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A's stadium czar deals only in facts

By NEIL HAYES
The Contra Costa Times

LOS ANGELES - Lewis Wolff prefers not to do interviews. He's not working on behalf of the A's to generate headlines.

A's owner Steve Schott has said repeatedly that building a new stadium is the key to his team's future. If that's true, and Schott and co-owner Ken Hofmann are relying on Wolff's vision and expertise to build that stadium, doesn't that make Wolff the man responsible for shaping that future?

"Well, I guess that's true," Wolff concedes.

The man who will help decide whether the A's have a future in Oakland works out of a renovated warehouse on L.A.'s West Side. He is a veteran real estate developer and the co-founder of a privately held investment group that purchases luxury hotels. His company's holdings exceed $1.4 billion. He also is a former co-owner of the St. Louis Blues and the Warriors.

He understands what it takes to navigate the myriad of red tape to build things on a grand scale, as the architectural drawings of state-of-the-art hotels hanging in his office attest. He also understands the business of sports and what is required to make a new ballpark a reality.

Wolff, 68, has closed hundreds of deals. He knows an opportunity when he sees one. He can recognize a dead end just as easily.

"I'm at a period of my life where I'm letting facts sway me more than emotions," he said.

It all started with a phone call from an old college buddy. Wolff and Bud Selig were fraternity brothers at the University of Wisconsin and remain good friends. The baseball commissioner invited Wolff to be his guest at a 2002 World Series game at Pacific Bell Park. That's where Selig floated the idea of Wolff becoming a part owner of the A's.

Wolff enjoyed being a silent partner in the Warriors when Dan Finnane and Jim Fitzgerald owned the team. He also liked the hefty profit he collected when the team was sold to Christopher Cohan.

Wolff began his career in the hotel business in San Jose and knew Schott. ("When you get old enough you know everybody," Wolff said.) Schott needed an experienced hand to devote time to the ballpark project. They struck a deal. Wolff will become a part owner if the ballpark becomes a reality.

"I believed the A's needed someone who was more than a consultant to work on a venue," Wolff said. "Steve runs a major business. His focus is on helping the A's win 100 games every year and being successful. I'm on this end of the business. It's a perfect arrangement."

You won't find environmental impact reports littering his desk. He doesn't need to hire consultants to evaluate sites or study traffic flow.

Wolff is not following the traditional process. He's taking an empirical approach. He won't comment on specific sites because there's nothing to comment on. Everything is irrelevant until the financing is in place.

He doesn't speak for Schott and Hofmann. He wants to make that clear from the start. His opinions are his own. He will simply make recommendations to the A's owners. They will make the decisions.

He doesn't believe a ballpark can be built without a combination of public money, corporate dollars and a contribution from ownership. It will take a commitment from all three entities to build a ballpark.

He is focusing his energy solely on the East Bay and will not investigate opportunities outside the East Bay without league consent. He does believe a successful ballpark must serve an urban community, which would seem to rule out a proposed site near the 580-680 corridor near Dublin.

That doesn't mean he won't be following the plight of the Montreal Expos closely. If the league decides to move the team to the Washington, D.C., area, it could open the door for other teams to relocate and might even help the A's dispute the Giants' claims to territorial rights to Santa Clara County.

"Relocation is really not high on Ken and Steve's list," Wolff said.

He hopes to complete the first phase of his ballpark project by the end of the summer and will then make recommendations to ownership. It won't be based on emotions. He's not in this to make friends or steal headlines.

He'll be brutally honest.

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