The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

Refuse to Lose 301
rized a tax package providing $320 million for a new ball park. It created
a Public Facilities District board to oversee the project.
Fourteen months later, yet another crisis: Ellis called a surprise press
conference to announce he and the other owners had reluctantly concluded
there was “insufficient political leadership in King County” to
complete the new ball park in time for the 1999 season. Besides labor and
management issues, the project had become entangled in a controversy
over a proposal to demolish the Kingdome and build a new, open-air stadium
for the Seahawks. That was a stipulation set by the NFL team’s prospective
buyer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The double-dealers, Ellis
charged, were four County Council members, Ron Sims, Pete von Reichbauer,
Larry Phillips and Cynthia Sullivan. To the “shock and dismay” of
M’s ownership, they had suggested to the Public Facilities District board
that a delay in the construction schedule for the M’s stadium would be
prudent. “It is clear that they intend for the ball park project to fail,” Ellis
said. “We’ve done all we can do.” The owners were tired of losing money.
More talking was useless. He fought back tears. The team was for sale. 4
It was Saturday, December 14, 1996. While Ellis was going nuclear,
Sims was being endorsed by King County Democrats to succeed Governor-elect
Locke as county executive. Certain he had the votes to win the
council’s appointment, Sims was over the moon. He arrived home to find
reporters on his lawn and a lump of coal in his stocking. He realized
there was some frustration over the time-line for the ball park, Sims said,
but he was flabbergasted by Ellis’ announcement. 5
Gorton believed that Sims and his friend and ally on the council, the
politically ambidextrous von Reichbauer, knew exactly what they were up
to when they co-authored the not-so-fast letter to the facilities district.
Councilman Rob McKenna, a young Republican Gorton was eyeing for
bigger things, said the Mariners weren’t to blame for the impasse. The
letter “was like throwing a stick of dynamite into the fire. . . . It was completely
gratuitous,” McKenna said. 6
Some found Ellis’ emotional last press conference unconvincing. The
owners were playing political hardball “as nasty as it gets,” wrote Blaine
Newnham, the veteran Seattle Times sports columnist. “The Mariners say
the politicians have forced them to sell the team. But all the politicians
have really done is overrule an electorate that voted against a stadium and
come up with $300 million to build one.” The owners clearly were in the
catbird seat. “Their stadium is funded, drawn up and ready to be built. It
seems to me all this noise is just about keeping it that way.” 7