Diamondbacks Managing General Partner Jerry Colangelo
"disputed" details of an Arizona Republic report that cited
"unnamed sources" as saying the team took out a $20M loan
that was co-signed by MLB (see THE DAILY, 8/15), according
to Jack Magruder of the ARIZONA DAILY STAR. Colangelo: "We
did the refinancing. The bottom line is, the numbers are
wrong. They are 100,000 percent false. Nothing has changed
in our financial situation from six months or a year ago,
except we are down 5 percent in attendance." More
Colangelo, on his "commitment" to the team: "There is no
'For Sale' sign on our door. That was what some of the
stupid questions were. 'Is this going to be a Florida?'
Restructuring our debt is what it amounts to." Colangelo,
on his team's attendance, which decreased from last year,
but ranks 12th in MLB this season: "They are coming in by
comparison. But they are not there in the numbers we need
because of the extreme cost of what it takes to be
competitive. Do you think the fans want to piddle around
for five years?" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 8/16). USA TODAY's
Hal Bodley writes that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is
"closely monitoring" the D'Backs' "cash-flow problems" but
would not comment yesterday on the team's recent guaranteed
loan. Selig: "It's not my policy to discuss finances of
individual teams" (USA TODAY, 8/16).
REAX: FSN's Jon Kelley, on the $20M loan: "Colangelo
[is] not happy the loan became public knowledge, saying,
'How I'm running my business is not everybody's business.'
Of course, Colangelo also can't be too happy about this --
his ballclub's attendance dropping steadily while he's added
almost $50 million in salary since '98" (FSN, 8/15). Smith
College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist, on the loan:
"There should be no concern now because they have chosen to
go outside and take a loan instead of giving away equity.
If they tried to get a loan and couldn't get it, there would
be a concern." Univ. of IL law professor Stephen Ross said
that the loan "doesn't surprise" him because the team had to
build a minor league organization "from scratch," paid
manager Buck Showalter a "top dollar" contract and paid $10M
to sign former RF Travis Lee (ESPN.com, 8/15).
