Before Lew
Wolf became owner of the Oakland A’s, the team was a competitor. They went to
the playoffs, they competed, and they had talent. Back in the early part of the
2000s the A’s still were a low budget team that couldn’t attract free agents.
Yet, the team had a talented farm system and they brought up players from the
minors who would turn into Major League stars.
So the team was a competitor despite a weak attendance record and a low
payroll.
Things have changed since Wolf
became owner. Unlike previous ownership, Wolf did not care about winning. All
he cared about was getting the A’s out of town and moving them to nearby San
Jose. Wolf put all of his focus into moving the team to San Jose and no focus
with the product on the field. He was more concerned about the A’s of the
future instead of the A’s of the present. Now don’t get me wrong, Wolf has good
reasons for wanting to move the A’s out of Oakland. The team has been
underappreciated for a team that has won four World Series in Oakland. They
have had many stars from Reggie Jackson to Ricky Henderson. Despite all the success
of this franchise, the team attendance is terrible and has always been that
way.
Having said that, I believe Wolf could
still make plans to move the team without gutting the present franchise of its
talented players. This offseason, Wolf
has done nothing to improve the team from last year and that is saying
something. The A’s were terrible last year. However, the few bright spots on
the team that the A’s had, Wolf destroyed it this offseason. The few players
that had the potential to be great players for the franchise were traded in
order to cut payroll. The very little hope the A’s had of competing this year
was crushed when Wolf did everything but admit that this season will be a year
with minor leaguers competing not to be in last place in the league. Basically,
Wolf is being the cheapest man in sports. He basically is saying, “The heck
with this season! When can I go to San Jose?”
What Wolf doesn’t seem to realize is
that in order to build a new stadium, it takes a talented team to build a new
stadium. If you are going to try a new
market for fans, you need to win them over. Fans don’t want to watch a losing product.
They want winners. The A’s are not
winners. They are a once proud franchise that is now embarrassing. Does Wolf believe that San Jose fans will
flock to a new stadium just to watch a lousy team? If the team continues to
play bad, San Jose voters may not even vote in approval for a new stadium in
San Jose because of its reputation as a poor performer on the field. But for the sake argument let’s say Wolf does
get his San Jose stadium built. Sure, the fans might come in huge numbers when
the ballpark first opens just for the excitement of close entertainment, but
that enthusiasm can drop very fast if the team plays bad. If the A’s continue
to play bad year in and year out what makes Wolf think he can suddenly build a
winner overnight? It is very difficult for a team to go from last place to
first place from one year to the next. So let’s say Wolf keeps being cheap and
keeps getting rid of players up to their last season in Oakland. That trend of
being a bad team will likely carry over into the first season the A’s play in
San Jose. It could take years for the team to recover from bad management and
that could cost the A’s fans. Since Wolf wants to privately fund a stadium in
San Jose, he could end up struggling to pay the bills on the stadium because
fans won’t come to see a team lose. What if he is forced to sell the team
because he is losing money? What happens if he sells to an owner who doesn’t
want to pay off the stadium and instead relocates them again? All of these
problems could happen if Wolf does not fix the team now instead of later.
Past stadiums that were built in the
Bay Area resulted from teams that showed promise and were competitive before
and after their new stadiums were built. When the Giants started construction
on current AT&T Park in the late 1990s, the team was on the rise with stars
like Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. The
Giants went to the playoffs in 1997 and came in second place in their division
in 1998 and 1999. The team had momentum
going into AT&T Park when it first opened in 2000. Then in their first year
at the ballpark, they went to the playoffs again and two years later went to a
World Series. Then they saw Barry Bonds year
in and year out entertain fans with his splash hit home runs and breaking
records. It was a park that Bonds built. Could you imagine AT&T Park being
what it is today if the Giants decided to trade Barry Bonds before the new park
was open? I sure don’t think so. It was the park that Bonds built.
When the San Jose Sharks came into
existence in 1991, the team already had construction under way on the arena in
San Jose. The arena opened in 1993 after the Sharks already played two seasons
in Daly City. The Sharks didn’t make the
playoffs in those first two years but they did have promise that the A’s lack right
now. They had an upcoming goalie in Arturs Irbe who showed promise in those
first two years. Same thing was occurring with other players such as Ray
Whitney, Pat Faloon, and Sandis Ozolinsh. All these players were on the team
prior to the HP Pavilion opening up in San Jose and they built around them with
new additions to the team prior to the first year in San Jose such as Igor
Larionov and Sergie Makarov. All of these players contributed to helping the
Sharks reach the postseason in their first year in San Jose. They then went on
to upset the top seeded team in the first round of the playoffs. With that success
early on, the Sharks won a fan base over to this day and they still sell out
the arena.
More recently, the San Francisco
49ers were in a similar situation that the A’s are in right now. The 49ers
wanted to get out of San Francisco and wanted to build a new stadium in Santa
Clara. They got voter approval to build a
stadium in Santa Clara in 2010 but that was in the middle of a playoff drought
for the 49ers and financing for the stadium was a big question mark. Nobody
knew if the Stadium would ever get built. Like the A’s now, many 49ers fans wondered
then if the 49ers were going to be cheap and focus just on the new stadium
plan. 49ers owner Jed York knew better.
He knew in order to get a new stadium built he needed to put a good product on
the field. He had the talent already but he needed the right coaches. So York
hired Jim Harbaugh this past year to coach and with Harbaugh’s leadership the
49ers went on to have a great season and went all the way to the NFC title game
in the playoffs just a month ago. During the 49ers great run in 2011 the 49ers
secured loans from major banks to finance the majority of the funds needed to
build the stadium. The team probably wouldn’t have received the loans had they
played terrible like in years past. They also may not have earned a loan from
the NFL if they had another poor season. Thanks to York’s vision of hiring a
great coach, the construction of the 49ers stadium will be underway this summer
and is scheduled to open in either 2014 or 2015.
Wolf needs to take a look at the
above examples and realize that it takes fans to build stadiums. The only way
you win fans is by putting a great product on the field. That’s why Wolf needs
to turn the A’s into a winner now, not years later in San Jose, but now.
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