Smulyan bidding on the DC Nationals
Apparently he didn't learn his lesson with the Seattle Mariners! Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan has given Major League Baseball a 100,000 bucks deposit to bid on the Washington Nationals. He joins at least six other groups or individuals who have expressed interest in buying the team and have made the same deposit. Smulyan told us he's in preliminary discussions with other possible investors and may be interested in joining an existing group or helping create a newly formed group.
If he goes ahead with the purchase, spokesperson Kate Healey told RBR/TVBR it would be a personal investment and have nothing to do with Emmis.
Why, when you have so much broadcast clout? Says Smulyan: "Well, it may make more sense for me and it might not for the company. It may not be an opportunity the company wants to pursue, but I might personally have some expertise that might help."
Is there a chance Emmis might get involved?
"I don't know. I would say right now it's remote that I would be involved in it, let alone the company - - I think that would be very remote...I guess the key is there are some things I see about it that might be attractive...The problem with the perception of sports is you only get into it because you're a fan. And there are some things about sports that may be attractive [beyond that]. We had some theories about sports 15 years ago that have actually started to come to pass."
Locally, Bonneville just scored broadcast rights in DC (2/18/05 RBR #35 ).
As for whether he should have learned his lesson from the money he lost on the Mariners, Smulyan tells us, "That's a fair question, but I guess the short answer is that we're never going to make an investment - - either me personally or the company - - where we don't see some upside. And we got into Seattle because we saw some opportunities in media. They didn't happen, but our sense is that there are some things in sports that make sense. And while I think this is a long shot, and we've said that, it's something that we're willing to explore."
He adds, "The problem with sports is you can explore 50 things a year, and if one of them were in the sports area, it's the only thing that becomes public. So it doesn't mean it's likely, but it does mean there are some things about it we see that might be attractive to us."
Baseball is hoping to earn at least 300 million from the sale of the Nationals.
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
