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NFL teams that have to share with baseball teams->
- Thread starter BigRedCat
- Start date
Pink Space Biscuit
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Well there is only one more year til the Stadium downtown is done and now they are starting votes on a new football stadium too, or possibly losing the Chargers all together.
So the Q will be the Monster Truck stadium and that's all.
So the Q will be the Monster Truck stadium and that's all.
BigRedCat said:
My bad, it's the owner of the Padre's, in trouble.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2002/0924/1436299.html
Padres owner has deep, troubled pockets
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By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com
John Moores is the owner of the San Diego Padres -- for now.
But two attorneys who have filed class-action lawsuits against failing computer software giant Peregrine Systems and Moores, who serves as the company's chairman, said they might seek to freeze Moores' assets. If they do, it could affect control of the Padres and possibly the team's investment in San Diego's new downtown ballpark.
San Diego Padres owner John Moores, left, has business interests off the field as chairman of Peregrine Systems.
Peregrine filed for bankruptcy Sunday and sued its former auditor, Arthur Andersen, on Monday. But with more than 30 class-action lawsuits pending against Peregrine for allegedly misrepresenting its revenue, Moores could stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if he's found liable for the company's accounting discrepancies, the attorneys say.
"If John Moores is found to be controlling all of the improprieties, it is possible that (his share in) the Padres could be liquidated," said Jeffrey Krinsk, an attorney who represents as many as 200 investors in four class-action lawsuits that name Peregrine and Moores as defendants. "It is unknown the precise amount that all these class-action lawsuits add up to, but since it's definitely over $1 billion, it exceeds the net worth of John Moores."
The San Diego-based company has been the subject of federal investigations by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Security and Exchange Commission and, most recently, was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice. A spokesman for the SEC would not comment on the status of its investigation of Peregrine.
Moores, a software entrepreneur who bought the Padres in 1994 for about $85 million, was named the 18th "most greediest executive" in the September issue of Fortune Magazine for cashing out hundreds of millions in Peregrine stock. Between Oct. 29, 1997 to Feb. 28, 2001, Moores sold 18,815,966 shares for $611.4 million in 100 documented trades, according to SEC filings.
"How can any logical, rational person say that the Peregrine bankruptcy and the investigation by three federal agencies won't have a spillover affect on his ability to own this team?" asked Mike Aguirre, an attorney who has filed separate suits against Peregrine on behalf of stockholders and stock-holding employees. Both lawsuits include Moores as a defendant.
“ In previous cases, the SEC has usually used the asset freeze when there is an ongoing problem regarding the use of funds. They've used it against companies like Worldcom and other places where there have been accounting scandals, but unless there is a formal charge against him personally it probably won't happen. ”
— Robert Heim, former assistant regional director of the Securites and Exchange Commission
Moores did not return calls by ESPN.com seeking comment, but spokesperson Francie Murphy said the idea of freezing Moores' assets should be taken with a grain of salt. Aguirre is a well-known Padres critic and has failed in four political races over the past 20 years, Murphy said. "He will say anything for a good quote."
"There's not a connection here between John Moores and Peregrine, and Peregrine and the status of the Padres' ballpark," said Padres president and chief executive Bob Vizas. "The money he has invested in Peregrine is not going to affect his ownership of the team."
Meanwhile, a high-ranking Major League Baseball official said he is not panicking.
"It's an issue that affects one of our owners, so in that light we are paying attention to it," said John McHale, baseball's executive vice president of administration. "But there is nothing in the unfolding of this story which causes anyone any distress in this office, nor does it cause us to be overly concerned or take any kind of action."
San Diego's downtown ballpark was originally scheduled to open this season. But in part because of 16 lawsuits surrounding taxpayers' commitment to the project, as well as an investigation into allegations Moores bribed a San Diego councilwoman, the 42,500-seat facility is now set to open in April of 2004. The Padres successfully defended the lawsuits, and Moores was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The Padres, who agreed to cover $153 million of the stadium's $458 million construction cost, financed their share and placed the funds in an escrow account.
"Originally, the city was supposed to put in their money first, with the Padres' money following," said Vizas, who noted that the ballpark is currently about 40 percent complete. "But because of the delays and the litigation, we decided to put it all in the bank in an escrow account, where the city and the Padres wouldn't have access to the money."
With the current set-up, Geoff Patnoe, executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, said he isn't worried about the ballpark, which will be the anchor of a 26-block revitalization project San Diego voters approved in 1998. "They are at the point of no return right now and I don't see what happened to Mr. Moores' company affecting anything," Patnoe said.
While Aguirre maintains he believes the Padres are being overly optimistic by thinking Moores' involvement in the company won't affect team business, attorneys familiar with how the SEC handles such cases say it's unlikely regulators would ask a judge to freeze Moores' finances and affect his ownership of the team. Both the SEC and plaintiff attorneys can seek to freeze a defendant's assets.
John Moores' Padres have shown they can be competitive on the field. In 1998, they reached the World Series.
"In previous cases, the SEC has usually used the asset freeze when there is an ongoing problem regarding the use of funds," said Robert Heim, a former assistant regional director of the SEC in New York. "They've used it against companies like Worldcom and other places where there have been accounting scandals, but unless there is a formal charge against him personally it probably won't happen."
If the SEC did seek to freeze Moores' assets, it would have to prove to a judge that the money used for Moores' other businesses benefited from the direct transfer of money made from the alleged illegal conduct.
"I wouldn't say this is an impossibility because we're operating in a different environment than we were in even a year ago," said a former SEC regulator who requested anonymity. "Judges want to make sure that if there is wrongdoing, corporate officials don't just abscond with their wealth."
Heim said it's likely that if Moores incurs any losses it would be from being on the losing side of a class-action lawsuit. But Moores could be covered by standard directors and officers liability insurance, and may not even be named as a defendant in the suit.
While Aguirre and Krinsk list Moores as a defendant in their suits, not all class-action lawsuits against Peregrine do. Because the plaintiff with the largest suit usually controls the consolidation, it is unclear whether Moores will be a defendant to the class-action suits, said Eric Belfi, an associate at Rabin & Peckel, another firm that is filing a class-action lawsuit against Peregrine but does not list Moores as a defendant.
"There's no chance they won't name John Moores as a separate defendant," Krinsk said. "Any responsible counsel would include him in the lawsuit and ultimately that's what is going to happen when it gets consolidated."
Moores claimed in a May 15 article in the Wall Street Journal that the Padres lost $43 million between 1998 and 2000. Still, Forbes recently estimated the team's value at $207 million and placed Moores on its list of 400 richest Americans for the first time this year, calculating his net worth at $740 million.
On Aug. 29, Peregrine's stock was delisted from NASDAQ; it now trades on the Pink Sheets. On Monday, shares dropped to an all-time low of 7.3 cents -- down from the $7 it was selling for just five months ago. Also Monday, Peregrine filed suit in San Diego Superior Court against Arthur Andersen LLP, accusing it of fraud, malpractice and failure to fulfill its auditing and accounting duties, and seeks damages of $1 billion.
Moores, 58, served as Peregine's chairman from March 1990 to July 2000. He took over the role again in May after the firm's top two officers, chairman and CEO Steve Gardner and CFO Matt Gless, resigned.
When a company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, debts owed to creditors are frozen until the company files a reorganization plan. The company, during bankruptcy protection, can chose to assume or reject past contracts.
"It's business as usual," said Peregrine spokesperson Ann Julson.
Pink Space Biscuit
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Sure they can take my tax dollars and build another stadium.
Pink Space Biscuit
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Sign me up!
