The MLB Giants have arguably been the most successful pro sports team over the last five years, winning three World Series titles in the time frame. The team has done that while maintaining the league’s longest current sellout streak at home and with little turnover in the upper echelons of the front office. Giants President & CEO Larry Baer spoke at the ’15 Veritix Sports Facilities & Franchises conference and addressed a variety of issues, including his own club, issues facing the Oakland sports market and what trends he is watching. On why the most-recent World Series-winning trip to the White House was the best, he said, “It really was one of the highlights of my career. On this trip, we brought (HOFers) Willie Mays and Monte Irvin. ... In a private session with Willie, Monte, Bruce Bochy and myself, the President looked at Willie and Monte and said, ‘You know, without you guys, I wouldn’t be here.'" Other highlights of the interview follow:
* Baer, on the low front-office turnover for the Giants: “One of the things I think permeates our organization is passion. We live in the Silicon Valley, and our currency does not involve stock options. ... But people come here and get involved and get passionate about what we do. It’s important to create that sense of passion and crusade. Another big piece is risk taking. (Giants President Emeritus) Peter Magowan said that if you have 100 decisions a week and you hit on 87%, you’re doing alright, but if you make four decisions a month and hit on all four, you’re letting a lot of opportunities pass by.”
* On off-the-field business for the club: “We live in the fourth or fifth biggest market, depending on how you measure it. We’re not passing N.Y., L.A., or Chicago. So how do we deal with the scale economics of not being those markets?We’re getting as many eyeballs on television. Our answer is to get into some other businesses that can be compelling. ... A real opportunity for us is real estate, and we have an opportunity to develop -- in a very hot market -- a project that can essentially create a new neighborhood and create a new community around our ballpark. ... Something would feasibly open in 2018. We’re talking 1,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail, a parking garage and an eight-acre park. That’s a lot of open space for a community that doesn’t have a lot of it right now.”
* On the future of the A’s and Raiders in Oakland and the Warriors coming to S.F.: It’s all very fluid, to say the least. The Oakland mayor will say there is a strategy to keeping all three clubs. But we get it. It’s a revenue game. ... In every future forecast, we have projected this market as a two-team baseball market. We don’t have any thoughts that the A’s are leaving the Bay Area. They need a new stadium. The territory grant is what it is, which is Alameda and Contra Costa counties -- which are areas of growth. ... You probably have to do something really creative to keep the Raiders here, but it’s not impossible. ... I think Mark Davis would like to stay in Oakland. I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion they move to L.A. ... As for the Warriors, we assume their attempt to move will be successful. I think (Mission Bay -- potential neighborhood for both venues) is going to be a fantastic entertainment area. ... In our neighborhood, we’ve got Uber, Dropbox, Salesforce.com, Twitter, StubHub, MLBAM. Asking that new 24-year-old engineer to commute to the south of the peninsula for a 40- to 50-minute commute is going to be tough. All of these big Silicon Valley firms are going to start having a strong presence in S.F. ... The Warriors will be moving right into a thriving, high-pulse, work-live environment.”
