Admit it, you laughed when Drayton McLane put the Astros up for $800 million. I did, I can say that for sure. But when the final numbers come out, it looks likely that McLane will be only a short jaunt south of his reported initial asking price.
You see, while McLane will sell the Astros themselves for $680 million—a princely sum in it’s own right—he’ll sell his share of the new Regional Sports Network that the Astros are sharing with the Rockets for an additional $93 million. Combine the two, and McLane will come up just $27 million short of the original price. A huge win for both McLane and Steve Greenberg at Allen & Co.
At a time when the NFL and NBA owners are either already crying poor or preparing to do so, it’s a pretty nice injection of reality when a terrible team in a decent-but-not-great sports market is sold for $773 million. Or at least it should be. McLane definitely did well on his original investment, that much is for sure.