The $680 million question....  So, Jim Crane and Drayton McLane
have reached agreement on a purchase price for the Astros.  The
reported $680 million purchase price is considerably more than
Forbes' magazine's 2011 estimate of the the team's value: $474
million.  So, the natural question is "why is the sales price so
high?"  Or even, as David implied in his open letter yesterday,
"why did Crane overpay by about half?"  As for the latter
question, I don't think we have adequate information to say that
Crane overpaid to buy the team, particularly since the Forbes'
valuation is just one person's opinion based upon information of
uncertain accuracy.  But $680 million does seem like a lot of
money for a mid-market baseball team.  And Drayton McLane has
done very well on his investment.  Reportedly, McLane will get
paid an additional $93 million for his stake in the Comcast
broadcasting venture, which raises his proceeds to $770 million,
a figure that is relatively close to the $800 million asking
price reported la