Authority did not respond to requests for comment.

MLB must still formally approve the sale. The league has strict protocols that include vetting potential investors and a vote by owners on the sale.

Puck News, a journalist-owned subscription media outlet that covers the financial and political elite, was the first to report the sale on Tuesday evening.

The Angelos family’s intent to sell the team became public as the family struggled over control of the Orioles after Peter Angelos became incapacitated. Louis Angelos, the younger of Peter’s two sons, sued his mother and brother in 2022 over what he characterized as John Angelos’ attempt to take control and ownership of the family fortune, including the ballclub.

According to the suit, John Angelos stalled and thwarted the plans to sell the team, unilaterally torpedoing interest from “one highly credible group of buyers.”

Subsequent filings in the suit, which was dropped last February after an apparent private settlement, revealed that the family had retained the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the law firm Jones Day to handle a potential sale.

The $1.725 billion sale price is slightly more than Forbes’ valuation of $1.713 billion, which ranked the Orioles 18th out of 30 MLB teams.

The Orioles recently agreed to a lease with the state of Maryland — which owns Oriole Park at Camden Yards — to remain in Baltimore for at least 15 years and potentially more than 30. That agreement was negotiated for years, spanning two governors and two stadium authority chairs, and was agreed to in December, shortly after it was reported by Bloomberg that Rubenstein was “in talks” to acquire the team.

At the time, John Angelos called Gov. Wes Moore to assure him the family did not intend to sell the team, according to a source familiar with the call.

As part of the lease deal, the Orioles unlocked millions of dollars of state investment into Camden Yards, as outlined in a 2022 law. That law permitted the stadium authority to use up to $600 million in bonds to improve the ballpark, provided a signed lease agreement lasted long enough for the bonds to be paid off. With the 15-year deal, roughly $400 million is available, the stadium authority previously told The Sun.

The lease deal — which includes the potential for the state and the Orioles to agree on a plan to redevelop land around the ballpark — remains intact in the event of a sale. The lease includes a non-relocation clause, preventing the Orioles from leaving the city during the term.

While some fans celebrated what a new ownership group could mean for the Orioles, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, a “Hot (potentially unpopular) take.” He listed several accomplishments of the Orioles in recent years, including hiring executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, who has helped orchestrate a rebuild for the club.

“Despite some bumps in the road, I give credit to John Angelos for setting the Orioles up for long-term success in and for Baltimore,” Ferguson wrote.

The stadium lease deal and the agreement to sell the team follow a season in which the Orioles reached the playoffs for the first time in seven years. After a lengthy rebuild and several 100-loss campaigns, a roster filled with young players on cheap contracts racked up 101 wins and won the AL East before losing in the American League Divisional Series to the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers. The future is bright, too, as Baltimore still boasts baseball’s top-ranked farm system.

Rubenstein’s net worth of $3.7 billion, according to Forbes, ranks in the middle of the pack of MLB owners. That’s in line with the New York Yankees’ Steinbrenner family ($3.8 billion as of 2015), but far less than the sport’s richest, like the New York Mets’ Steve Cohen ($19.8 billion). Peter Angelos is worth $2 billion.

Rubenstein will be the fifth owner in the team’s history. It was previously owned by Jerold Hoffberger (1953-1979), Edward Bennett Williams (1979-1989) and Eli Jacobs (1989-1993).

Baltimore Sun reporters Hayes Gardner and Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article. This article will be updated.