BOSTON -- In a $660 million deal that would double the record price for a baseball team, the limited partners of the Boston Red Sox voted unanimously Thursday to sell the franchise to a group led by Florida Marlins owner John Henry.

The team said the agreement with the Henry group, which also includes former San Diego Padres owner Tom Werner, included $40 million in assumed debt, bringing the total to $700 million.

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Four-hundred and thirty-nine days after Boston Red Sox CEO John Harrington, property holder of the Yawkey Trust, announced that one of baseball's most storied franchises was for sale, the team finally has a new majority owner. Some insiders expected the winner to be Cablevision's Charles Dolan, who already owns the New York Knicks and Rangers and was primarily interested in the 80 percent stake of the New England Sports Network (NESN) that was included in the sale. Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Network lost Yankees programming after the 2001 season, as the Yanks will now be featured primarily on YES -- the broadcasting arm of YankeeNets, the holding company of the Yankees, New Jersey Devils and Nets. But while the 75-year old Dolan was said to be the leading candidate over the past couple weeks, it was also quite apparent that there was a stacking of the deck in the Tom Werner-Les Otten-John Henry bid. With the addition of former Orioles and Padres CEO Larry Lucchino and former Sen. George Mitchell to the group's bid, it was clear this was the group baseball owners would feel most comfortable approving. When Lucchino joined the group, he was still working as a consultant to Major League Baseball; Mitchell served on Henry's board of directors with the Marlins and served on the Blue Ribbon Panel last summer. When The New York Times (which owns The Boston Globe) joined the bid as minority partners, there were talks about conflicts of interest regarding the integrity of reporting. But perhaps Dolan's conflict was the biggest. Since his brother Larry owns the Cleveland Indians, giving the winning bid to Dolan could have possibly backfired if eight of the 29 other owners (a three-quarters league vote is necessary for approval) thought the idea of brothers owning different teams was a potential problem. However, ESPN's Peter Gammons reported two weeks ago that when Larry Dolan bought the Indians, part of his deal included an agreement with MLB that Charles Dolan could be allowed to buy a team as well. It is not clear whether the Werner-Otten-Henry group had the highest bid. The executor of the trust has a fiduciary responsibility to get the most money from the trust's assets. Harrington has said the trust would accept the "highest qualified bid," not necessarily the top price offered. Dolan's spokesperson, Nancy Sterling, said Thursday night Dolan would not comment on the details of his final bid. Dolan, whose net worth is reportedly more than $2 billion, now adds the Red Sox to his growing list of failed bids for sports teams. In recent years, Dolan has bid for the Yankees, the New York Jets, the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins. As for Werner, his tenure as Padres owner from 1990-95 ended unpopularly in San Diego. After the team finished 82-80 in 1992, he had a fire sale which included the trades of Gary Sheffield, Fred McGriff and Bruce Hurst during the 1993 season. The Padres slumped to a 61-101 record and last place in 1993. --Darren Rovell

"They have the resources to continue our quest to beat the Yankees and win a World Series," Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington said.

The current record price for a baseball team is the $323 million that Larry Dolan paid for the Cleveland Indians last year. Boston, which hasn't won the World Series since 1918, is one of baseball's most valuable and beloved franchises.

"The Boston Red Sox represent the spirit and passion of New England," the winning group said in a statement. "We will become active and visible members of this great community and always remember that the team belongs not to us, but to all of you."

The record price for a North American sports franchise is $800 million, paid by Daniel Snyder in 1999 for the Washington Redskins and the NFL team's stadium in Landover, Md.

Thursday's agreement includes 100 percent of the Red Sox franchise, which owns Fenway Park and 80 percent of the New England Sports Network. The agreement must be approved by 75 percent of the 30 major league owners, who usually take about six months to consider sales.

Henry is negotiating to sell the Marlins to Jeffrey Loria, the owner of the Montreal Expos, a team baseball commissioner Bud Selig wants to eliminate. That agreement could be completed before the end of the year, a baseball official with knowledge of the talks said on the condition he not be identified.

Both deals could be put on a fast track and put to a vote when owners meet in mid-January in Phoenix, the official said.

If approved, Henry and Werner would be co-chairmen of the Red Sox and share responsibility for daily operation of the team, said Joe Baerlein, a spokesman for the Henry-Werner group.

Henry also would become the managing general partner and Werner would be chairman of the executive committee. Baerlein said the separate titles were necessary because only one person can attend the baseball meetings. Lucchino, the former president of the Orioles and Padres, would become president and chief executive officer, would be in charge of baseball operations.

The future of general manager Dan Duquette is unclear.

The Henry/Werner group's efforts to bring in local partners failed Thursday when talks collapsed with local businessmen Joseph O'Donnell and Steven Karp. The Red Sox, controlled by the Yawkey family and its trust since 1933, would pass into the hands of Henry, a Florida financier, and Werner, a New York television executive.

The sale could save Fenway Park, the oldest and smallest stadium in the majors. Henry's group would like to renovate the ballpark, which opened in 1912 and has a capacity of about 34,000 fans.

The group also could negotiate a deal with developer Frank McCourt, who dropped out of the bidding but owns land in South Boston where he has proposed a new ballpark.

Harrington is confident Henry and Werner, both close to Selig, have the cash to close the deal, saying they were committed to the team and fans. They are "deeply involved and passionate about the game of baseball," Harrington said.

Other investors include ski resort developer Leslie Otten and The New York Times Co., the parent company of The Boston Globe.

Harrington said the Henry/Werner group offered the highest qualified bid for the team. Harrington has repeatedly said the trust would accept the "highest qualified bid," not necessarily the top price offered.

Harrington announced on Oct. 6, 2000, that the Yawkey Trust, which has controlled the Red Sox since 1994, would sell its 53 percent stake. After an initial round of bidding, several bidders raised the stakes by offering to buy out the entire team.

Four groups remained in contention when the limited partners met Thursday and decided to sell their shares. In a joint statement Thursday, Henry and Werner said they couldn't solve the issue of control of the alliance with O'Donnell and Karp.

Other bidders included Cablevision Systems Corp. chairman Charles Dolan -- Larry's brother -- and a group that includes New York lawyer Miles Prentice and a private equity firm, the Quadrangle Group.

A spokeswoman for Dolan declined to say how much he bid, and a spokesman for Prentice did not immediately return a telephone message.

Thomas Yawkey bought the team from J.A. Robert Quinn in 1933, and Jean Yawkey took over when her husband died in 1976.

Jean Yawkey, Haywood Sullivan and Buddy LeRoux bought the team's general partnership from the estate, and Jean Yawkey later bought out LeRoux.

When Jean Yawkey died in 1992, she willed all her holdings to her trust, and Harrington gained complete control of the team in November 1993, when the trust bought out Sullivan.

Werner, who made television hits like "The Cosby Show" and "Third Rock from the Sun," made unpopular trades as owner of the Padres in the early 1990s, claiming they were necessary after the team lost $7 million in 1992.

Later the group added Henry, a math junkie and former commodities trader who bought the Florida Marlins from H. Wayne Huizenga in 1999 for $150 million.

Otten built American Skiing Co. into the country's largest Alpine ski resort operator, with holdings in New England and in California, Utah, and Colorado. He was forced out of his skiing company last spring.