Strike 2: While a few paper bags being used as headwear have been spotted at Coors Field recently, what’s more obvious is those in attendance wearing shirts emblazoned with “Sell the Team.”
It’s a popular notion among fans and many in the media. Most folks would like to see the Monfort family sell the Colorado Rockies to someone who would put a greater emphasis on winning. Even fans in Greeley, where the Rockies majority owners are from and where they’re revered for all their philanthropic work, wish they’d get out of the baseball business.
But that’s not going to happen. Baseball is now, and has been for some time, the Monfort family business. And make no mistake, business is good.
The Rockies organization, and the surrounding attachments they own like McGregor Square, are doing well financially. The Monforts know how to run a financially sound business, dating back to the days of the Monfort meat packing biz in Greeley. They’re so good at in fact that most of the other MLB owners are envious. In what other business could your product be substandard and your business still be $uccessful?
Dick Monfort and his brother Charlie inherited a business from their father Ken. And they plan to pass on the current family business to Dick’s sons Walker and Sterling, both of whom currently work for the team – and have for some time. Much like when the longtime New York Yankees owner, the late George Steinbrenner, passed the Yankees down to his sons Hal and Hank.
The Rockies will be owned by a Monfort family for a very long time.
Does that mean baseball in Colorado will remain in its current state for that same very long time?
Perhaps, but not necessarily.
Maybe Walker and Sterling will continue to do things the way they’re currently being done, or maybe they’ll have ideas of their own they’d like to put into practice? Those who know the sons well say they’re good people and will try to do the right thing, even if that means not trying to run the team by themselves with a singular mindset. Perhaps the two younger sons will acknowledge their own limitations and be more open to bringing in veteran baseball people from the outside to help chart a better course for the team on the field while keeping the well-oiled business side running smoothly?
That’s a great future unknown.
Another option would be for current Rockies ownership to take on new partners. Maybe even accept a minority position in the same way Mark Cuban did when he sold his majority share in the Dallas Mavericks to the Las Vegas-based Adelson family?
That sounds great, but it’s highly unlikely. There’s a loyalty factor in play with the Monforts – and it’s been like this since forever in Monfort family businesses. The job security for non-uniformed personnel is unbeatable. Stepping aside and allowing someone else to run things could mean a lot of long time employees lose their jobs. That’s not the Monfort way. On top of that, even long tenured players like Charlie Blackmon (who retired after last season) get priority when they’re able to play the loyalty card.
As a minority owner, Cuban was not consulted before the new Mavs leadership traded future Hall of Famer Luka Doncic during last season, and the former owner wasn’t happy. Dick Monfort won’t put himself in that position.
“Sell the team” isn’t going to happen. A new “majority” decision making partner isn’t likely either. Hoping that current and future ownership changes their approach is the only hope.
