Here is what national media members are saying about a potential Royals sale

It seems likely the Royals will take the field in 2020 with a new owner.

David Glass is in advanced talks to sell the team to a group led by Indians vice chairman John Sherman, and that made headlines across the nation.

Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports wrote about the potential sale and Glass.

Here is a snippet: “Glass is going to realize a greater than 1,000% gain on his initial investment in less than 20 years. There aren’t many legal ways to do that, but such are the benefits of owning one of only 30 units in a legalized monopoly.

“Under Glass’ stewardship the Royals were, for the most part a less-than-competitive team, finishing higher than third place in the AL Central on only two occasions. The exception to that, however, was considerable, with the club winning back-to-back American League pennants in 2014 and 2015 and winning the 2015 World Series by defeating the New York Mets. In the wake of that the Royals drew over two million fans to the ballpark for three straight seasons after failing to break the two million mark for over 20 seasons. They’re back down below that now but the goodwill from the 2014-15 seasons remains to a large extent, making the Royals a more desirable property than they might’ve been just a few short years ago.”

You can read more of what Calcaterra wrote here.

Joe Noga of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer wrote about Sherman.

Here is a portion of that story: “In 2016, Steve Greenberg, son of former Indians general manager and Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, brought Sherman and the (the Dolan family, which owns the Indians) together. Sherman’s involvement led to the club adding $5 million in payroll at the trade deadline when they acquired Andrew Miller, Brandon Guyer and Coco Crisp for the team’s World Series run.

“The following season, the club signed Edwin Encarnacion to a $60 million contract and again added $5 million in payroll at the trade deadline with the acquisitions of Jay Bruce and Joe Smith.”

You can read more of what Noga wrote here.

Damon Amendolara of CBS Radio tweeted this:

David Petchesky of Deadspin wrote a story with the headline, “The Royals are being sold, and their fans should be cautiously thrilled.”

This is an excerpt: “John Sherman, 64, made his money in the energy industry, and he’s a local and a former Royals season-ticket holder. Those are potentially good things, both for his emotional investment in the team winning, and the likelihood of them staying in Kansas City past the 2030 expiration of their stadium lease. Also a positive is that the Royals’ unfavorable local TV contract is up after this season: They’re expected to sign a new deal worth more than $50 million a year, more than double what they’re getting now.

“So there’s reason to think that better days are ahead for the Royals and their fans. It would be tough, anyway, for the days to be any worse than they were most of the time under Glass. Most of the time—2015 will live forever.”

You can read more of what Petchesky wrote here.

Mike Oz of Yahoo Sports tweeted this:

Matt Snyder of CBS Sports had a story about a potential deal.

Here is part of what he wrote: “The Royals routinely rank in the bottom five of payroll, but Glass did ramp things up during and after his team’s peak, ranking 13th in 2015, ninth in 2016 and eighth in 2017.

“The Royals’ local TV deal expires after this season, so signing a new one generally should help revenue go up and this might be a prime time for a buyer.

“Given that Glass is 84, got to enjoy winning the World Series and would receive a significant payday, it seems like a deal could be mutually beneficial.”

You can read more of what Snyder wrote here.

Nick Stellini, who writes for Baseball Prospectus, tweeted:

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 10:22 AM.