The Outsider Positions to Get Back In

In the summer of 1991 the Seattle Times obtained internal bank memos from Security Pacific Bank in which the bank demanded the repayment of a $39.5 million loan. The memo said Smulyan would trigger an escape clause in the Kingdome lease, look for a local buyer and then move the team in 1993.

Smulyan says he believes the newspaper read too much into the memo. "I always felt that was more manufactured by the Times, let's be blunt," Smulyan said. "Because of what we said? The infamous bank memo? The bank met with [Smulyan's team president and current Emmis executive] Gary Kaseff and the bank said, 'Look, we think Jeff is on a mission from God that no matter what happens he is going to kill himself to make this work.' They said, 'We want to know Jeff's not crazy because we don't think it works here. And we'll be your bank anywhere you go but we don't want to go down the drain here.' "

Others have a different view. Former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who is credited with saving baseball in the Northwest, calls Smulyan "a highly unsuccessful owner who complained from the day he took over the franchise."

The catch to relocating to the Tampa Bay area was the Kingdome lease the bank memo said Smulyan was trying to break. It contained a clause that said an owner could break the lease and move, but only after offering the team to a local buyer first. Considering that two owners had already given up on the team in its first 10 years, Smulyan agreed.

"We said the first day, 'If we can't make it work let someone else try,' " he said. "Did I talk to people in Tampa? Of course, I did. Did I talk to people in Major League Baseball [about a move]? Because the assumption was that no one would buy it."

Smulyan added that he had one discussion with officials in the Tampa Bay area and was told he would be welcome to come. But regardless of what interest he had in moving, the Kingdome lease trapped him in Seattle, at least until he was unable to sell.

"He outsmarted himself," said Gorton, who now works for the Seattle law firm of Preston Gates and Ellis. "If the community there has any voice in the subject they would be wiser to look for a local owner."

Gorton persuaded Nintendo, which had its U.S. headquarters in the Seattle area, to front a group that included a handful of Microsoft executives. They bought the team from Smulyan in 1992 for $106 million and proceeded to have many of the same fights as Smulyan with city and county politicians for the next four years, lost a referendum on a new stadium, threatened to sell the team and eventually convinced the governor to convene a special session of the state legislature. They got the new stadium that Smulyan cherished in 1999.

"Jeff was either being duplicitous and wanted to move to Tampa all along or he was trying to work with Seattle and was using Tampa as leverage with Seattle. I prefer to believe the latter," Watt said before acknowledging that Smulyan struggled with Seattle's culture, which warms slowly to outsiders. "I hadn't been in Seattle long enough to have a lot of friends and supporters. So when he needed help there wasn't a lot of that." As Smulyan's name emerged as a candidate for the Nationals, Watt said he began looking at Emmis's numbers, curious to see if Smulyan's capital was different now. "His financial circumstances are much better," he said. "I understand the concerns for D.C., but there's reason for hope."