The owners of the Houston Rockets basketball team are siding with Comcast Corp. against Houston Astros owner Jim Crane over the fate of the struggling sports channel that broadcasts the games of both teams, saying that a bankruptcy sale or reorganization is the best way for Comcast SportsNet Houston to survive, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Houston Rockets attorneys said in court papers filed on Monday that the network's proposed bankruptcy case, which the Astros will fight to dismiss at a hearing next week, could allow it to reorganize and continue to "provide the fans in the city of Houston and its surrounding region with the sports programming that they desire." The filing breaks the basketball team's silence over the management dispute within the network that escalated to its involuntary bankruptcy filing on Sept. 27, which was filed by Comcast affiliates that are owed more than $100 million. Comcast wants to buy the network through a bankruptcy auction and has said its offer would be high enough to provide some compensation to the Astros and Rockets.
