Colangelo Doesn’t Regret How He Raised Arizona

Valiantly, the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks strives to keep the focus on the field.

After all, the fourth-year Diamondbacks have reached the World Series faster than any expansion team in history, and Jerry Colangelo describes this engagement with the indomitable New York Yankees as the biggest event in the history of a young state, certainly the biggest in the history of a city that was little more than a “cowboy town” when he arrived 33 years ago to build the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.

The problem is, there’s this other story line involving the Diamondbacks, and it tends to leave Colangelo doing a slow burn in the Valley of the Sun.

In fact, he radiates a good measure of heat when asked if he resents those who portray a team burdened with age and debt as personifying baseball’s ills, the latest reincarnation, perhaps, of the Florida Marlins--an overextended, overnight attempt to build a winning team and keep those turnstiles humming with little regard to future bills or the ticking of a clock that gives the core Diamondbacks only a small window in which to succeed.

“It’s disappointing to hear things like that, but it’s easy to cast aspersions without knowing the facts,” he said.

“In many cases, it’s jealousy. In many cases, it comes from people who don’t have the ability or wherewithal to get it done, and that’s a sad commentary.

“I never make comments on how other people do their business, and it’s unfair to throw daggers at us when people don’t know and understand what we went through to get here.”

George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million in 1973. It cost Colangelo and partners $350 million in stadium, initiation and start-up fees to join the fraternity in 1998.

A 25% drop in season ticket sales after the first year prompted Colangelo to conclude there would be no expansion honeymoon, no four-or five-year period in which to slowly build a foundation, and that he would have to protect that initial investment by getting competitive sooner rather than later. He invested $119 million in six free agents prior to the 1999 season, including Randy Johnson and Steve Finley, and the expansion Diamondbacks produced the greatest turnaround in baseball history, winning 100 games and the National League West in their second season.

Now, they have gone all the way to the World Series in their fourth, claiming to spew red ink in the process.

In the last three seasons, Colangelo’s partners have responded to cash calls of about $53 million, and it took the commissioner’s office to guarantee a $10 million bank loan for team expenses in 2000. To improve cash flow this year, when losses were projected to be $24.5 million after claimed losses of $41 million the previous two years, Colangelo met individually with 10 of his highest-salaried players last winter and they agreed to defer about $20 million in salary.

Added to the $37 million already deferred, the opening day payroll dropped from $81.2 million to about $53 million in 2001 cash commitment, enabling Colangelo to keep the team intact, sign free agents Mark Grace, Reggie Sanders and Miguel Batista among others, and demonstrate his confidence in the future by picking up Johnson’s $12 million option for 2003.

With an average age of about 32.5, however, the Diamondbacks are obligated to almost $200 million in guaranteed contracts and deferments through 2006, and while Colangelo knows “those bills will come due, I’m not going to worry about five years from now.”

Nor does he think anyone else should. Then again, his credit appears good. He doesn’t seem to have had any trouble borrowing money when needed.

“If you don’t have any, you better have access to some,” he said, smiling. “But I think way too much has been made of our financial situation. I’m the only one who has to worry about that. As long as I’m prepared to meet the challenges and put a competitive team on the field

“The media, that’s a different story. It seems to be at the top of the media’s list, but it’s none of their business. I’m doing what I feel is necessary, as we did in basketball. The Suns have been an incredible financial success. Baseball is definitely a different bag of tricks when it comes to meeting the financial challenges and staying competitive, but so far we’re doing it.”

The NBA’s economic system has constraints that baseball doesn’t, and without that structure, Colangelo said, it’s virtually impossible to create economic sanity.

“That’s where baseball is, that’s the reality of it,” he said. “So you need to be flexible, you need to be able to change plans in midstream, and you need to protect investments. If we had an equal playing field, if everyone had the same investment and same opportunity, I’d take my shot against anyone. But without that structure, there isn’t just one way to do it, so why should we be criticized any more than any other organization? We’re playing in the World Series, which is a pretty good return on our investments. We’re playing in the World Series against a team with a payroll that’s almost twice ours. There are 28 teams sitting home. Is anyone entitled to say who’s right or wrong?”

Maybe not. It’s just that in the desert, it’s hard to tell what’s real from a mirage.

The Diamondbacks have reached the postseason twice in their first four years, a tremendous achievement, but with their age, debts and $200-million financial obligation to players who will have retired by the time those checks start arriving, there is the tenuous appearance of a house of cards.

Yes, Bank One Ballpark is plastered with lucrative advertising and is expected to be filled for the World Series, but Colangelo has already raised ticket prices twice, been forced to lay off about 15 front-office people last winter and seen attendance fall from 3.6 million to 3.1 to 2.9 to 2.7, 14th among the 30 teams. That 2.7 million is a solid figure in a period of economic recession, but in a growth market that is expected to double in the next 15 years, the loss of almost a million in attendance over a four-year span in which the team has been a winner and/or competitive for the last three is a troubling pattern.

Said Colangelo: “There are some markets in which four major league teams are going to struggle during a difficult economic time, but I still see our future here as being very bright. I’m hopeful the Series will galvanize the community and prove to be a tonic [in the aftermath of Sept. 11].”

It definitely holds the promise of a financial boon.

Depending on how many of the seven World Series games are played, Colangelo estimated a postseason windfall of between $10 million and $15 million--”We have a chance to break even on a cash flow basis and cash is king,” he said--and “it should help us grow our foundation of support” to the extent that it could produce a 5,000 increase in the season ticket base of 22,000 and a return to the three-million attendance level.

There is one certainty, Colangelo said.

The Diamondbacks are in the third year of a four-year plan that he had to reinvent after the 25% season ticket setback after the first year, but the next step will not include a roster decimation similar to what Wayne Huizenga ordered when his free-agent spending spree and resulting World Series title with the Marlins in 1997 failed to produce the projected attendance gains.

“That methodology was an abuse to baseball, and night and day from what we’re doing,” Colangelo said. “I’ve never entertained the idea of building up and tearing down so quickly. My plan is a real plan. It’s a long-range plan, and I stand behind the commitment. We may be in for a rocky ride financially, but we’re going to have some fun and we’re going to win. I mean, I can’t predict the future. Where we go beyond the next year or two really depends on how we do in the next year or two, but I’m competitive by nature, and I’ll bet that’s what we’ll be.”

The competitive Colangelo--forced by his self-centered colleagues to pay into revenue sharing immediately but restricted for five years in the amount of national TV money he receives as a new partner in baseball--went head to head with Commissioner Bud Selig in fighting off the attempt to put the Diamondbacks in the American League for 2001. He argued that the area’s spring-training heritage as a longtime home for the National League Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants and as a broadcast beacon in the Dodger network made a league switch illogical.

Who knows if the Diamondbacks would have been able to unseat the 116-win Seattle Mariners and 102-win Oakland A’s in the AL West?

As it is, operating in the NL West, it has taken only four years for Colangelo’s Diamondbacks to earn a shot at the “elusive ring” that his Suns have yet to win despite posting the NBA’s fourth-best record during his 33 years as principal owner.

That’s the reality.

Where the mirage starts and ends isn’t clear.

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WORLD SERIES* GAME 1

Today, 5 p.m., Channel 11