On Baseball
A Marriage Is a Partnership, Except in Baseball
By MURRAY CHASS
On the Ilitch Holdings Web site, Marian Ilitch is listed as the company’s vice chairwoman. Among the 15 “companies and venues” listed and described are the Detroit Tigers. A visitor to the site could easily conclude that Marian Ilitch is an officer, if not an owner, of the Tigers and the other 14 ”companies and venues” listed under her name and that of her husband, Michael.
MotorCity Casino is not among those companies and venues. Marian Ilitch owns and operates MotorCity Casino. Under Major League Baseball rules, an owner or officer of a club cannot own or operate a casino. So why does M.L.B. allow Marian Ilitch to own and operate the Detroit casino? Because the Ilitches have assured M.L.B. that Marian Ilitch is not an owner or an officer of the Tigers, the Ilitch Web site notwithstanding.
Michael owns the Tigers; Marian owns the casino. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.
The Ilitches don’t talk to reporters. They have not returned telephone calls seeking comment on their baseball and gambling ownership status, nor has the vice president for communications at Ilitch Holdings Inc., Karen Cullen.
Baseball officials, on the other hand, have recently addressed the issue.
“Mike has no ownership interest in the casino, and Marian has no ownership interest in the club,” Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said Friday. “We don’t have a rule that covers spouses. Since these entities are separate, we don’t deem it a violation.”
DuPuy said that when Marian Ilitch was listed as a director and an officer of the Tigers, “we asked that it be modified and it was.”
What about the Web site listing? “I don’t think she has any direct involvement with the Tigers,” DuPuy said. “My recollection is she divorced herself of any involvement with the Tigers, and we were satisfied with that.”
Tom Ostertag, baseball’s general counsel, echoed DuPuy’s view.
“The annual ownership reports filed by the Tigers clearly indicate that Michael Ilitch owns 100 percent of the club and that Marian Ilitch is not among the club’s officers, directors or employees,” Ostertag said.
The subject of baseball and casinos has arisen because Steve Swindal, a managing general partner of the Yankees, is a partner in a group that may operate three racetracks in New York State and have slot machines at one of them. Bob Nutting, chairman and plurality owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, had also wanted to install slot machines at a Pennsylvania ski resort he owns.
Nutting abandoned his plan because he did not think he would be able to find a way around baseball’s rules.
Swindal’s and Nutting’s efforts prompted another look at the Ilitch operation. Technically and legally it may be free of any casino smell, but signs remain that a link exists, including the listing of Marian Ilitch as second in command of Ilitch Holdings.
If she is vice chairwoman of the company, and the Tigers are part of the company, how is she not part of the Tigers ownership or at least their executive group?
Michael Ilitch is chairman of Ilitch Holdings, and he is the owner of the Tigers. Christopher Ilitch is president and chief executive of Ilitch Holdings, and his page in the Tigers’ media guide is second only after his father’s. His biography mentions some of the entities included in the company.
Christopher was involved in a casino matter last year when he and Mike Malik, a partner with Marian Ilitch in a casino venture, were the hosts for a $5,000-a-head fund-raiser in the owner’s box at Comerica Park. The event was for Representative Richard Pombo, Republican of California, whose House Resources Committee was scheduled to take up a bill affecting her casino project.
Marian Ilitch is not considered an owner or officer of the Tigers, yet she is an owner or officer of other Ilitch entities like Little Caesars Pizza, the Detroit Red Wings, Olympia Entertainment, Uptown Entertainment and the Fox Theater.
In the first five years of Michael Ilitch’s ownership of the Tigers, the team’s media guides listed his wife as an owner as well. In 1997, Dun & Bradstreet listed her as a team executive, secretary and treasurer. But when she became involved in the casino project that year, she denied having been an owner. Commissioner Bud Selig supported her position.
In April 2005, Westlake Securities of Austin, Tex., announced the $106.4 million sale of Atwater Entertainment Associates’ minority interest in MotorCity Casino to Ilitch Holdings. Westlake said Ilitch Holdings “also bought the remaining equity in the holding company including the controlling interest owned by Mandalay Bay Group prior to its merger with MGM Mirage Resorts.”
Westlake’s release later referred to Ilitch Holdings as “another minority interest shareholder of MotorCity Casino.” The release didn’t say that Marian Ilitch bought the casino or was a minority shareholder in the casino. It said Ilitch Holdings was a shareholder and bought the casino. Where was baseball then?
Yet her biography on the Ilitch Holdings Web site says “Marian purchased the MotorCity Casino in Detroit in April 2005.” Westlake evidently wasn’t in on that deal.
Baseball seems to have ignored the casino transaction the way it has ignored other Tigers transgressions. The Tigers seem to get a pass from Selig. In 1990, he issued guidelines dealing with interviews of minority candidates for decision-making positions. But when the Tigers hired Phil Garner as manager in 1999, they interviewed no minority prospects and Selig did not discipline them.
The Tigers bought their way out of a penalty by establishing a community program involving minorities. The fact that the Tigers repeated the act last year when they hired Jim Leyland, this time conducting sham interviews with two minority candidates knowing they were going to hire Leyland, showed their disregard for Selig’s rules.
Just as the Tigers won the American League pennant under Leyland, Michael Ilitch has also done well — financially — this year. After a year’s absence, he returned to the Forbes list of America’s 400 richest people, his estimated net worth doubling to $1.5 billion from $750 million in 2004.
Matthew Miller, who compiles the Forbes list, declined to provide details of the $1.5 billion estimate but said: “I can tell you the casino holdings are not tremendously significant to the 1.5 number. We have heeded what he has said to a degree that he doesn’t own it.”
Forbes, however, does not have to oversee the enforcement of baseball’s rules. It can accept “to a degree” Ilitch’s story without concern for its absolute veracity. Baseball cannot afford that latitude.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/sports/baseball/26chass.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=sports&pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/sports/baseball/26chass.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/sports/baseball/26chass.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
You may also want to review these posts:
The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos
The Verifiable Truth: Notice of $625 million MotorCity offering lead by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch states, Marian Ilitch is co-owner of the Detroit Tigers
The Verifiable Truth: Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?
The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos
The Verifiable Truth: Notice of $625 million MotorCity offering lead by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch states, Marian Ilitch is co-owner of the Detroit Tigers
The Verifiable Truth: Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?
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