http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8128036.htm


Co-owner just a tad frustrated

By Rick Hurd
CONTRA COSTA TIMES


PHOENIX - His team has reached the playoffs four straight seasons. His club's attendance has risen from 1.2 million to 2.2 million since 1997. He is optimistic about finally signing one of his club's marquee free agents.

But A's co-owner Steve Schott reiterated once again Saturday that the good times won't last if his club has to continue playing at Network Associates Coliseum. What's more, he may not, either.

"It's very difficult in this business to stay on top for a long period of time unless you have unlimited resources," Schott said. "It's frustrating. People who don't think I want to win are crazy. If it stays the way it is, I don't know if personally, mentally or physically I can stay in this job."

Schott's revelation during his annual state of the team address at Phoenix Municipal Stadium was his strongest indication yet that the A's futile search to find a new ballpark is beginning to wear on him. So, too, was a shot he took at Giants owner Peter Magowan while expressing frustration over baseball's territorial rights issue.

"Every time the issue comes up, they go berserk," Schott said. "(It's like) a crybaby. It's like my 4-year-old granddaughter crying about something she wants."

However, those issues weren't the only ones on Schott's plate Saturday. And he sounded slightly more upbeat about the other one.

Schott said he is hopeful the A's can reach an agreement with third baseman Eric Chavez on a new contract before the start of the season. The two sides have been trying to negotiate a new agreement since January.

"We've all agreed Eric is a guy we want to keep, and we feel he's within our budget," Schott said. "We have a proposal before him. Each side will have to give a little bit. But I think it's out there. I'm very hopeful the two sides will come together."

The two sides have been negotiating since January, though Chavez's agent, Dave Stewart, said Saturday that talks remain in a pause. Schott said the A's are offering Chavez a deal that "would be the biggest in franchise history." Schott said the team's payroll this season will be between $57 million and $58 million, and that the A's offer to Chavez would "right now be 18 percent of the payroll," a figure of approximately $10.25 million.

"We're within range of getting something done," Stewart said Saturday. "But Eric at the end of the year is going to be a free agent and that carries some value. Because we are close, the distance that needs to be traveled needs to be traveled by the ballclub."

Said Chavez: "I totally believed they felt that way when they first told me they wanted to get it done. Under what terms they want it get done is the only question."

But more significant than Chavez's contract, Schott said, was the issue that it underscores.

The A's are heading into their 37th season at the Coliseum, and the structure is "too antiquated and too obsolete" to allow the A's to remain competitive, he said. The A's were 23rd in revenue last season, Schott said, and they received $9 million in revenue sharing.

That math adds up to only one thing, he said. The A's have to have a baseball-only facility.

"We'd like one. We deserve one. We have to have one," Schott said. "We can't continue to do what we've been doing without one. Eventually, we'd have to go back to square one and start over."

Schott has taken steps to find a new home. He hired hotel magnate Lewis Wolff as the team's vice president of venue development in November, and Wolff's main objective will be to find the A's a viable sight for a park and to develop a financial plan that Schott said would have to use public and private money.

That Wolff has strong ties to the South Bay only has strengthened rumors the A's may look to that area to find a home. But currently, Major League Baseball has ceded the territorial rights to that area to the Giants, hindering the A's search.

"Obviously, the Giants feel strongly about that area," Schott said. "But my feeling is that ... when (former A's owner) Charlie Finley moved out here (from Kansas City in 1968), the Giants were here and there was no question about territorial rights. The only reason we have this is because (the Giants) were going to build a stadium in San Jose? They ended up with rights they didn't even pay for. Now they've got a new stadium, a lot closer to Oakland by the way.

"If push comes to shove, we'll do something about (the territorial rights issue)."

Asked if he has discussed the issue with commissioner Bud Selig, who will visit the Coliseum this season for the first time since Schott bought the team in November 1995, Schott said: "Sure, we've talked about it a lot. It's on his plate. He hasn't given us a definitive answer yes or no."

When asked if litigation was possible, Schott said: "That's one option."

Schott said the A's are in the early stages of scouting a potential sight in Fremont, and that he has also considered Sacramento a possibility. He also emphasized that public money will be needed for the project. Schott said the club also would contribute to the financing but would not give a specific figure.

The bottom line, he said, is that something must be done. If it isn't, the A's might soon be seeking a new owner for the third time since moving to Oakland in 1968.

"A new park would be like a transfusion to me," he said. "It would energize me ... Without it ...?"

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