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MLB Together with business partner Josh Harris, Guardians' minority owner David Blitzer already owns several other sports teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers. Bill Streicher / USA Today Sports SEATTLE — Five years ago, after the Cleveland Guardians finalized their stadium lease extension and selected their new team name, owner Paul Dolan searched for a business partner. He struck an agreement with real estate development magnate David Blitzer, and their alliance became official in the summer of 2022. Now, with uncertainty swirling across baseball with an expiring collective bargaining agreement threatening to spur a work stoppage, there’s change on the horizon for the Guardians, too. The Dolan family has owned the franchise for more than a quarter-century, but their status as principal owners might be on borrowed time. Advertisement Blitzer became minority owner in 2022, with a pathway for him and his investors to eventually take over as controlling partner. The agreement required Blitzer to buy 35 percent of the team, with a gradual increase in that number. That’s where Blitzer’s share stands now. So what’s next? After the 2027 season, Blitzer can choose whether to become majority owner, multiple industry sources told The Athletic. He can also punt the decision until a couple years later. If Blitzer does take control, Dolan plans to remain minority owner. His family has owned the team since purchasing it from the Jacobs family for $323 million in November 1999 after a failed bid to buy the NFL’s expansion Cleveland Browns. MLB’s owners approved the sale in January 2000. It’s the longest ownership tenure since the franchise became a charter member of the American League in 1901, and it’s not just Dolan who has remained in place for decades. Team president Chris Antonetti has worked in the front office since 1998, and general manager Mike Chernoff first interned with the club in 2003, when he entered pitch data into a computer and even once caught a CC Sabathia bullpen session. John Sherman also had a path to majority ownership when he joined the organization as minority owner in August 2016, just before the club began its march to the World Series, but he left in 2019 to buy his hometown Kansas City Royals instead. Dolan had spent several years searching for an investor and even hired a brokerage firm, Allen & Co. , to spearhead the process. “I would have made ties (in Cleveland), ” Sherman told The Athletic last summer. “I wouldn’t have had these types of ties. But I would have been no less committed. It’s just different — to get to do this in your hometown is a pretty special deal, and it’s a rare opportunity. ” Advertisement Once Sherman changed his plans, he and Dolan shopped Sherman’s stake in the franchise, which remained in escrow. They enlisted the same sports banking boutique to direct the search. Dolan sought a partner who would collaborate on decision-making, rather than someone to serve as a silent bankroller. Like Sherman, Blitzer doesn’t have ties to Cleveland. In fact, none of the four finalists for the minority ownership vacancy did. That, obviously, wasn’t a sticking point with Dolan, who has insisted his family, with its Cleveland roots, will remain involved in ownership in some capacity for the long haul. Blitzer stood out for his experience, his ability to problem-solve, his connections and his resources. Blitzer co-owns the New Jersey Devils, the Philadelphia 76ers, a forthcoming WNBA team and a NASCAR outfit with his business partner Josh Harris, through their venture, Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment. Blitzer also owns a handful of soccer clubs throughout Europe. This is the way sports ownership has trended in recent years. The locally owned mom-and-pop shop types are being phased out in favor of private equity behemoths that boast diverse sports portfolios. The timing of Blitzer’s decision point just so happens to coincide with a breaking point in Major League Baseball. The league is headed toward a turbulent winter, as the CBA expires at the start of December and there’s a consensus in the industry that a lockout is all but guaranteed. The Guardians, winners of three of the last four AL Central titles, tote one of the league’s lowest payrolls, in the neighborhood of $75 million, a figure similar to the ones they carried around the turn of the century. They’re envied by other teams for the way they consistently squeeze wins out of limited financial investment in the big-league product, and they’re maddening to other teams that scoff at their lack of incentive to boost their payroll. Last week, Forbes estimated the Guardians’ franchise value to be $1. 66 billion, which ranked 26th out of 30 teams. Advertisement No one knows exactly how Blitzer’s potential takeover will influence spending habits. Blitzer did work hand-in-hand with Dolan over the winter in negotiating José Ramírez’s new seven-year, $175 million contract, which will keep the future Hall of Famer in Cleveland until his 40th birthday in 2032, and might wind up as mostly Blitzer’s financial responsibility. Several people in the organization have surmised Blitzer could eventually follow a common tactic by a new owner of green-lighting a free-agent expenditure as an initial goodwill gesture, but the expectation is that the club’s payroll won’t dramatically change unless the league revamps its methods of revenue distribution, including on the TV front. The Guardians shifted to an MLB-operated TV application last year, which, sources told The Athletic,  brings in about half of the revenue the club had originally been slated to receive before Diamond Sports Group filed for bankruptcy. The team’s original TV deal was supposed to stretch through 2027. Blitzer comes from a real estate development background, and when he came aboard, the Guardians explored their options to develop land near Progressive Field, but they didn’t find much that piqued their interest. Creating a ballpark village is en vogue, with the St. Louis Cardinals pioneering the concept and with Atlanta’s Battery Park being the more recent golden standard. The Guardians are still open-minded about it, but there’s not much movement on that front. They did purchase the Gateway East parking garage, adjacent to the ballpark, for $25 million in 2024. They recently sold the naming rights to the garage, multiple sources told The Athletic. The Guardians’ lease at Progressive Field — now the ninth-oldest ballpark in baseball — runs through 2036, plus a pair of five-year options that fall under the city’s jurisdiction. The team and city struck an agreement in 2021 on a lease extension that also included the most elaborate renovations at the park since its opening in 1994. Before long, a new era could begin at the corner of Carnegie Avenue and Ontario Street. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Zack Meisel is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Cleveland Guardians and Major League Baseball. Zack was named the Ohio Sportswriter of the Year for 2021 and 2024 by the National Sports Media Association. He has been on the beat since 2011 and is the author of four books, including "Cleveland Rocked, " the tale of the 1995 team. Follow Zack on Twitter @Zack Meisel