If San Diego’s Such a Major League City, Where’s All the Money?

Hey, San Diego, is anybody home?

OK, everybody’s home. I guess that’s not really the question.

Hey, San Diego, can anybody afford to buy a professional sports franchise?

I guess that question doesn’t get it all done, either.

Does anybody around here want to buy a professional sports franchise?

A nice selection is available . . . or semi-available. There’s a perfectly good baseball team that is on the market and an exceptionally good soccer team that might be. What’s more, a glorious new sports palace has been proposed as the home for hockey and basketball teams, should anyone happen to possess either or both.

It is not often that one community is so rich in opportunity for a billionaire with an extra few million bucks burning a hole in his vault.

The problem, as I see it, is that there might not be anyone in town with both the loot and the lust for a professional franchise.

Take, for example, Harry Cooper’s dream of building that new downtown arena for tenants from the National Basketball Assn. and National Hockey League.

Who is going to buy or bring either or both of those teams to San Diego?

There have been rumblings in both the NBA and NHL about franchises whose owners are interested in selling or moving, but I never hear the words “San Diego” mentioned. I hear Anaheim and San Jose and Oakland and even Santa Ana, of all places, but never San Diego.

There might be opportunities involving the New Jersey Jets and Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA and Minnesota North Stars and Winnipeg Jets of the NHL. These might be situations in which ownership is simply posturing for better deals, a la Al Davis, or they might be situations in which franchises will become available.

In any of those cases, I haven’t heard even a whisper of San Diego interest.

Ironically, something called the Global Hockey League had originally announced its intention to grant San Diego a franchise. In this case, being handed the world on a platter is like craving filet mignon and getting a hot dog.

Cooper put it in perspective quite nicely when he said: “We are a major league city looking for a major league team.”

As it turned out, the Global Hockey League announced Saturday that it would have two California franchises, one in Sacramento and the other in Los Angeles or Orange County. A San Diego team was thus spared the embarrassment of playing its home games at the penguin exhibit at Sea World.

So San Diego is back to Square One, which is to say it continues to look for a major league owner or owners to own one of these major league teams in this major league city.

The fact that the Padres have been on the market for a few months does not bode well in the search for an owner to come out of the woodwork and pick up the tab for the NBA or NHL.

Why?

What’s it going to cost for an NBA or NHL franchise? Fifty million? Seventy-five million? What difference does it make?

The Padres are on the market for a reported $100 million. Anyone who has the financial wherewithal to pay $50 million to $75 million can probably up the ante enough to pay $100 million . . . and a major league baseball team is much more attractive than an NHL or NBA franchise.

Thus far, no one has broken down Padre owner Joan Kroc’s door with a check for $100 million.

And this is an established franchise that figures to contend for the National League championship if the lockout ends before Tony Gwynn, Joe Carter, Benito Santiago, Bruce Hurst and Company turn gray. It plays an 81-game home schedule with potential attendance of 2.5 million and benefits from nice television deals, nationally and locally. The economic reality is that the Padres are the best deal in town.

But this franchise has not sold.

If no one hereabouts wants to buy the Padres, who would want a nebulous NBA or NHL franchise for what is, at this point, a nebulous arena?

Of course, should someone be interested in a more economically priced franchise, there is also the possibility that Ron Fowler will sell all or part of the Sockers after the Major Indoor Soccer League season. This will cost considerably less for the simple reason that it always loses money.

Fowler, though, has represented the best in local ownership. It has been a struggle to keep the Sockers alive, and he can be excused if he is wearying of that struggle.

Once Fowler is free of the fiscal drain the Sockers have always been, perhaps he might be interested in being the local owner of another major league franchise in this major league city.

At this point, it doesn’t look like anyone else is out there.