Under New Ownership
It looks like one of the Bay Area's penny-pinching owners is about to sell. And no, it's not the one everyone wishes it were. On Monday, it was reported that A's owners Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman are willing to sell ownership of the A's to Lew Wolff, an LA developer with huge connections to the Bay Area, especially San Jose. Rumors have been flying around for months that this was going to happen but now it’s official. It's not clear how much of the team he is going to buy or who else who be involved, but it is pretty clear that Wolff will be the managing partner and take control of the team. For those of you wondering just what the going rate on a baseball team with an old stadium goes for, it’s upwards of $170 million. While the purchase of baseball team can often be a slow and laborious process, Wolff is expected to take over the team come opening day. That's what happens when you're fraternity brothers with the Bud Selig or the owner of the team you're about to throw wads of money at is one of the people in charge of making the decision. He is, in fact, in Arizona right now at the owner’s meeting pitching his cause.
Wolff has been involved with the A's for the past year as Vice-President of Venue Development, a fancy, made up title that basically says he’s been in charge of trying to find a way to get the A's built a nice, fancy stadium with all the trimmings. That’s gone nowhere, which makes us wonder if Wolff knows something we don't. One of those things, and the thing that’s being thrown around the most, is that he's going to relocate the team from Oakland to San Jose. Wolff has plenty of connections down there and has been involved for a long time in trying to bring a team there, including both the Giants and the Warriors. Of course, whether or not that will happen is still a long ways away as the Peninsula is sort of the Sudetenland of Bay Area baseball- the Giants claim it as theirs and won’t let anyone else move there. But now that the MLB has moved the Team Formerly Known as Les Expos to Washington, smack dab in the middle of what Peter Angelos, the owner of the Orioles’, claims as his territory, the issue of “territorial rights” might not be as huge of a problem as it was before. Just as Angelos is being bought off, we’re pretty sure that Magowan, a man who loves finding money, has his price. Plus, we're guessing that as a frat brother of Selig, Wolff's probably got some photos on Bud, if you know what we mean.
Also speculated about is Las Vegas (won’t happen) and, well, Oakland. Oakland’s been trying for years to put something together for the A’s and still working on it. Considering they’re right there, it’s safe to assume Oakland still has first crack at keeping the team.
Ever since Schott and Hoffman took over the A's nine years ago, they've gotten a lot of gruff for their whining about stadium issues and dislike of spending money on players. Still, we've always thought they've gotten a bum deal. They stepped up and bought the team when nobody else would to keep the team in Oakland and while they do bitch a lot about the stadium (with some justification, we might add), they never threatened to move the team or played silly stadium games like another certain Bay Area owner who shall remain nameless because he'll probably sue us does (hint, his name rhymes with Sal Bavis and he dresses like a member of a Sha Na Na). As for people's biggest complaint, that they never spent money, we say that all things considering, they've done all that you could ask a team owner to do- hire really good people and stay out of the way. And that they definitely have, so much so only the Yankees have a better record over the past five years. How many other teams have books written about how smart their franchise is run? No, the A's have never gotten past the first round of the playoffs, but we don't see it as the owner’s fault. If Jeter wouldn't have made that play in 2001 or the A's base runners forgotten how to run the bases in 2003, they could have easily progressed farther. It’s not the owner’s fault that the vaunted members of then Big Three couldn’t finish out a Game 5.
If Lew Wolff can do just as good as Schott and Hoffman have done, A's fans should be happy. Wherever they may be.