Royals Have New Ownership

March 14, 2000 / 7:38 PM EST / CBS/AP

The Kansas City Royals selected David Glass, former chairman of Wal-Mart, Inc., as the club's new owner today.

The selection of Glass, 64, chairman of the Royals, must be approved by major league baseball.

The process of finding a new owner for the American League club has been under way since the death of founder Ewing Kauffman in 1993.

The bid by Glass was reported to be about $96 million.

Glass was selected over other bidders for the club in what board member Louis W. Smith described as a competitive process with competitive bids. Others believed to have made bids for the club were Miles Prentice, a New York investor who lost out in an attempt to buy the Royals last year, and rum executive Facundo Bacardi.

Denver billionaire Donald Sturm was reported to have made a bid at one point, but the Royals denied that report.

Mike Herman, team president, said the Royals' board looked for a new owner who would keep the team in Kansas City and was offering a fair price. Baseball knowledge, financial accountability and and understanding of major league baseball were important in the selection.

He said the final agreement must be approved by the baseball owners at their meeting April 18. Closing of the deal is expected about April 30, he said.

Herman thanked everyone who had made a bid and said $96 million in stock is "a tremendous amount to pay." Asked if it was the best offer, Herman replied: "He made the highest offer among the ones we could accept."

Prentice's bid was reported to be in the range of $110 million to $115 million, while Bacardi's bid was reported to be in the range of $85 million to $90 million.

Glass, who attended the news conference announcing his selection, said: "There have been some potholes in the road along the way, and it's a process that's taken longer, I guess, than most of us thought that it would, but it's something that I think has been done with great integrity."

"If there's one message that I would bring to you today, it's the fact that Kansas City may be a small market demographically in comparison with other major league markets, but it's not a small market in its approach to baseball.

"It's a great baseball town, and more than anything else that I've wanted out of this process, and I know the board felt the same way, is for Kansas City to unite behind the Royals," Glass said.

Team founder Ewing Kauffman spent the last five years of his life trying to find a local owner for the Royals. He died in 1993 leaving a complicated succession plan awaiting approval by the Internal Revenue Service.

The plan specified that all money from the sale would go to Kansas City charities and that the board of directors did not necessarily have to take the highest bid. One provision was that Kauffman wanted new owner who would keep the team in Kansas City.

In 1993-94, the economics of baseball were changing to the disadvantage of small-market clubs like the Royals, and interest was minimal.

Glass, then the chairman of Wal-Mart and a friend of Kauffman, appeared to be the owner-designate until former star George Brett said he was putting together a group of investors. By then, Glass had become chairman of the Royals board and, claiming he was wounded by public criticism of his supposed advantage over Brett, said he was no longer interested in buying the team.

That was followed by several years of inactivity as the team's performance on the field went into a nosedive and attendance waned. Finally, prompted by local banker Jerry Green, the board finally opened the bidding process. Brett's group failed to make a bid, and Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, made a token offer that was not near the minimum asking price of $75 million.

The bid in November 1998 was awarded to New York investor Miles Prentice, but baseball owners voted 29-1 last September to table Prentice's $75 million offer, saying baseball economics were too uncertain for small-market teams.

Two months later, Robert DuPuy, baseball's chief legal officer, told the Royals that he had informed Prentice that he would not be approved as the "control person" of the Royals. He said that decision was based on the opinions of the ownership committee and the baseball commissioner.

The process then was reopened, and Glass re-entered the picture along with Prentice and other new bidders, including Bacardi