SportBusiness.com

MLB team on the market for 30-day period

Drayton McLane, owner of Major League Baseball team the Houston Astros, revealed he has granted an exclusive 30-day negotiating period to sell the team which started on January 1.

According to Bloomberg, interested bidders include New York investment banking company Great Court Capital and former US Olympic Committee chief Harvey Schiller, but McLane believes there is “probably less than a 50-50 chance” a deal will go through.

“From time to time people come to us, and they asked, ‘If we can raise a certain amount of money, would you be interested in selling the Houston Astros?’ And I said, ‘Sure,’” McLane told MLB.com. “We gave them an exclusive window.”

McLane bought the Astros for $117 million in 1993. The franchise has reached the playoffs six times since that date and was estimated to be worth $445 million last year by Forbes.