MLB set the price at $450 million, so all bids were for the same amount, certainly they could have gotten more for the team in a bidding war, but they wanted to pick the ownership group based on financial stability and conservative nature.
Exactly; they accepted bids from eight ownership groups at the set price and then winnowed down the groups and eventually encouraged the Kasten/Lerner mating ritual/merger. During the process, some groups let it leak that they were willing to bid more in hopes of getting good press and local support, but Bud followed his self-styled process to a tee.
