Rumors were swirling this week that former Yankee slugger and steroid cheat Alex Rodriguez is in the hunt to buy Sports Illustrated.
Ironically, it was an SI story back in 2009 that initially blew the lid off A-Rod’s steroid use in 2003 while he was still with the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 Yankee season for alleged steroid use.
In retirement, Rodriguez has worked to rehab his image and is a current ESPN sportscaster.
A spokesman for A-Rod did not returned a call by press time. At the moment, his interest falls into the category of fast-spreading rumor.
If it’s true, he’d most likely be heading a coalition of backers.
Meredith, which put SI as well as Fortune, Money and Time magazines on the block in March following its $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc., was reportedly looking for $200 million for SI.
The onetime weekly title, which was estimated to have earned $13 million to $15 million last year, cut its frequency to every other week this year.
But sources think the protracted negotiations over a sale mean one thing: The price is dropping.
Josh Harris, a co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, reportedly said that his $125 million was rejected. The Hill owner Jimmy Finkelstein and the William Morris Endeavor talent agency also looked and passed.
Former NBA star Junior Bridgeman is still believed to be in the hunt. Now running the Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Company, he did not return a call for comment. But on Aug. 5, he told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he was looking at SI and that he felt the $125 million bid by Harris “was not going to get it done.”
One financial source said Bridgeman is “still on the table” but is “having trouble coming up with the financing.”
Also said to still be in the hunt is motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who is teaming up with Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, filmmaker Josh Pollack and several others.
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