If it takes a Texas Rangers Bankruptcy to force this sale and get the team of a meager budget that threatens to handcuff the team again this season at the trade deadline I am all for it. The team may still be handcuffed at the trade deadline because of the Rangers Bankruptcy, but at least we know we won’t be losing anymore first round draft picks this summer because Tom Hicks is a financial doucher.

The only reason that I am not more excited about the teams sale is because of after watching how messy this got before finally a Texas Rangers Bankruptcy forced the sale of the team is knowing that the Dallas Stars are about to go through the same thing. Hopefully the Hicks and his band of village idiots will be able to learn something from this process, but I doubt it because no matter what they say, it will always be about the bottom line not the team.

Don’t Blame the Lenders
You can’t get mad at the lenders for rejecting the deal again, if you think about it why would they accept pennies on the dollar. Each lender entered into an agreement with the Hicks Sports Group and the terms of their agreements were broken by HSG and because of that they are now being offered less money than their original agreement was worth. Hardly seems fair, but when you lend money to a moron like Hicks or a sports team in general you are playing with fire.

What Now?
Bud Selig and MLB have had enough of Tom Hicks, who doesn’t want the deal to go through because he found a more lucrative opportunity after he entered into an exclusive agreement with the group headed by Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg. The law is on MLB’s side as well, with precedence being set recently with the Phoenix Coyotes. The rumor is that MLB will take over the Rangers by the end of this week, which conveniently is the week of the owners meetings.

Here are the facts from Evan Grant’s post: As the sale turns: The latest drama on Rangers sale

So basically Hicks has already entered an exclusive agreement with Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg group, and if Tom isn’t careful he might get beaned with a ball from the Ryan Express. You can see this in the text from Evan’s post below.

As part of the Texas Rangers sale process, Tom Hicks selected the Chuck Greenberg/Nolan Ryan group as the chosen bidder on December 15, 2009 and entered into an exclusive agreement with that group.

And here is the part where Bud Selig T-Bags Tom Hicks right on the chin and tells him to shut up and sit down.

Major League Baseball is currently in control of the sale process and will use all efforts to achieve a closing with the chosen bidder.

Any deviation from or interference with the agreed upon sale process by Mr. Hicks or any other party, or any actions in violation of MLB rules or directives will be dealt with appropriately by the Commissioner.

So basically what this is saying is that the commish won’t hesitate to take control of the Rangers if Hicks pulls anymore of this BS, and I applaud Bud Selig for doing so. This thing has gotten so bad that I think I would actually welcome MLB taking control from Hicks.

Anyway the city of Dallas is one step closer to the possibility of having its major sports teams not owned by someone whose talent seems to be losing money and running teams into the ground.

Tom Hicks was not all bad though, he did help build rinks in the Dallas area that have allowed hockey to grow in the Dallas Metroplex. However it is clear that some bad investment decisions are handcuffing his already limited ability as a professional sports team owner.

Here are few exerpts from Mike Heika writer for The Dallas Morning News article “Tom Hicks explores possible sale of Dallas Stars”

Tom Hicks has hired an investment group to study the sale of the Stars, Hicks Sports Group announced Thursday.

“While a sale is not a certainty, it is a possibility, and Mr. Hicks has received numerous inquiries about the team,” Stars president Jeff Cogen said.

What to take out of this is that no matter what Tom Hicks or anyone from the Stars or Hicks Sports Group says, a sale or at least some new investors is imminent. It is even my belief that the Dallas Stars are probably borrowing money from the NHL.

“With the separation and pending sale of the Rangers, the Stars have seasonal cash flow needs that are being advanced from time to time by our lenders,” Hicks said in an e-mail. “We are working closely with the NHL and our lenders to examine all of our alternatives.”

All of this sounds eerily similar to the events that led up to the sale of the Texas Rangers that is getting closer and closer to being final. Hopefully this the sale of the Dallas Stars can get done sooner than later so the team can address the defense and goaltending issues.

You are probably not extremely familiar with the inner workings of the Texas Rangers and the ownership situation that has yet to be sorted out. Then again, maybe you are. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there.

What is here and there and everywhere for me and the other rabid Texas Rangers fans (however many of us there are), at least, is the ongoing sale of the team. Tonight (January 15, 2010) was the deadline for the ownership group led by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan to have an agreement done to take control of the team. However, that deadline has come and gone. All sources around the team are reporting that the team is still under the control of Tom Hicks.

I am begging you Mr. Selig. Please do not let Tom Hicks maintain control of this team. I have no wish to stand in the way of Tom Hicks’ personal ambitions in any other matters. But on this issue I will not budge. If you truly care about the competitiveness of Major League Baseball and its fans, you will not allow Tom Hicks to remain as owner of the Texas Rangers.

Ten years ago, I don’t believe the fans of the Texas Rangers would have ever considered this a possibility. Our beloved Rangers had just finished capturing their third division title in four years. You remember that, don’t you? How Juan Gonzalez and Will Clark and Roger Pavlik and Ken Hill helped lead a team to the playoffs that had no distinguishable history for 35 years as a franchise? How Pudge Rodriguez became a legendary figure in Texas and will always be cheered?

Tom Hicks injected money into our franchise. Unfortunately he spent that on all the wrong people. Now he is so deep in debt that our team, in the #6 media market in the country, has a payroll hovering around 23rd. To me, that is simply unacceptable. I don’t believe the Rangers will ever have a payroll approaching that of the highest 5, but I think that a $90 million payroll is a reasonable request in this market.

Dallas is a winners town. Always has been. Always will be. Yes the Cowboys are the biggest draw, but a consistently fine product on the field that competes for playoff spots more often than not will be successful in Arlington, Texas. Tom Hicks understands this. He understands that the Texas Rangers are on the precipice of having the best team in franchise history.

Keep in mind, Mr. Selig, that this franchise is about to embark upon its 50th season in the American League. And never has this franchise won a playoff series. Only once has it even won a playoff game.

Tom Hicks knows he is sitting on a cash cow. This is a young, exciting team that will become a contender if it is nurtured properly with an appropriate amount of financial flexibility in order to make transactions that will lead them to the franchise’s first ever playoff series victory and hopefully World Series championship.

But none of that can happen with Hicks in control. If this ownership situation drags through the season, he has a chance to do irreparable damage to the franchise. Irreparable.

I’m sorry to bring up painful memories for you, but does that description sound vaguely familiar to you? The Montreal Expos were the same way back in 2003. You said it was a “conflict of interest” to call up players for the team at the September 1 roster expansion date, despite the team being tied for the Wild Card lead on August 29. No owner could be found, and the team would leave after 2004.

What if Tom Hicks doesn’t sell this team? Will you and MLB take it over? Believe me, I’m not questioning the system. I’m questioning the man that makes the system necessary. It makes me nervous that Hicks wants to keep this team. Honestly. I’m nervous that the longer Hicks holds on to the team, the possibility rises that the Texas Rangers will not be in Texas much longer.

Please help me calm my nerves. I can’t speak for the other Rangers fans out there as to whether they have the same nerves, but I’m sure they join in my refrain:

Don’t Let Tom Hicks Own The Rangers Anymore.

Please.

Sincerely,

Cody Dunlap

However until anything substantial comes out in the most likely scenario is Tom Hicks holding on to a stake in the team and rounding up some investors to purchase portions of the team. This will help Tom Hicks out, but is not the best solution for the baseball club, because Tom Hicks will still act as the majority owner with silent partners.

If Exxon Mobil or another company or person were to purchase the Texas Rangers, the team could move on from one of the worst owners in baseball. When Hicks first purchased the club he signed A-Rod and threw money at this thing without a plan, and finally with Nolan Ryan in the drivers seat the mess has been cleaned up. So Tom please sell the team.

Here is the comment from one of our old posts about Tom Hicks money problems:

ATTENTION ALL RANGERS FANS!!!

Your White Knight has arrived, ExxonMobil Oil Company of Irving Texas, to buy out Tom Hicks and take control of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club with a $**700,000,000** purchase.

Nolan Ryan would join the Board of Directors of ExxonMobil, would receive 5% ownership of the Rangers, and, most importantly, would be the ‘Control’ owner of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club.

ExxonMobil would hold 95% ownership and act as a silent partner and investment banker for the Rangers.

Bud Selig would bless this transaction by awarding the rights to host the 2012 MLB All-Star Game to the Texas Rangers.

And they lived happily ever after….Except for one thing.

This deal WILL NOT HAPPEN if you sit on your hands and remain silent.

All YOU have to do to make the dream a reality is to phone, fax, write, e-mail, and demonstrate [in front of ExxonMobil corporate HQ in Irving Texas if need be] to ExxonMobil and tell them to underwrite this deal.

WE NEED TO HEAR YOU NOW RANGERS FANS!!!!

MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD…CONTACT EXXONMOBIL TODAY!!!!

First the details: As first reported yesterday by rangerfans.com, “Inside Pitch,” a daily show which airs on SIRIUS XM Radio at 2 p.m., fielded a caller which said that the Rangers were forced to borrow $15 million in order to make payroll for the most recent pay period. Evan Grant of InsideCorner quickly jumped on the story, along with Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball.

The situation now: A club source said the Rangers did pay their employees for the most recent pay period and Hicks remains in control of the team. The team still reportedly has the financial flexibility to sign international free agents and draft picks. This info is from Evan Grant, and it can be found here.

Hicks has also had problems with his other two teams, Liverpool FC and your Dallas Stars. So what does it mean? In the short term, it means that there’s no real chance that the Rangers will be able to make a major move in order to improve their team. The Rangers are the team on the market right now, but as Bob Sturm (of Ticket and InsideCorner fame) points out here, Hicks is simply selling the Rangers because they are the team that will get him the highest return.

In the long term, these struggles will have a much larger effect. Obviously on the surface, it’s tough that Hicks is having financial difficulty in the midst of one of the best seasons in Rangers history. With no monetary problems, the Rangers could be players in the trade market to add a piece that could make them serious World Series contenders very soon. But it’s not really the end of the world – the Rangers are still developing quite a bit of young talent.

However, this could be real bad news for the future of the franchise. (Not to mention for the Stars as well, although their problems aren’t quite as impending because of the NHL’s salary cap). I don’t want to be the doomsday prophet, because in no way do I think this is going to happen, but if these struggles continue…we could be looking at an MLB-controlled franchise. Which, judging by the fortunes of the Expos, is not something ANYONE wants to see around here, especially in the 5th largest media market in the country.

I have no data to support this possibility – it is only my own personal fear. But if whether this information about the Rangers struggling to make payroll is true or not, Hicks is obviously struggling. Evan Grant said in his post that there is a scenario set up for the Rangers to borrow from the MLB fund if they need to make payments. While this does not mean that MLB would automatically control the franchise, it would probably mean the end of any chance of the Rangers going above slot to sign draft picks Matt Purke or Tanner Scheppers.

Here’s my request to Tom Hicks: If you can’t pay the bills, either figure out how immediately or find someone who can. As much as you want to hang on to the Rangers, you will do them much more damage than you will if you sell right now.

Because you don’t want the Rangers to end up like the Expos, right?

Right?

*-Tom Hicks photo credit: lonestarball.com via The Associated Press