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Mariners GM Howard Lincoln (Ex-NoA CEO) retiring, Nintendo selling majority stake

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Digital-Hero

Digital-Hero

Member
After failing our local baseball team...


"The Mariners are expected to announce a press conference for this afternoon."

"Lincoln, 76, has been the organization’s CEO since September 1999, overseeing two playoff teams in 16 seasons, including the 2001 Mariners that won an MLB record 116 games in the regular season. The Mariners have had seven winning seasons under Lincoln, last winning over 90 games in 2003."

For those who don't know:

"Nintendo of America has been the majority owner of the Mariners since 1992"

http://sports.mynorthwest.com/120311/sources-mariners-ceo-howard-lincoln-step/

Update:
Sounds like there will be a press conference at 3pm Pacific.

Update 2:
Nintendo is selling the Mariners it's majority shares to the minority owners and will only retain a 10% share.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/725445323141709826
 
A

Arthr2ShdsJcksn

Banned
It's Nester's turn.

Np-vol6-nesteraward.png


Hope he has a nice long retirement.
 
C

Chris R

Member
Hoping this doesn't change anything about the team this year... they actually seem to have shit in order after a slow start.
 
G

Gurgelhals

Member
Arthr2ShdsJcksn said:
It's Nester's turn.
Click to expand...

Not the same Howard actually. The one from the Howard and Nester comics was Howard Phillips, who was just a PR spokesman for NoA. Howard Lincoln was a hardass lawyer who became CEO NoA and was, if you believe some of the stories, something like Hiroshi Yamauchi's very own Tom Hagen during their "imperial" NES/SNES years.
 
T

thefro

Member
This may end up being on-topic... Nintendo might be selling part or all of their stake in the team


Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln is to announce Wednesday that he is stepping down from his position with the ballclub, according to sources.

Lincoln, 76, has been at the helm of the Mariners since replacing former chairman John Ellis in 2000. Sources have indicated that team minority owner John Stanton will assume Lincoln’s role.

The Mariners have announced a 3 p.m. news conference at Safeco Field. How Lincoln’s departure will impact the team’s ownership remains to be seen.

The Mariners are majority owned by Nintendo of America, the Redmond-based affiliate of the Nintendo video game conglomerate in Japan. Lincoln is the company’s voice on the team’s board of directors and had essentially become its de facto owner given the limited involvement of the Japanese company in Mariners affairs.

The team’s owner, Nintendo patriarch Hiroshi Yamauchi, died in 2013. Yamauchi in 2004 transferred his ownership stake in the Mariners to Nintendo’s Redmond affiliate for estate-planning purposes, ensuring his death would not impact the team’s operations.

But Lincoln has come to be seen by those within the team’s ranks as its most powerful figure. Under his leadership, the Mariners have grown from a team purchased for $100 million in 1992 to a franchise valued at well over $1 billion.

The Mariners and DirecTV in 2013 completed the formation of a regional sports network that pushed the team’s value and Nintendo’s majority ownership stake even higher. Under Mariners bylaws, any sale of that stake must first be offered to current owners within the team’s partnership and then to any local group interested in a purchase.

The team’s largest minority owner, Chris Larson, is believed to hold a 30 percent stake. But Larson suffered financial setbacks late last decade, and an acrimonious divorce from his first wife in late 2011 is believed to have limited his capacity to assume majority control of the squad.

Stanton had made no secret of his intentions to expand his role in Mariners affairs. In recent years, he had approached other owners with the intention of forming a group that could eventually assume majority control of the team.
Click to expand...

It'd be a decent time to cash out before the cable TV bubble bursts, IMHO.

Seems awfully coincidental for this to happen right after Nintendo releases their fiscal results.
 
Digital-Hero

Digital-Hero

Member
Frozenprince said:
MLB is all in on digital.

Of the 4 majors, the MLB is the only one I see surviving the bubble fairly intact.
Click to expand...

The Mariners will be on ROOT Sports (Cable - Seattle) for the forseeable future, the Mariners own 71% of it.

The news of Nintendo selling their stake may be true. Press Conf at 3pm PST Seattle.
 
C

cdyhybrid

Member
Nintendo selling majority shares to the rest of the owners, keeping 10%. Lincoln staying on board to rep Nintendo's ownership stake.
 
R

RBH

Member
Nintendo of America plans to sell a majority of its interest in the #Mariners to other members of the current ownership group.

Nintendo of America will retain a 10% stake in the team. Remainder of its holdings sold to other members of First Avenue Entertainment LLLP.

#Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln will retire from day-to-day operations, and John Stanton will replace him as Chairman and CEO.
Click to expand...
https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/725445323141709826
 
M

maruchan

Member
cdyhybrid said:
Nintendo selling majority shares to the rest of the owners, keeping 10%. Lincoln staying on board to rep Nintendo's ownership stake.
Click to expand...
Is that true. Seems like a dumb move on Nintendo.. Mlb teams are big business as mentioned they are now valued at 1 billion, with a. Shit team.. It's a hard club to get into now
 
Digital-Hero

Digital-Hero

Member
End of an era. Nintendo a minority 10% owner.

/wipeTears
Not really

Also noted in the press conference, no profit was ever taken out of the team.
 
L

Lyriell

Member
I always felt this was one of those fine displays of corporate appreciation and loyalty. Say what you want of certain practices that happened under the old mans reign, but he awarded one of his American workers with their dream... buying a baseball team for him to run into his retirement.

If I recall the Nintendo purchase actually kept them in Seattle as the city wasn't going to fund their stadium works or something and they would of had to move if Nintendo didn't jump in.

Howard should be proud he had two successful reigns and I hope he enjoys his retirement.

On a side note... wonder if Japanese players will stop being transferred there :p
 
P

Paches

Member
Lyriell said:
I always felt this was one of those fine displays of corporate appreciation and loyalty. Say what you want of certain practices that happened under the old mans reign, but he awarded one of his American workers with their dream... buying a baseball team for him to run into his retirement.

If I recall the Nintendo purchase actually kept them in Seattle as the city wasn't going to fund their stadium works or something and they would of had to move if Nintendo didn't jump in.

Howard should be proud he had two successful reigns and I hope he enjoys his retirement.

On a side note... wonder if Japanese players will stop being transferred there :p
Click to expand...

Nintendo did certainly save baseball in Seattle. I thank Yamauchi for that 100%
 
L

Lyriell

Member
Paches said:
Nintendo did certainly save baseball in Seattle. I thank Yamauchi for that 100%
Click to expand...

And if I recall it happened at the hight of "The japanese economy is going to buy up all our businesses and ruin life" rubbish that the media was rambling on about at the time. Can't believe people in hindsight didn't want it to happen.
 
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