The sale of Wolves is anything but a quiet river. ESPN reveals today that Meyer Orbach, the franchise’s second largest shareholder, has just filed a lawsuit in Minneapolis District Court. According to him, the sale in progress to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, amounted to 1.5 billion dollars, would be unfavorable to minority investors in terms of “accompanying rights”.
But the main information in this complaint concerns the whereabouts of the Wolves. Despite Glen Taylor’s public positions to keep the team in Minnesota, the businessman reportedly made no provision in the sale agreement requiring new owners not to relocate the team.
The agreement, which is expected to be concluded by July 1, also includes a “Governance issues” clause listing several actions that would require discussions with the franchise’s advisory board, including any plan to ” relocation of the team outside the ‘Twin Cities’ market (region nickname) ”.
As its name suggests, this advisory board would not have decision-making power. In other words, Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore would have no contractual limit to get the team moving …
A promise that had to stand out “black on white”?
These elements contrast with the intentions displayed by Glen Taylor a few weeks ago. The latter assured about the buyers: “They’re going to keep the team here, yes. We will put this clause in the agreement. Right now, we have a letter of intent, but when we write the contract, we’ll put it in black and white. This is not a problem. It won’t be a problem. “
Glen Taylor had also noticed that the NBA itself has its hands on the move files but he could not imagine the league approving the departure of Wolves to Seattle for example. “ It is in the best interests of the NBA that a new team is founded in Seattle He said, seeing it hard for the new owners to inject other millions of dollars into such a transaction after making the buyout.
In fact, many legal specialists explain that it is complicated, if not impossible, to put in writing an outright removal ban. Rather, it would involve financial penalties.
ESPN specifies in any case that the sale of the club will be done in installments with a first buyout of up to 20% of the franchise for this year. Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are expected to achieve majority stake for the 2023/24 season. Glen Taylor, who bought the team in 1994 for around $ 90 million, said he would continue to manage the club for the next two seasons.
It is recalled that this sale must be submitted to the final approval of the board of directors of the league.
