You know that sick feeling in your stomach when the credit-card bill arrives? Thought so.
While there’s nothing that can be offered here to lighten your load, you should know that you have prominent company. Jerry Colangelo shares your pain, even if he didn’t necessarily feel it Saturday night.
Colangelo was seated in his owner’s box at Bank One Ballpark, watching his Arizona Diamondbacks crush the New York Yankees in the first game of the World Series. He was focused on all the different ways the Diamondbacks secured their 9-1 victory, not on the crushing weight of debt he hopes eventually to outrun.
Think of yourself driving home from the dealership with the Jeep Grand Cherokee that comes with leather seats, a CD changer and the cold-weather package.
You park it in the driveway of the overpriced house that made sense when your broker was playing 27 holes of a golf a day and still getting you 40 percent return on your investments. Hey, who knew?
While there is no telling by his self-satisfied exterior, Colangelo must feel a little like that watching his four-year-old Diamondbacks try to bring down the Yankees’ dynasty.
We’ve heard that the Pinstripes have become America’s Team because they are helping New Yorkers smile again after the madness of Sept. 11. It’s a noble story line, yes, but it may be the Diamondbacks who best represent America.
They’re mortgaged to the hilt and struggling to pay the interest on their loans, let alone the principal. It’s like Al Davis taught us–just spend, baby.
Colangelo is a reckless spender in an unproven market.
He has lost money to build a winner, doing it by hitting up investors for more than $50 million in cash calls, borrowing another $20 million from Major League Baseball and not only deferring more than $50 million in salaries but reportedly doing it without setting aside the funds to make those future payments.
Like steroids, the worst thing about all this is it has worked–at least in the short term. While Colangelo doesn’t try to hide the wild spending that caused him to lay off scouts and front-office staff after last season, he’d rather talk about anything else this week.
“I think it has been overstated and overasked, so let’s talk baseball,” Colangelo said during Arizona’s workout Friday. “The only other thing I could do is walk around with a financial statement on my forehead.”
When it comes to his players, Colangelo is like a wealthy parent who never tells his kids no. He lends players his private jet like it’s nothing and does everything except personally towel them off on game days. His reputation has added to the inherent advantage the Diamondbacks have recruiting players, scores of whom make Arizona their winter home.
“You trust him,” said Game 1 winner Curt Schilling, who exited after 102 pitches and should be ready for Game 4 if called upon. “Lots of owners say one thing and do the complete opposite. He’s one of the few owners who truly wants to win.”
Colangelo, who migrated from Chicago to run the Phoenix Suns, is gambling he can make a great sports town rise from the desert. He has lost a reported $50 million in the last three years but figures the World Series experience will let him turn a corner.
“We can’t keep merchandise in our stores,” he said. “People are going bonkers.”
This was exactly what Colangelo envisioned when he rejected slow progress to assemble a stable of veteran talent built around the arms of Schilling and Randy Johnson. It’s not supposed to be this easy, with or without a financial conscience.
Schilling, who was acquired in a midseason trade last year and signed to an extension that will pay him $32 million over three years, earned his 26th victory of the year.
Johnson, who will try to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead on Sunday night, already has 22 wins. The Big Unit is one of six free agents acquired at a total commitment of $119 million before the 1999 season.
If this story sounds familiar, that’s because it happened four years ago. Then it was the Florida Marlins bursting onto the scene after video-store and waste-management magnate H. Wayne Huizenga sold his franchise’s soul in hopes of motivating taxpayers to build him a version of Camden Yards near the Everglades.
Colangelo was at least smart enough to get his $354 million ballpark up front. But Commissioner Bud Selig and a lot of rival owners worry about what will happen in Arizona if the Diamondbacks ever miss the playoffs in consecutive years. The Marlins haven’t been back to the playoffs since 1997 and are among the franchises currently threatened with extinction.
When all the loans and deferred payments come due, could Arizona flounder as badly?
“I hope not,” Selig said. “I don’t think so.”
Selig, of course, has never been a proponent of wild spending. It’s true the Milwaukee Brewers haven’t won a World Series on his family’s watch, but they’ve survived 32 seasons in a market that makes Phoenix look like New York. Let’s hope Colangelo, or his heirs, are doing as well in 2029.
