Good evening. I’m John Ourand, the newest member of the Puck superteam. Welcome to a special preview of The Varsity.

The first issue of The Varsity, my new private email at Puck, doesn’t publish until Thursday… but I caught wind of some big and exciting sports business news that I couldn’t wait to report, and I assume that you wouldn’t mind hearing about it first. A couple private equity moguls are buying the Orioles.

As part of the deal, the group will start off owning about 40 percent of the club. The group will buy Angelos’ remaining stake following the death of Peter Angelos, the family patriarch, who has been incapacitated for years by an illness. MLB owners will receive details of the sale at their annual meeting in Orlando next week. And while Rubenstein and Arougheti have reached an agreement with Angelos, there isn’t a timetable for the deal to close.

What’s not known, of course, is how this deal will impact the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network. The Orioles own about three-fourths of MASN, with the neighboring Washington Nationals owning the rest. MASN controls the local broadcasting rights for both the Orioles and the Nationals, but its complex structure has stalled attempts by both the Orioles and Nationals owners to sell their respective teams. But it shouldn’t be a surprise that these new owners, masters in the high art of financial structuring, overcame the blocker.

I would know. My son was born in 1999, and I cajoled him into becoming a fan. He didn’t see winning baseball for the first 12 years of his life. He still hasn’t cheered for his team in the World Series. Most fans place the blame for those poor results on Angelos, who earned a reputation for being tight-fisted with player salaries.

These days, however, prospects are looking up for the team. Thanks to a strategy supported by Angelos, the Orioles tanked on the field in the late 2010s. That resulted in the team acquiring top draft picks including Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Jackson Holliday, who have worked their way through the minors and shown abundant promise. The Orioles won the A.L. East last season with 101 wins and, despite a disappointing postseason finish, the team is considered an American League favorite this coming season.

John