King & Spalding Advises in Sale of Houston Astros

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwire - May 16, 2011) - King & Spalding advised Drayton McLane, Jr., and the Houston Astros Baseball Club in its sale to a group headed by Houston businessman Jim Crane, chief executive officer of private equity fund Crane Capital. The sale of the baseball franchise will be finalized once it is approved by Major League Baseball ownership.

Included in the sale is the Astros' share in Comcast Sports Net Houston, a new regional sports network that will begin airing NBA's Houston Rockets games in 2012 and Astros games in the 2013 season.

The Houston Astros have been owned since 1992 by McLane. During his tenure as chairman and chief executive officer of the ball club, the Astros have had their most successful run in franchise history, posting the fourth-best record in the National League while making six post-season appearances. In 2005, the Astros won the National League Championship, and on October 25 of that season, played host to the first World Series game ever played in the state of Texas.

A cross-office King & Spalding legal team representing the Astros in this deal was led by Houston corporate partner John L. Keffer and consisted of the following lawyers and consultant:

Corporate:
Jaron R. Brown, partner (Atlanta)
Monika Roth, associate (New York)
William A. "Pete" Musgrove, counsel (Houston)
Archie Fallon, associate (Houston)

Finance:
Margaret E. "Peggy" O'Neil, partner (New York)

Tax:
L. Wayne Pressgrove, partner (Atlanta)

Employee Benefits:
Eleanor Banister, partner (Atlanta)
Donna W. Edwards, counsel (Atlanta)
James Cowles, consultant (Atlanta)

Real Estate:
Peter M. Oxman, partner (Houston)

Intellectual Property:
Robert T. Neufeld, counsel (Atlanta)
Craig Stone, associate (Houston)

Antitrust:
Brian R. Meiners, associate (Washington)
Kathleen A. Ball, associate (Washington)

About King & Spalding
Celebrating 125 years of service, King & Spalding is an international law firm with more than 800 lawyers in Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dubai, Frankfurt, Geneva, Houston, London, New York, Paris, Riyadh (affiliated office), San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Singapore and Washington, D.C. The firm represents half of the Fortune 100 and, according to a Corporate Counsel survey in August 2009, ranks fifth in its total number of representations of those companies. For additional information, visit www.kslaw.com.