Nintendo of America to sell majority stake in Mariners; John Stanton replacing Howard Lincoln as CEO
Apr 27, 2016, 4:08 PM | Updated: May 4, 2016, 6:47 am
The majority interest in the Seattle Mariners’ ownership is changing, a move the team announced Wednesday afternoon along with the plan for John Stanton to replace retiring Chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln.
Nintendo of America has agreed to sell its majority share of the team to the 17 minority members of First Avenue Entertainment, the holding company that makes up the Mariners’ ownership. NOA will retain a 10 percent minority stake. The move is subject to review by Major League Baseball and will have to wait until the league’s annual owner’s meetings in August.
Listen: Reaction from “Danny, Dave and Moore” on Mariners’ ownership changes
710 ESPN Seattle’s Mike Salk and Brock Huard were the first to report Wednesday that Lincoln is stepping down. Once the transaction is complete, he will retire from day-to-day operations and be replaced by Stanton as the Mariners’ Chairman, CEO and designated Major League Baseball Control Person. Lincoln will remain on the FAE Board of Directors as the representative of Nintendo’s ownership interests.
Stanton is a successful businessman in the cell-phone market who once was chairman of the company that eventually became T-Mobile. He has been a minority owner of the Mariners since 2000 and previously owned a minority share of the Seattle Sonics.
Stanton said in the team’s press release: “My goal and the goal of the entire Mariners ownership and management team is to win a World Series. I believe that the Mariners are well positioned to achieve that goal and it will be my honor to lead the organization. I want to thank Howard for his leadership for the last 17 years and thank the members of the board and ownership for giving me this opportunity.”
Lincoln has been the Mariners’ Chairman and CEO since 1999.
“From the first day of our involvement nearly 24 years ago, Nintendo has had two goals for its investment in the Mariners,” Lincoln said in the release. “First, we wanted to assure the permanence of the team in this great city. And on that count, I am proud and gratified that this agreement further solidifies that goal. On the other hand, I’m equally disappointed that we have not been able to host a World Series game for our fans.”
Here are some notes from Wednesday’s news conference:
• A big question in regards to the switch at CEO was what Stanton, who fought hard to keep the Sonics in Seattle, would say about the potential NBA/NHL arena in SoDO, which the Mariners ownership group has been opposed to. He stated that the entire ownership group is behind that stance, likening it to an undesirable house being built in the neighborhood.
• Lincoln said Nintendo of America valued the Mariners at $1.4 billion, which the 17 minority owners agreed upon. That, however, is not the amount that Nintendo is selling its majority stake for. Stanton called the ownership change “more of a transition than transaction.”
• According to a biography provided by the Mariners, Stanton was born in Seattle and raised in Bellevue. He has been Chairman or CEO of three separate wireless communications companies – McCaw Cellular Communications, which was sold to form what is now AT&T Wireless; Western Wireless Corporation; and VoiceStream Wireless, which was sold in 2001 to become T-Mobile. He is currently the Chairman of Trilogy Partnerships, a private equity company, and also serves on the boards of Microsoft, Costco and Columbia Sportswear. He has a B.A. from Whitman College in Walla Walla and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Despite his lengthy resume, he hasn’t been well known to the public, a fact he was no doubt aware of when he quipped that people were probably wondering who he was when he first spoke at the news conference.
