Tom Hicks: Looks Into Selling Minority Portion Of The Texas Rangers

On Tuesday, Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks announced his intentions to sell off as much as 49 percent of his investments in the Texas Rangers.

Hicks purchased the team on Jan. 7, 1998, from a group headed by the soon-to-be President of the United States George W. Bush. At the time Hicks bought the team for $250 million, and this past April's Forbes Magazine valued the team now at $412 million, ranking 16th out of the 30 Major League Baseball teams.

In 1998 Hicks owned 55 percent of the team and has gradually increased his ownership to 95 percent. Currently, he also owns 95 percent of the NHL Dallas Stars, 50 percent of American Airlines Center (home of the Stars and NBA Dallas Mavericks,) and 50 percent of the English Premier League's Liverpool Football Club.

It is not believed that the now former President of the United States Bush has any interest in purchasing any part of the team. However, Bush has been asked to throw out the first pitch of the season at the Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington.

One name that has already come up as a possible investor in the Rangers is team president Nolan Ryan. When asked about it, Ryan said that he wasn’t sure at the moment, but that was because he had not had any time to think about investing yet.

Before the start of last season, Ryan was hired as the president of the team and it was then when it was first speculated that he might invest in the team’s ownership.

Hicks has already mentioned that he wants to have Ryan be a part of the ownership group.

A final name that isn’t really garnering any real belief just yet, but would be interesting, is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban.

Cuban would be a good fit for the Rangers because he already owns a team in the DFW area and he owns part of the AAC with Hicks. Cuban has shown tons of interest in owning a Major League Baseball team, but was denied the opportunity to own the Chicago Cubs this past season.

Currently, there are sources saying that he has shown some interest in purchasing the Kansas City Royals.

However the negative of purchasing the Rangers probably out-weights the positive for Cuban, and that is that he would not be a majority owner. 

Hicks is still currently interested in being the majority owner of the team, for now at least. If the Cubs and if the Royals rumors are true, then Cuban is looking to become the majority owner of a Major League organization.