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No Red Sox bid by Welch
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July 27, 2001: 3:57 p.m. ET
Spokeswoman for Cablevision chairman says GE chief won't join bid
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Jack Welch hasn't given many details of his plans after retiring as chairman and CEO of General Electric Co. in September, but owning a portion of his beloved Boston Red Sox apparently won't be part of the picture.
Published reports earlier this week said that Welch would be a partner in the bid led by Charles Dolan, a Welch friend and chairman of Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC: down $0.43 to $57.00, Research, Estimates).
Cablevision, a Long Island, N.Y.-based cable company, already owns the New York Knicks and Liberty men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the Rangers hockey team.
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Jack Welch
Retiring GE chairman won't join the bid of Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan for ownership of the Red Sox. | |
Nancy Sterling, spokeswoman for Dolan's bid for the Red Sox, said she couldn't disclose details about partners in Dolan's bid, but she did confirm, "There's no deal between Jack Welch and Mr. Dolan regarding the Red Sox."
Welch, ranked as "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine in 1999, is to retire from General Electric (GE: up $0.90 to $44.65, Research, Estimates) September 7 after leading the company for 20 years. He certainly will bring resources that would allow him to be a bidder for any sports team. The most recent GE proxy puts the value of his GE stock and options at just shy of $1 billion.
Welch's retirement date was originally set for April, but was pushed back as he tried to close a deal for Honeywell (HON: up $0.37 to $37.37, Research, Estimates). That deal ended up being blocked by European regulators earlier this month.
Dolan's net worth is valued by Forbes magazine at $2.8 billion.
Dolan's bid for the Red Sox will be a personal one, not a company bid, Sterling said. Asked if Cablevision would assume control of the New England Sports Network which is owned by the Red Sox and one of the assets of the bid, she said such details are far from being considered at this point in the bidding process.
The Red Sox are now owned by the Yawkey Trust, the estate of the family that owned the team through 1992.
There are between seven and nine bidders for the team, said Justin Morreale, an attorney for the trust. They have until Aug. 15 to submit non-binding bids. The list of bidders will then be cut to two or three, which will complete more detailed analysis of the team's finances before submitting final bids.
Dolan's brother Lawrence owns the Cleveland Indians baseball team, which he purchased in 1999 for $145 million in cash and a total value of $320 million, including assumed debt. That club was publicly held at the time.
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The Red Sox are expected to fetch even more. The new owners are likely to find themselves committed to a building a new Fenway Park, estimated to cost at least $350 million. Team officials are continuing negotiations with state and city officials about details of the park that would replace Major League Baseball's oldest stadium. 
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