This tweet from Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal is interesting:
Kaplan promises more details later, but my first thought is that this cuts a couple of different ways, one in which is good for team Greenberg and one that isn’t.
On the one hand it could suggest that the mediator and/or the bankruptcy court are less-than-impressed with the notion that Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan represent the only viable bidders out there and the frustrated bidder’s (i.e. Jim Crane, Jeff Beck/Dennis Gilbert) presence at the table is designed to pressure Greenberg into sweetening his deal in order to satisfy creditors.
Another possibility is that the mediator and the bankruptcy court got a bit perturbed earlier this week when reports came out that Beck or Crane were still talking to creditors behind the scenes and the court wants to bring them out of the shadows and into the light, holding their feet to the fire. In effect, such a move would either make the bidders and/or the creditors put their money where their mouth is and stop their little whispering campaign that seems designed to throw a wrench into the Greenberg deal and the bankruptcy resolution.
No matter the case, having the bidders around and, more or less, on the record, would make any final disposition in the case a lot neater inasmuch no one could later complain that a low or inadequate bidder won. They’d actually have to say something official and out in the open. Ultimately, that makes for a more transparent process.
So: no matter your motives, Mr. Bankruptcy Court, good move.