KANSAS CITY, Mo. — David Glass and his family have agreed to sell the Kansas City Royals to an ownership group led by Kansas City entrepreneur John Sherman in a deal that is expected to be worth about $1 billion.
The Royals announced the sale in a statement Friday, just days after word began to leak that the Sherman group was closing in on an agreement. Sherman and his co-investors will become the third owners since another local businessman, Ewing Kauffman, founded the club in 1969.
“The decision to sell the Royals was difficult for our family,” Glass, the team’s owner and CEO since he acquired the team in April 2000, said in the statement. “Our goal, which I firmly believe we’ve achieved, was to have someone local, who truly loved the game of baseball and who would be a great steward for this franchise going forward.”
The 83-year-old Glass and his family served as caretakers of the franchise following Kauffman’s death, and they took ownership of the club for $96 million in April 2000.
“In John Sherman we have found everything we were looking for in taking ownership of this franchise,” Glass said in the news release. “John Sherman and his group far exceeded our hope for the next caretaker of Royals baseball. His love for Kansas City and the game of baseball is well documented as are his philanthropic endeavors in the surrounding communities.”
Sherman will need to divest his interest in the Cleveland Indians, believed to be about 30 percent of the franchise, and the deal is subject to the approval of Major League Baseball.
None of those issues is expected to be stumbling blocks to a final sale.
information from The Associated Press was used in this report..