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. As part of the $1.725 billion deal, Rubenstein will assume control of the team.
The Angelos family has owned the team since Peter Angelos bought the team for $173 million in 1993. Legal documents from 2022 revealed that he wanted to sell the team after his death. The wealth they put together.” His eldest son, John, has been the team's controlling figure since 2020.
Rubenstein, 74, is a philanthropist and founder of the Carlyle Group. He is a native of Baltimore and an alumnus of Baltimore City College.
A source says he will initially accept a 40% ownership stake in the Orioles with an agreement to buy the remaining shares after the death of family patriarch Peter Angelos.
The Angelos family is subject to significant capital gains taxes if the group is sold before Peter Angelos' death. Angelos, 94, had been suffering from failing health for more than six years.
Oriole legend Cal Ripken Jr. is expected to be part of the ownership group, one of the sources said.
The deal includes Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which also owns the regional television network that owns the Orioles and Washington Nationals. The Orioles own the majority of MASN in 2005, under a complex deal that originated when the Montreal Expos moved to Washington — within the Orioles' media division. Profitability of MASN.
The Orioles and Nationals could not agree on how much each club should receive during the five-year period from 2012 to 2016, sparking multiple arbitrations and a decade-long dispute. That case was finally settled last summer and the payments for the next five-year period, from 2017 to 2021, were quickly agreed upon.
A spokesman for John Angelos declined to comment. The Orioles, MLB and the Maryland Stadium Authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
MLB still has to formally approve the sale. The league has strict protocols that include vetting potential investors and voting owners on sales.
Buck News, a journalist-owned subscription media outlet that includes the financial and political elite, first announced the sale on Tuesday evening.
The Angelos family's intention to sell the team became public as the family struggled to control the Orioles after Peter Angelos went on disability. Lou Angelos, the younger of Peter's two sons, sued his mother and brother in 2022, attempting to seize control and ownership of the family fortune, including the John Angelos ballclub.
According to the lawsuit, John Angelos thwarted plans to sell the team.
Subsequent filings in the case, which was dropped after an apparent private settlement last February, show the family has retained investment bank Goldman Sachs and law firm Jones Day to handle a potential sale.
The $1.725 billion sales price was slightly higher 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 — that could last at least 15 years and as many as 30 years in Baltimore. That deal was negotiated over several years, with two governors and two stadium authorities. chairs, and agreed in December, shortly after Bloomberg reported that Rubenstein was “in talks” to buy the team.
At the time, John Angelos called Gov. Wes Moore to assure him the family didn't want to sell the team, according to a source familiar with the call.
As part of the lease agreement, the Orioles opened up to millions of dollars in state investment at Camden Yards, as outlined in the 2022 act. That law allowed the stadium authority to use up to $600 million in bonds to upgrade the ballpark, as long as the signed lease agreement lasted long enough for the bonds to be paid off. The stadium authority previously told The Sun that it would get about $400 million with a 15-year deal.
The lease agreement — which includes the possibility of the state and the Orioles agreeing to a plan to redevelop the land around the ballpark — will remain in place during the sale. The lease includes a no-transfer clause that prevents the Orioles from leaving town during the term.
The stadium lease agreement and the agreement to sell the team follow a season in which the Orioles reached the playoffs for the first time in seven years. The 2023 season saw a long rebuild to include a young roster that won the AL East with 101 wins.
According to Forbes, Rubenstein's net worth of $3.7 billion is in the middle of the pack of MLB franchises. That's tied with the Steinbrenner family of the New York Yankees ($3.8 billion as of 2015), but well short of sports' richest men like Steve Cohen of the New York Mets ($19.8 billion). Peter Angelos is worth $2 billion.
Rubenstein will be the fifth owner in team history. It was previously owned by Gerald Hofberger (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.
