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Cleveland Indians for sale
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May 13, 1999: 1:49 p.m. ET
Club with baseball's best record hires Goldman Sachs to find a new owner
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - After hitting the ball out of the park less than a year earlier with an all-star initial public offering, the Cleveland Indians are now looking to cash in on their success by finding a buyer.
Cleveland Indians Baseball Co. Inc. (CLEV)'s board said Thursday it has hired Goldman Sachs and McDonald Investments to find potential buyers for the team with the best record in Major League Baseball in 1999.
The announcement sent the stock soaring -- it was up 6-1/16 to 16 in Thursday afternoon trading after surging as high as 17-1/2.
The team last June became the first ever to step into the IPO batters box, ultimately netting around $60 million in proceeds. But the share price never fully recovered from a steep drop following the $15 IPO price last June 15, falling to as low as 5-3/8 - a nearly two-thirds drop. That decline cooled interest in other sports teams then considering initial offerings.
But now things look a little different, particularly for the now-hot baseball team, said controlling stockholder Richard Jacobs.
"Sports franchises are attracting premium prices, and we are under no pressure to sell," he said. "It's my hope that initiating a sale now will permit us to obtain an appropriate price for our shareholders while ensuring that the ballclub is in good hands going forward."
Stepping up to the plate?
The club didn't offer to speculate on who might buy the ball club, though industry watchers suggest potential bidders may include cable television guru Charles Dolan and his brother Larry, who tried unsuccessfully last year to buy the expansion Cleveland Browns National Football League franchise.
Raymond Park was another name floating among industry insiders as a possible bidder for the franchise. Park is a billionaire Cleveland businessman who sits on the Indians' board. He spent around $1.45 million to boost his stake in the team to 5.36 percent from 2.25 percent earlier this year.
The Indians have won four successive American League Central Division championships, and appeared in two of the past four World Series as the American League champion. One reason for the resurgence is the popularity of the team's new ballpark, Jacobs Field, which opened in 1994; the Indians have sold out 308 consecutive game at the park dating back to 1995.
Still, the team hasn't won the Series since 1948. Their recent success has overshadowed decades of futility in which the team was one of the worst in baseball -- a fact depicted in the "Major League" series of baseball film comedies.
It was during that dismal period that there was talk of moving the team. Now, however, the Indians still have 15 years remaining on their lease, and are obligated to play in the stadium until it runs out. So far this season the team has a 24-9 record, the best in Major League Baseball.
Indians' financial score card
For the 1998 period from the date of its initial public offering in June to Dec. 31, the Indians earned $7.19 million, or $1.12 a diluted share. Revenue totaled $100.04 million for the nearly 7-month period and $144.55 million for all of 1998.
The team's current market capitalization, which is the number of outstanding shares multiplied by the current market price of its stock, now rests around $64 million.
The stock represents a general partnership with the team's owners, and not a controlling stake in the franchise. Jacobs owns about 67 percent of the company and controls 99.8 percent of the voting rights.
Other sports teams taken public of late include the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics (BOS) and the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers (PAW) . However, stock in both teams has seen a rocky ride after an initial flurry of interest.
Only investors in the National Football League's Green Bay Packers can count on their shares not declining. Packers stock can't be legally sold for more than its face value and does not pay a return, making it more of a souvenir stock.
The Indians' announcement comes exactly one day after Abe Pollin agreed to sell the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals minority interest in the National Basketball Association's Washington Wizards and the MCI Center for undisclosed amounts. The teams and the arena are worth an estimated $600 million.
Those transactions, and the Redskins' $800 million agreement, must be approved by the respective leagues. 
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