Drayton McLane is once again considering the idea of selling the Houston Astros, the team he has owned since purchasing the club in 1992 for $115 million.
Eric Fisher of Sporting News has more.
McLane, 74, has periodically considered selling the club and on several occasions has come close to an actual sale, most recently in late 2008. Early this year, McLane held an exclusive negotiating window with an investor group formed by New York-based investment firm Great Court Capital that did not yield a deal.
McLane addressed the issue later in the article.
"We’ve enjoyed owning the Astros, and this has been our 18th season with the club. But the big decision we have to make is whether this is something we want to continue to invest in," McLane said.
Up until this season, when the Astros were practically forced to trade for younger talent, McLane had been rather anti-rebuild. In the personal opinion of this web site’s editor, it was a “strategy” that likely set the Astros back a few years, if not more. They’ll have much more trouble reclaiming their spot as perennial playoff contenders than they might have had they decided to rebuild in 2007 or 2008.
No doubt, McLane has always been a win-first owner, but I think it’s safe to say that a change at the top has been quite necessary for some time now.
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