Outgoing Royals Owner DAVID GLASS' 19-year tenure is "mixed but ultimately successful, and Glass touched on both ends of that pendulum swing" in a wide-ranging interview with Sam Mellinger of the K.C. STAR. Asked what he regretted most during his tenure, Glass said, "We probably could have accelerated the resurgence to a greater extent than we did." Mellinger wrote the "description of Glass' regime that has emerged" from those around him is that he "trusted the wrong people and took too long to overhaul both the baseball and business operations, but once that happened he did everything that should be expected of a small-money owner." Glass said he gives "all the credit" for the franchise's turnaround to GM DAYTON MOORE and VP/Business KEVIN UHLICH, both hired in '06. The Royals were a "broken franchise when Glass purchased the club" in April '00 for $96M; he will sell them for $1B to JOHN SHERMAN. The Royals "turned big profits from the World Series runs, and ran big deficits in some other years." On the difference between small and big MLB markets, Glass said, "Even with revenue sharing, there’s still a great disparity. If there's a $200 million a year difference in revenue, that makes a difference. We've tried to be responsible and operate the Royals on a break-even basis. ... We've always tried to manage within our resources." Glass had the "opportunity to get a bigger price from someone" else but stuck with Sherman to "ensure local ownership and that the team would stay" in K.C. Glass: "There was interest. But I never agreed to talk to anyone else." Glass said that he "does not know" how leadership "will be different, but the plan 'will be to keep this organization basically intact.'" He "specifically mentioned Moore and Uhlich" (K.C. STAR, 9/22).
