By Caroline Wilbert, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 28--AOL Time Warner may be a step closer to shedding its Atlanta sports teams.
John Moag, a Baltimore investment banker who specializes in sports business, arrived in Atlanta this week representing at least one party interested in obtaining the Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, the teams' owners confirmed Thursday.
Moag is known for brokering high-profile sports deals. Perhaps his most notable was the 1996 agreement to move the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore, which created the Baltimore Ravens.
In Atlanta, Moag has been conducting 'due diligence,' industry jargon for looking at the financial books of the sports teams, said Brad Turell, spokesman for Turner Broadcasting, the unit of AOL Time Warner that owns the local teams.
Several other 'very legitimate potential buyers' are also doing due diligence, Turell said.
There are no serious negotiations underway, Turell said, and two parties who earlier expressed interest in the teams 'have gone away.'
Moag could not be reached for comment Thursday.
'There are people looking at them all the time,' Turell said of the Atlanta teams. 'It's a unique situation with three major franchises with two state-of-the-art arenas for sale, and that has generated a lot of interest. But sports franchises, they don't move quickly.'
Potential buyers have different interests, the Turner spokesman said: One party just wants the Hawks, while another wants both the Thrashers and the Hawks. Yet another party is interested in all three teams.
AOL Time Warner chief executive Dick Parsons has said the media giant wants to sell non-core assets, including the money-losing sports teams. Virtually immobilized by about $26 billion in debt, AOL Time Warner has also expressed interest in selling its book publishing division and the half-stakes it owns in two cable networks.
The three Atlanta sports teams, worth an estimated $750 million, say they are losing a combined $60 million annually.
The teams could command a bigger price tag if the buyer also agrees to pick up the company's long-term operating agreements for Philips Arena and Turner Field. And the company could throw in Turner South, a cable TV network that was created primarily to telecast Braves games.
Finding a buyer in today's market is tough. Several other sports franchises are for sale, including the World Series champion Anaheim Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Even as supply is up, demand is down. The stock market's beating has reduced significantly the net worth of rich individuals who might otherwise want the cachet of owning a sports team.
There has been speculation that Ted Turner, who announced last month that he will resign in May as vice chairman of the AOL Time Warner board, will buy back the Braves. The Atlanta entrepreneur said he would consider it, if he were part of a group. The price is too high for him to buy the team alone, he said.
Stan Kasten, president of the Braves, said Thursday he met with players in spring training late last week and told them he has little information about a possible sale.
'I took the opportunity to bring it up before I could be asked,' Kasten said. 'I just told them the answer to the question is, blessedly, I don't know.'
Staff writer Tim Tucker contributed to this article.
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(c) 2003, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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