Cleveland Indians Announce New Minority Owner

Cleveland Indians’ ownership wrapped up a two-year search for a minority investor on Friday, announcing a new partnership with Kansas City entrepreneur John Sherman.

On Friday morning, the Cleveland Indians announced a new member of the franchise’s ownership group, concluding a two-year process. Kansas City-based entrepreneur John Sherman has been given the title of Vice Chairman and Minority Ownership Partner.

According to a press release from the team, Sherman has been responsible for two successful startups: LPG Services Group, which merged with Dynegy in 1996, and Inergy L.P., which became a public company in 2001 and later merged with Crestwood Holdings in 2013. Sherman continues to serve on the board of the merged company – Crestwood Equity Partners.

“I am pleased to conclude the process and am thrilled to be partnering with John Sherman,” said Paul Dolan, the Indians’ CEO and Chairman. “John has an impressive business track record and shares the community oriented values that we believe in. I am eager to have John join our ownership group.”

The Dolan’s, who purchased the club from Richard Jacobs for $322 million in 2000, remain majority owners, and figures for Sherman’s investment have not been released.

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The announcement comes as the Tribe prepares to kick off its three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night at Progressive Field. Both teams currently hold first place in their respective divisions, with the Jays leading the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox by a game and a half in the AL East and the Indians up six games on the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.

News of the Dolan’s search for a minority investor came to light about a year ago. The franchise hired Allen & Co., an investment bank based in New York to assist in the search, which is said to have been undertaken in 2014.

Sherman, according to this morning’s release, is active in civic and philanthropic affairs in Kansas City, and in 2014 was inducted into the University of Missouri’s Bloch School of Business Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame.

“It’s an exciting time to be joining the Indians organization and ownership group,” he said. “It’s a strong, storied franchise with a great deal of promise this year and beyond. I look forward to working closely with Paul and helping him further the organization and team in any way that I can.”

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What this will mean for the team moving forward is unclear, but given the Indians’ well-documented attendance issues and the ever-increasing cost of doing business in Major League Baseball, a little extra financial clout is certainly a good thing to have.