Investors Out Of A's Deal

December 7, 1999 / 1:36 PM EST / CBS/AP

Investors who wanted to buy the Oakland Athletics have withdrawn their $12 million deposit, three months after major league baseball refused to approve the deal.

The cancellation of the offer on Monday means developers Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann will keep the A's and the lease with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority that expires in 2001. A deal is close that will extend the lease through 2004, in exchange for a cash contribution toward marketing the team, sources told The Oakland Tribune.

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who as chairman of the Authority is negotiating the deal, wouldn't talk about details.

"We've agreed to not discuss it until it's done," he said. "Our goal is to keep the A's here. Hopefully, we will have something in the next couple of days."

Andy Dolich, speaking for the spurned suitors, said the group just decided to call it quits.

"It was our feeling that we were not going to be approved by major league baseball under any circumstances," said Dolich, executive vice president of Tickets.com and former A's marketing man. "It was clear that the current owners were not going to give us an extension."

The main bidder was Save Mart Supermarkets owner Bob Piccinini, whose company provided the 10 percent deposit on the $122.4 million purchase offer. Other investors included Men's Wearhouse owner George Zimmer, the Mugar family of Boston, The Oakland Tribune, former A's and New York Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson and eight others.

A meeting with baseball owners gathering in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sept. 15 left the group bitter and angry. They said they met all requirements and promised to keep the team in Oakland, but the owners refused to vote on the bid, allowing the Sept. 18 pre-agreed deadline for the sale to pass.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said he was postponing ownership changes in "small market" teams Kansas City, Minnesota, Montreal and Oakland until after a task force reports back on baseball's economic problems at the end of the year.

However, about a week ago the same owners approved the sale of the majority of the Montreal Expos to New York art dealer Jeffrey Loria. Baseball called it a management change rather than a sale, but Dolich said the message was clear.

"Based on what has occurred since Cooperstown, major league baseball is not rushing out to support our group," Dolich said.