Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan
|
MOST important part of that column here:
∙ In 1990, the Royals had the largest payroll in baseball. (Today, they come in at No. 27, $137 million shy of the New York Yankees).
∙ In the late 1980s, the club consistently drew at least 2 million fans a season. It was considered a disappointment if the Royals didn't have at least 30,000 people in the stands every night.
∙ In the span of a few short years in the early 1990s, everything fell apart.
The fall can be tied to a handful of events, but the biggest ones came in 1990, when general manager John Schuerholz left Kansas City to run the Atlanta Braves, and in 1993, when owner Ewing Kauffman died. Kauffman was beloved and engaged, and he wasn't afraid to lose millions of his own money in the pursuit of championships. Before his death, Kauffman fretted that the team would be moved elsewhere when he was gone. So he arranged a succession plan that left the team to a charitable trust. Kauffman meant well, but, for the rest of the decade, the Royals were in limbo until Wal-Mart CEO David Glass bought the team in 2000.
By 1994, it was clear Kauffman's benevolent ways were gone.