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Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Kasten deserves more credit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Stan Kasten has just been given the keys to another sports franchise.
I know what you’re thinking: Brick wall, dead ahead, and you want to watch the crash. Because while Kasten was the most powerful sports executive this city ever had or ever will have, I have never met a greater lightning rod for criticism.
It’s the simple math for sports fans and media: Take a loudmouth New York attorney, mix with equal parts Jon Koncak and Pete Babcock, heavily season with playoff flops and Turner Field food prices, then bake until smug to the touch, and you get: “Kiss my butt you obnoxious jerk!”
But you know what? The Washington Nationals are a better franchise today because Stan Kasten is running them. (Oh look, somebody just threw a nice rock through my window.)
“Sure, it’s important to me what people think of me,” Kasten said Wednesday, when he officially became president and minority owner of the Nationals. “But I know what we did in my time in Atlanta. If you take a step back, I think I can be very proud of my résumé there. I never got 100 percent acclaim. But I understand that. I also know that even if you are wildly popular, eight percent of the population still hates you.”
Don’t delude yourself, Stanley. You were never close to a 92-percent approval rating.
But the question is: Why was he so close to 8?
Kasten never got the credit he deserved here. He has long been far more respected outside Atlanta than in it.
He isn’t cuddly. But he is smart. There is a reason the Ted Lerner group became commissioner Bud Selig’s favorite among the bidding owners when Kasten’s group merged with them. There is a reason Kasten is close friends with both NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the NBA’s David Stern.
There is a reason agents alternately hate him and respect him.
Ask yourself this: Would any of the off-court, off-ice goofiness involving Hawks and Thrashers owners have occurred if Kasten was directing traffic?
John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox have received a bulk of the credit for Braves’ success since 1991. Deservedly so. But nobody mentions that it was Kasten who told owner Ted Turner that his plan to sign free agents as relative runway models for TBS stunk. Or that it was Kasten who convinced Schuerholz to come here from Kansas City as general manager, and asked Cox to move downstairs from the GM’s office to the dugout.
The Hawks represent the biggest wart on his tenure. The irony of that: For as emotional and opinionated as Kasten is, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Babcock, “You’re fired.” Big mistake.
No, he didn’t do everything right. He shares the blame for this city’s dearth of championships. He orchestrated a sweetheart deal with plans to turn the Olympic stadium into Turner Field — but then went splat with the team’s original stadium food policies and prices. (Who can forget the moment when even Ted Turner blasted the cost of a hot dog, as Kasten slowly sank into his chair?)
When he retired as president of the Braves, Thrashers and Hawks in November 2003, Kasten said, “I won’t be an agent, sell cigarettes or be a hit man.” We know the first two. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on the third.
Shortly after stepping down, he got a phone call from Lerner, who had missed out on buying the Redskins and wanted to own a sports franchise. The two spoke, but the Nationals weren’t even on the radar. They were still in Montreal.
Kasten told Lerner what he told others: He wanted to run a team again. He has since claimed to being inundated with offers. But the Nationals represented everything he wanted: a chance to build from the ground up, with blueprints for a new stadium in a vibrant and politically charged city. Also, he gets richer. (Kasten wouldn’t provide details but admitted: “It’s a cool thing economically.”)
But this isn’t all sweetness and light. It’s a lousy team with sinking attendance and a general manager, Jim Bowden, who has become at one with breathalyzers.
“We understand we have a lot of work in front of us,” Kasten said. “The franchise won’t be all it can be, at least until we’re in a new stadium. But I wanted this challenge. I didn’t want to take over a successful team. I said two years ago that I wanted to build something. This was the biggest and brightest thing out there.”
And as for the political buzzsaw he is stepping into: “It’s exhilarating. It’s what I want to do. It’s overcoming hurdles. It’s solving problems to get to a solution that works for everyone.”
I’ll translate: It’s fighting and winning.
A few weeks ago, Kasten met with Turner, who asked his former counsel if he was going to buy the Braves. Kasten said no and informed Turner of his plans. Instead, he’s now in the same division as the Braves.
“Hopefully it’ll inject some fun into the rivalry,” Kasten said.
But if you’re wondering about the reception upon his return, think more Tom Glavine than Julio Franco.
Permalink | Comments (27) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
Bowl playoff idea eeeevil
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Good to hear that NCAA president Myles Brand still gets it. During a trip to Atlanta this week, he suggested to our Thomas Stinson that moving to a playoff system in Division 1-A football would be straight from Satan.
Things are just heavenly the way they are in big-time college football, especially with the addition of a 12th game during the regular season. Actually, we could do without that 12th game. It’s just another thing to hurt the “student� in student-athlete when it comes to their ability to juggle studying with playing.
Brand did say that NCAA presidents likely will approve another bowl game (the so-called “plus one� bowl) to take place after the other scheduled games in the Bowl Championship Series. He said such a move wouldn’t happen until after the current Fox TV contract runs out after the 2009 season.
Good. Maybe by then, even that sinister proposal designed to get the big boys closer to a playoff system will be exorcised from our consciousness.
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
