Report: Baseball makes loan to Texas owner

ARLINGTON, Texas, July 3 (UPI) -- Major League Baseball has loaned cash-strapped Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks millions to stay afloat, unnamed sources told Yahoo! Sports.

A major league source said baseball will continue to offer financial assistance until he is able to sell the American League franchise.

The source also confirmed the team met payroll and that the club is maintaining normal business operations, although earlier this season the team reduced its front office staff by 10 percent.

The Hicks Sports Group defaulted on an interest-only payment on a $525 million loan to his U.S.-based sports operation and a recent caller to a XM/Sirius radio show caller said he heard Hicks had borrowed $15 million from MLB when he had not made payroll.

"He won't be running the team much longer," the source told Yahoo! Sports Thursday. "Major League Baseball is helping him through this until someone else can be put in place to run the club."

Neither baseball nor Rangers spokesman John Blake would comment.