BASEBALL
May 31 Is Deadline For Bids for Nationals
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MLB has instructed groups and individuals seeking to buy the Washington Nationals to submit their bids for the team by May 31, according to sources familiar with the process.
There are nine bidders who have each deposited $100,000 with MLB for the right to bid on the franchise, which is owned by MLB and is expected to fetch between $300 million and $400 million.
The bidders have been asked to submit two offers: one bid for just the Nationals, and a second bid for the Nationals and for a minority ownership in the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), a regional sports network owned jointly by MLB and the Baltimore Orioles, according to sources.
Mid-Atlantic Sports controls the television rights to the Orioles and the Nationals throughout the Baltimore-Washington region. MLB owns a 10 percent share in MASN, which increases to 33 percent over the next three decades. MLB is expected to sell its share in MASN to the new owner of the Nationals.
Commissioner Bud Selig has said he hopes to find a buyer for the Nationals, formerly known as the Montreal Expos, by this summer.
The league's 29 owners purchased the team from Jeffrey Loria for $120 million in February 2002.
The sale process started last fall and has been interrupted several times, most recently by a suit filed by Comcast, a cable television provider, against MASN over the rights to the Orioles. MLB is hoping to resolve that dispute before the Nationals are sold.
-- Thomas Heath
