Before Court Hears About Latest Suit, Rangers Demand July 22 as Drop-Dead Sale Date

At 1:30 this afternoon all those involved in the sale of the Texas Rangers will meet in U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn's Fort Worth courtroom for an expedited hearing concerning Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan's lawsuit filed yesterday against Tom Hicks' Texas Rangers Baseball Partners. But before that: Just this morning, TRBP filed with the court a motion to end this thing one way or another by July 22 -- and, to that end, they've included their rules for the auction, which they'd already filed -- and withdrawn -- last week. (Judge Lynn must be thrilled -- thrilled.)

TRPB's new filing says Greenberg has upped his offer for the team (and not the property surrounding the Rangers Ballpark) to $2.7 million, putting it at $306.7 million. It also says Greenberg and Ryan's Rangers Baseball Express has "agreed to reduce the amount held in escrow following the transfer of the TRBP Assets from $30 million to between $10 million and $12 million, depending on the Closing Date." The motion follows.

All of which is especially interesting in light of a report from Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, who says that Chief Restructuring Officer William Snyder filed something last night insisting that TRBP and RBE are in cahoots when it comes to yesterday's lawsuit. I can't find the filing anywhere -- it's not on PACER, nor is it on the Texas Rangers' Web site containing court filings -- but this is what Kaplan says it says: "Given the apparent alignment of interests between the [team] and [Greenberg and Ryan] and [the team's] apparent willingness to agree to the temporary restraining order, it is clear that the parties to the complaint cannot, and will not, adequately represent Ranger Equity's interests in this lawsuit."

Update: The doc to which Kaplan refers is also after the jump. The section he quotes can be found on Page 8 of the filing.

Rangers New Filing
071310 REH Motion to Intervene