Finally, a Home Run
Investors cheered Thursday when the majority owner of Cleveland Indians Baseball Co. put his team up for sale. The stock, which had languished well below June’s $15 offering price, soared $6.31 to close at $16.25 on Nasdaq, getting initial investors out of the red--at least on paper. While publicly owned major league sports franchises have hardly been market all-stars--the others, Boston Celtics Limited Partnership and Florida Panthers Holdings, are well below their peaks--motor sports stocks have raced ahead. Auto racing shares gained 31%, on average, in 1998, versus 27% for the blue-chip Standard & Poor’s 500 index, and most are beating the barometer again in 1999. The accompanying list includes the three major pro sports stocks, plus four race track owners, one league (CART) and two merchandisers (Action Performance and Racing Champions):
TEAM SPORTS
*--*
Company Ticker Thu. close 52-wk range YTD % chg. Cleveland Indians CLEV $16.25 $5.38-$17.50 +128.1% Boston Celtics BOS 12.00 7.00-17.50 +16.4 Florida Panthers PAW 9.75 7.13-20.88 +4.7
*--*
MOTOR SPORTS
*--*
Company Ticker Thu. close 52-wk range YTD % chg. Penske Motorsports SPWY $50.06 $16.88-51.25 +88.0% Dover Downs DVD 19.06 9.63-20.38 +58.0 Speedway Motorsports TRK 41.31 14.75-45.75 +45.0 Int’l Speedway ISCA 54.94 23.94-56.38 +35.7 Racing Champions RACN 16.38 7.50-16.31 +22.4 Championship Auto MPH 33.38 16.00-34.25 +12.7 Racing Teams Action Performance ACTN 37.81 17.00-48.25 +6.9 S&P; 500 index SPX 1,367.56 1,118-1,375 +11.3
*--*
Source: Bloomberg News
