The owner of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros sued former owner Drayton McLane Jr. and Comcast Corp., claiming that he was misled about the value of the regional sports network that televises the team’s games, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Houston Baseball Partners LLC, led by Jim Crane, filed the lawsuit Nov. 21 in state court in Houston. The company said that it paid $615 million for the team and its 40 percent stake in Houston Regional Sports Network LP in November 2011 “based on knowing misrepresentations” McLane gave him concerning the network’s value. Creditors including affiliates of Philadelphia-based Comcast filed an involuntary chapter 11 bankruptcy petition against the network on Sept. 27 “to avoid the destruction of the network’s substantial value,” according to court filings. The network is owned by Comcast, the Astros and the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets. Comcast, the biggest U.S. cable operator, claimed it’s owed more than $100 million and the network hasn’t been paying its debts as they come due.
