Page "Milwaukee Brewers" Paragraph 8

However, the team's poor play was the least of the Pilots ' problems.

The team's ownership was badly undercapitalized ; Soriano had not been able to afford the franchise fee and had to ask Daley to help pay it.

In return, Daley got 47 percent of the team's stock — the biggest single share — and became chairman of the board.

Also, Sick's Stadium was completely inadequate even as a temporary facility.

While a condition of MLB awarding the Pilots to Seattle was that Sick's had to be expanded to 30, 000 seats by the start of the 1969 season, only 17, 000 seats were ready because of numerous delays.

The scoreboard was not even ready until the night before Opening Day.

While it was expanded to 25, 000 by June, the added seats had obstructed views.

Water pressure was almost nonexistent after the seventh inning, especially with crowds above 10, 000.

Only 677, 000 fans came to see the Pilots that year ; they never attracted a crowd even near capacity.

By the end of the 1969 season, the Pilots were almost out of money, and it was obvious they would not survive long enough to move into their new stadium without new ownership.

No credible offers surfaced from Seattle interests at first, however.

Under these circumstances, Soriano was initially very receptive to an offer from a Milwaukee-based group headed by car salesman Bud Selig.

Selig had been a minority owner of the Milwaukee Braves and had led unsuccessful efforts to keep them from moving to Atlanta, and had been working ever since then to bring the majors back to Milwaukee.

During Game 1 of the World Series, Soriano agreed to sell the Pilots to Selig for $ 10. 8 million.

Selig would then move the team to Milwaukee.

However, under strong pressure from Washington state officials, MLB asked Soriano to try to find a local buyer first.

Unfortunately, one local deal collapsed when the Bank of California called a loan for startup costs, and another bid was turned down out of concern it would devalue the other teams.

With no other credible offers on the table, the owners approved the sale to Selig's group.

Selig had already announced plans to rename the team the Brewers, a name that had been used by past Milwaukee baseball teams ( most notably by a very successful minor league team that played there from 1902 to 1952 ).

However, legal action kept Selig from formally taking control, and dragged out through the winter.