Derek Jeter's Miami Marlins bid has been joined by basketball great Michael Jordan as a minority investor, helping give new life to the former New York Yankee's effort to purchase the financially struggling club.
The New York Post reported that Jordan, who has owned the NBA Charlotte Hornets since 2010, according to Forbes, was listed as one of 15 investors Jeter has been able to attract for his $1.2 billion bid to buy the Marlins.
The Post added, though, that the six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls was "kicking in very little cash," in the deal. The big money appears to be coming from Bruce Sherman, a Naples, Florida, money manager who has also joined Jeter's bid.
"He has been a supporter of Derek's bid to be an MLB owner since the beginning," Jordan's business manager, Estee Portnoy, told ESPN on Tuesday.
Jeffrey Loria bought the Marlins in 2002 for $158 million, noted ESPN.
Another group trying to buy the Marlins led by Tagg Romney, the son of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has added rapper Pitbull, whose real name is Armando Christian Perez, to his growing list of investors, reported the Miami Herald.
Romney's group now includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who once was linked with Jeter,
Shoney's chief executive David Davoudpour and Marcus Lemonis, best known as the star of a popular CNBC business-turn-around show "The Profit," stated the Herald.
Forbes reported Monday that Jorge Mas, cofounder of construction firm MasTec, had agreed to buy the Marlins for $1.17 billion, according to baseball sources.
The Miami Herald stated that the Miami Marlins and Mas have both denied that a deal has been made and talks between all the groups are continuing.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday that he was disappointed that the sale has played out so much in the media before investors were lined up to make qualifying bids, Newsday reported.
"Unfortunately what's happened here is that the bidder became public before there was any sort of an agreement with any individual group," Manfred said, according to Newsday. "That happens sometimes. You can't control that. But the fact of the matter is, we have three viable bidding groups that are essentially in the same place in terms of price. When the process is complete, the Marlins will pick a winning bidder and I'm pretty confident that will happen in the relatively near future."
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