Orioles sale to David Rubenstein finalized after MLB approval

Just in time for opening day, Major League Baseball’s owners on Wednesday unanimously approved the transfer of a controlling stake in the Orioles from the Angelos family, the team’s longtime owners, to a group led by Baltimore native and billionaire David Rubenstein.

The vote was the final step in a weekslong process, making Rubenstein the team’s control person, or lead decision-maker, and taking the team out of the Angelos family’s hands for the first time since 1993.

“I congratulate David Rubenstein on receiving approval from the Major League Clubs as the new control person of the Orioles,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “As a Baltimore native and a lifelong fan of the team, David is uniquely suited to lead the Orioles moving forward. We welcome David and his partners as the new stewards of the franchise.”

Rubenstein is the team’s fifth owner since the club moved to Baltimore in 1954.

“I hope to be successful in the sense that the fans are happy with the product that’s put on the field,” Rubenstein said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. He said he wants fans to “get good value” for their money, feel “that going to the ballgame is a good experience” and “have success on the field.”

My video message to @Orioles fans…the Next Chapter starts now: pic.twitter.com/52h2swTHSn

— David M. Rubenstein (@DM_Rubenstein) March 27, 2024

Rubenstein, 74, founded the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, in 1987, and is worth $3.9 billion, according to Forbes. A City College graduate, he grew up playing Little League in Baltimore.

The transaction, which includes the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the regional TV home of the Orioles and Washington Nationals, values the club and its assets at $1.725 billion.

Rubenstein said the deal resulted from a meeting in July with team chairman and CEO John Angelos in which Angelos expressed interest in selling a piece of the team. Rubenstein said he sought a controlling interest instead, and Angelos eventually agreed to that.

Rubenstein inherits a lease negotiated with the stadium authority and approved by the Board of Public Works in December — just a couple of weeks before it was set to expire. The lease keeps the club at state-owned Oriole Park at Camden Yards for a minimum of 15 years and frees up roughly $400 million in state investment to the ballpark. If the state and the team can agree to develop public land around the ballpark, including the B&O Warehouse, by the end of 2027, the lease would extend to 30 years, which would unlock more state money for stadium improvements.

John Angelos had been interested in developing that land and, last year, he and Gov. Wes Moore visited the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark to study its adjacent entertainment district.

Rubenstein said in the interview that he won’t exercise an option to end the team’s stadium lease after 15 years and plans instead to negotiate a development rights deal with the state and commit the club to Baltimore for 30 years.

He said he met recently with Moore and that the governor is on board with negotiating a plan to redevelop the area around Camden Yards and ensuring the lease extends for the full, 30-year term and that there is no opt-out.

Rubenstein said he will attend “as many games as I realistically can.”

He hopes to mingle with fans during Thursday’s opener against the Los Angeles Angels, sitting in the stands rather than the owner’s box.

The pregame celebration will include a nod to the new owner.

A postal worker’s son, Rubenstein and his aides selected the child of a postal worker — Aubree Singletary, a Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School fourth grader — to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Hall of Famer and Orioles icon Cal Ripken Jr., who is part of the new ownership team, will be the pitch’s recipient.

Rubenstein released an introductory video in which he expressed his hope that fans would support the team “and do everything we can to bring us the next chapter of the Baltimore Orioles, and hopefully that will lead us to another World Series championship in the very near future.”

Peter Angelos, the 94-year-old attorney who died Saturday, bought the Orioles for $173 million and was an active owner for decades. But as his health declined in recent years, his son John took control of the club.

“I thank our entire partnership group and our talented front office team for their confidence and support of my efforts to restore the Orioles to elite status in Major League Baseball, to renew and extend our long-term partnership in Baltimore so that the next generation of Marylanders will grow up enjoying the Birds of Baltimore, and to transition stewardship of the Club to David and his partnership group,” John Angelos said in a statement. “Capping our organizational turnaround with a championship in perhaps the toughest division in sports, while fulfilling my pledge that the O’s would forever play ball in Charm City, dovetails perfectly with the privilege to now pass stewardship of Baltimore’s iconic team to a Baltimore native, passionate American, and celebrated philanthropist in David Rubenstein.

“The Orioles are in great hands, and the Club, as well as the City and State that it calls home, are well positioned for success into the future.”

In recent years, the team endured a since-settled, intra-family court battle over Angelos family assets and three 100-plus loss seasons.

In 2018, the family hired executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, who rebuilt the organization.

The Orioles won 101 games and the American League East last year, and the team, loaded with young talent, figures to be a playoff contender for the foreseeable future. Over the past three years, the Orioles have had Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect (Adley Rutschman in 2022, Gunnar Henderson in 2023 and, this year, Jackson Holliday), marking the first such three-peat for any MLB organization.

Elias “has done a wonderful job,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein’s agreement to purchase the team has been weaving through necessary approvals since January. The entity he used to purchase the team — Inner Harbor Sports LLC — was created in Delaware on Jan. 11 and, later that month, news broke of an agreement between a Rubenstein-led group and the Angelos family. In February, MLB owners began discussing the change in ownership and in March, a committee of nine MLB owners OK’d the deal.

The Maryland Stadium Authority board approved the sale on March 20, as required by their lease with the Orioles, in a specially scheduled meeting.

The new ownership group also includes billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Ares Management co-founder Michael Arougheti and Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang.

The group will initially assume a roughly 40% ownership stake in the club with an agreement to purchase the remaining equity over time.