Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote Thursday about the reasons behind his decision to bid for the Texas Rangers.
On his blog, Cuban said his decision to bid on the Rangers was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. He said he put up his bid because "it was the right thing to do."
Cuban said he was asked if he would be interested in buying the team more than a year ago. He said the person who contacted him was owed a lot of money from the team.
"We had a few meetings and quite a few options were discussed. Most of the options required that I also purchase and take on expenses and assets/liabilities that I believed were not core to the operation of the team and could in fact make things more difficult. I was not willing to do that," Cuban wrote.
He said things picked up again last month.
"Around the second week in July, I got asked by someone who was considering bidding in the auction if i wanted to partner with them. I told them that I doubted it, but I would take a look. From that first look, it appeared to me that all those obligations that I didn’t like were still in the deal. But I was soon informed that because of the bankruptcy auction, they could be removed. That got my attention."
Cuban said he got together with Jim Crane because he did not have the time to scour the contracts and due diligence -- but Crane's team had already done so. Cuban wrote about Crane, "He had smart people around him and he had his money ready to go as well. Plus he had a relationship with the existing creditors who were willing to loan us money in order to facilitate a competitive auction."
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Bottom line for Cuban, he said, "They beat us fair and square. As a result , I think they are in a better position than when they started the auction."
Finally, Cuban wrote about the talk about him on television, online and on radio.
"I realize a lot of 'commentators' were villain-izing me. Suggesting I was trying to break things up. They were of the opinion that there was no way Chuck or Nolan would ever come on board. I obviously thought they were wrong....So what the media was saying was of zero impact or influence on what i was going to do. Listening to the media only increases your odds of failing at whatever you are doing. So I ignore them."
Cuban also debunked talk that he bid on the team to drive up the value of the $2 million in debt owed by the Rangers he owns.
"It is NEVER a good idea to risk hundreds of millions of dollars on the purchase of a team AND to spend what could come to more than a $1 million in professional fees in order to increase the value of the $2 (million) you bought in bonds," he wrote. "I know it's something for the media to talk about. But if any of you out there think it through, I don't want you to think I was stupid enough to do something that stupid."
The group led by Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg won the bid for the Rangers with a bid valued at $590 million.
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