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DENVER — The Denver Post is seeking to sell its minority ownership in the Colorado Rockies.
The Post holds a 7.3 percent state in the major league baseball club that is majority owned by brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort.
Ed Moss, CEO of the Denver Post, said Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group, owner of the newspaper, is seeking to sell the minority stake in the Rockies as the Post focuses on core print and digital business.
“We’ve made great strides in growing our audience in the last few years, so when we look at anything that the company is involved in, what we want to do is have our focus on our core business,” Moss said. “And anything that’s not tied to it, we’re going to evaluate whether we want to stay associated with those businesses or not.”
Forbes magazine recently valued the franchise at $464 million, which would put the newspaper’s stake at more than $33 million.
“If we don’t get what we think would be a fair value, we are certainly happy to keep our interest,” Moss emphasized.
The Post has held its stake in the team since the Rockies were founded more than two decades ago and Moss said the decision to seek a buyer for its stake is not a reflection of the team’s ownership or the newspaper’s relationship with the Monforts.
“We have a great relationship with the Rockies organization and certainly our reporting has been totally independent of our ownership stake and that will always continue,” Moss said.
Moss said Los Angeles-based investment bank Park Lane and Katten Muchin Roseman LLP, a sports law group, will field offers for the newspaper’s 7.3 percent stake.
The Rockies are coming off a 98-loss season, their worst ever, but attendance remained strong in spite of their poor performance on the field. Manager Jim Tracy resigned after the season, and the club on Wednesday night named former shortstop Walt Weiss as his replacement.
