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"Value of Mariners much higher than previously thought," by Geoff Baker, Seattle Times, December 17, 2011 8:04 PM.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2017033998_mari18.html
 
Wow. Baker has unearthed some big new if I'm reading things correctly. And you can't help but wonder how it affect the Fielder situation.
Since Larson is about a 30% owner of the Mariners, the team's appraised value is a major dispute between his lawyer and hers. Until now we were unaware that Larson's lawyer did not base his appraisal on the full market of the Mariners, only the market local to the Puget Sound, and even that in the very restricted area of Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue. The resulting appraisal was $551 million. (The only figure we'd previously heard was the $450 million value that Forbes put forth last March based only on publicly available information). But now the appraiser for Larson's wife has come up with a far higher value, basing it on a much, much fuller market scope including the whole state of Washington, other U.S. states, Canada and even Asia. The valuation? A whopping $750 million.
Remember the current M's ownership invested only $212 million to purchase the franchise.
All this of course makes you ask a couple of questions:
First, are the M's lowballing the public with regard to news about their value? I mean, we know they are, but perhaps we were not aware to what degree.
Second, how does the possibly increased value affect the Fielder situation? A higher value gives the M's more equity value, which in turn makes a whole lot more money potentially available (as Doc has pointed out, the team can borrow against that equity) to sign Fielder AND up team payroll.
I'll add another question: How does the divorce-induced battle of the appraisers affect the Fielder situation? Has the timing of this revelation given Boras more leverage to up the dollars and/or years he can demand from a team that is much richer than previously known? Surely it is in Larson's personal interest that the M's value remain low. It will lower his settlement amount. Just as surely, it is in the Mariners negotiating interest that their value for public consumption is lower.
All this is just my initial take. I'm sure there's far more to be said by the savvy and experienced people on this board.
One other comment. Geoff Baker has been stewing on this whole subject while he has been publishing articles ever since the end of the season trying to educate his readers about how team equity should be a factor in the M's payroll decisions, and that the team's insistance on financial balance every year is bogus given that we have watched the team's fortunes and attendance drop precipitously. It wouldn't surprise me if Baker had some information about the situation but he had to wait until he had all his ducks in a row and the divorce appraisals were publicly presented before he could publish it in full.