Nintendo selling Mariners to minority owners

SEATTLE — Nintendo of America will sell its majority interest in the Mariners to other members of its current ownership group, the club announced Wednesday, in a move that coincides with the retirement of longtime Mariners CEO and chairman Howard Lincoln.

John Stanton, who has been one of 17 people with minority shares in the team, will take over Lincoln’s role and will be the point person once the transaction is completed. The ownership group also acquired Nintendo’s majority interest in ROOT Sports Northwest.

Stanton, 60, said the ownership group’s goal is to bring a World Series to Seattle and see a parade in his hometown.

“I think the pieces are all here and I believe this team can and will win,” Stanton said at an afternoon news conference at Safeco Field.

The deal must still be finalized and approved by Major League Baseball, which won’t likely happen until August.

Stanton, regarded as a pioneer in the wireless industry, is a lifelong resident of the Seattle area. He is the former chairman of McCaw Cellular and Clearwire corporations and is currently on the board of directors for Microsoft, Costco and Columbia Sportswear.

Lincoln, 76, was a key member in the group credited with saving baseball in Seattle in 1992, when, as chairman of Nintendo of America, he helped broker the purchase of the team by majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi, the chairman of Japanese-based Nintendo.

Lincoln replaced former chairman John Ellis in 1999. He and longtime team president Chuck Armstrong oversaw the team’s operations for years, with Kevin Mather replacing Armstrong as president and chief operating officer in 2014.

Yamauchi died in 2013, but his majority ownership interests had already been transferred for …

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