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The article stated Bobby Bragan as a source that Carl Bells wants to sell the team and part of the real estate. Following is the link: http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/1648720.html.

The article link posted by airhogsfan is essentially what I was talking about in my previous post a couple of days ago. This verifies what I had heard. I know of no additional details other than speculation. I am glad they posted the name of a potential buyer. Due to my involvement with the Cats in the past and being known as a very big Cats fan and a season ticket holder some (not so much in the know) thought I might be a potential buyer of the team. I am not.

In order to buy the team and all of the land it would take a partnership group to come up with that type of money, if the owners were to remain local. Anyone else who could buy the entire package by themselves would be looking for a fire sale price at the current moment in my opinion.

The biggest financial burden of the Cats has been the cost of LaGrave Field. This is an incredible cost. If someone purchased only the team and LaGrave Field with 100% debt they would be looking at about $1,000,000 in interest costs each year along, not to mention the pay down of the principal balance. The City of Fort Worth and related entities have not been willing to provide any type of financial relief that I am aware of. They are content with the Texas Moter Speedway, the Texas (in Arlington) Rangers and the Dallas (also in Arlington) Cowboys to be available to the Fort Worth Community. Even though I would hate it, I have recommended that the Cats keep LaGrave empty for a year in order to make a point. If they did this I think Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. would put political pressure on City officials to assist in the financing of LaGrave Field. The lack of this is what is killing the Cats financially. The Cats have make it very public that they have never made money. Only those who do not understand finances have been disbeleivers. If Carl Bell could sell LaGrave to the City and lease it back at what other minor league teams generally pay there would not be an issue. Hell, I would be interested in buying part of the Cats baseball team. Currently, there are alot of people who could afford the team if they could get a fair market rental/lease rate on LaGrave field. Currently, the City will not help and it seems no one else wants to suffer the financial losses each year to keep the Cats on the field. However, they all admit that LaGrave Field is the cornerstone of the Trinity River Vision Project.

I will make a separate post on how I think the City could get involved and make all of the work.

In a previous post I mentioned that the Cats have a huge financial burden of paying for LaGrave Field without any City support. Following is a very brief analysis of what I would propose to make this a different situation.

1. I would seek the alliance of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. to convince the Fort Worth Sports Authority/City of Fort Worth to purchase LaGrave Field and lease it back to the Cats. The sales price to cover past costs would probably have to be in the $15 million dollar range.

2. Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. would be encouraged to do such so that LaGrave Field can remain the Cornerstone of Trinty Uptown (also known as the Trinity River Vision Project). Otherwise, LaGrave Field may go away, or become vacant, and essentially cause a serious injury to the Project. It would be significant political damage to numerous individuals to let this happen.

3. The selling point to the City and its related entities would be that this would become more than a baseball facility. It would essentially become a City Park to downtown Fort Worth. Almost a Central Park per say. From May to August, LaGrave Field would be exclusive to the Fort Worth Cats. The rest of the year the Field itself would become available for kids to play baseball on, play soccer on, to fly kites on, etc. The parents could sit and watch in the stands and maybe even a concession stand would be open to sell drinks. The parking lots would be available to play basketball and street hockey, etc. all year long. The goals would be portable and could even be used during May to August when the Cats are on road trips. The only time the parking lots would not be available to the general public is on Cat's game day. There would also be carnivals, flea markets, etc. The parking lots are already being used to stage all of the downtown parades...

4. With LaGrave Field and the surrounding parks becoming more than just baseball related the taxpayers of Fort Worth would buy in to this proposition whereas City Officials were concerned about LaGrave only serving a minority of the population in the past. Therefore, the City would be able to lease LaGrave to the Cats for probably about $5,000 per game. The Cats could break even on a deal such as this...maybe even make a small profit.

5. With all of this increased activity around LaGrave there would be more reason for a developer(s) to add housing and retail to the 36 acres of additional land currently controlled by Carl Bell. I believe that there is a large demand for affordable downtown housing due to the increased traffic congestion on I-35. When I say affordable...this relates to the earnings of your average downtown professional.

6. With the development of these 36 acres, the Cats will draw more fans. This will allow the City to increase the facility rental costs in the future to recoup more of their initial investment. They would not have to recoup anything near to the entire amount since they will be providing a public service of a downtown park to so many more tax paying citizens.

Obviously, the above is very brief in the details but I think a master plan following the above basics could work.

Anybody else have any thoughts? What about the Cats becoming a community owned baseball team under the above situtation. Once again, more political clout! I assume the Cats would sell for about $2,000,000 or so but I really have no idea. I am just basing this on some past articles I have read and don't remember very well.