Exclusive: Quint Studer Launches Community Baseball Partners to Counter Private Equity Takeover of Minor League Baseball
—Blue Wahoos owner creates alternative ownership model to preserve community-focused team—
Pensacola Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer shared this morning that he is launching a new company aimed at keeping minor league baseball teams rooted in their communities, offering an alternative to the private equity firms that have rapidly consolidated the industry.
Private Equity’s Minor League Baseball Takeover
Speaking on the “(We Don’t)Color on the Dog” podcast, Studer outlined the dramatic shift in minor league baseball ownership over the past three years.
- Over half of Minor League Baseball teams have private equity ownership ties. Diamond Baseball Holdings owns 48 of 120 teams (over 43%).
The consolidation has created concerns about the future of community-owned teams. “We’ve had offers from private equity firms. And at my age, taking money off the table is pretty attractive. But then what happens to the community?” Studer said.
Community Baseball Partners: A Hybrid Model
Studer’s solution is Community Baseball Partners (CBP), a company backed by family foundations rather than private equity.
- “I was talking to some people I know with family money, family foundations that exist, telling them I’m concerned about these cities who could lose a minor league baseball team or have it owned by somebody different—again, nothing wrong with private equity, but should they have another choice?” Studer said.
The CBP model offers team owners a middle path. “We’ll buy 60% of your team or more. You can then keep the equity in the total company, depending on how it works, and you can get out whenever you want,” Studer explained. “It’s a hybrid approach to… It’s somewhere in between owning it yourself and selling it to a private equity company.”
Community Baseball Partners has partnered with Three Step, which Studer described as “the biggest provider of youth sports in the United States.”
- “We also want to use them to go into these communities, including Escambia County, and be more helpful to youth sports, not the kids that are 17, 16, but these five-year-olds, these four-year-olds and so on,” Studer said.
First Deals in the Works
The new venture is already pursuing acquisitions. “We have an LOI (Letter of Intent) right now. We’re supposed to hear this afternoon about a team, which will be exciting. It’s got a great historical presence. Now they might say no, but so far the early reception has been really good,” Studer revealed.
- He added: “We talked to another team yesterday, another team this morning. We’re very fortunate to have family money willing to support this type of project.”
Studer noted this is breaking news, saying: “You’re the first to know. I’m going to get that out now. Haven’t even sent a press release out on this thing yet.”
The initiative represents a significant effort to maintain local ownership and community connections in minor league baseball as corporate consolidation reshapes America’s pastime at every level.
