Vindicated strategy

Maybe the Monforts knew something their critics didn't

Published October 3, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Editorials

It's a basic tenet of business, but sometimes overlooked by those who second-guess executives from the sidelines: If a company takes in more than it spends, its days are numbered.

Obvious? Sure, but the history of free enterprise is filled with businesses that no longer exist because they were unable to satisfy this most basic operating requirement. The startup companies that never recorded a profit are legion. But big-name firms whose fortunes soured number in the hundreds as well. Remember Montgomery Ward, once a leading department store chain? Or Bethlehem Steel, second only to U.S. Steel in its heyday? Or TWA, the world's first international all-jet airline?

Yet prudent, practical business people are rarely cheered by those not concerned with paying the bills or trying to turn at least a modest profit. Tending to the basics is often unpopular, and mistakes are easily second- guessed. Staying in business is taken for granted.

The lessons are worth noting today because the local baseball team is suddenly - and to many, unexpectedly - prospering on the field. And in the afterglow of the Rockies' heart-pounding entry into the National League playoffs, their owners, who resisted the push to extravagant outlays and financial oblivion despite unrelenting criticism and ridicule, have been - at least for time being - vindicated.

Seven years ago the Rockies committed $172 million to pitchers Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle. But instead of securing the team's place as perennial championship contenders, the deals doomed the club to years of financial struggle that prevented on-field success.

"We overspent what this market can handle; we overspent what the Rockies can handle," Charlie Monfort admits in ColoradoBiz magazine's September cover story on the Monfort brothers' stewardship of Denver's major league baseball franchise. "And we had a negative cash flow and a serious possible bankruptcy problem if we didn't start rectifying it."

Rockies President Keli McGregor has used the metaphor "getting back to shore" to describe the painful process of getting out from under those huge long-term contracts and focusing on building the team through player development rather than free agent signings and trades. "Getting back to shore" resulted in a series of mediocre seasons with limited player payrolls and ever-changing rosters while future stars began making their way through the farm system.

It also made the Monforts targets for dissatisfied fans and indignant pundits. "Charlie and Dick Monfort without a doubt are the most reviled, despised, maligned, smeared and slandered businessmen in the Rocky Mountain region this side of Joe Nacchio," the ColoradoBiz cover story begins - and the only part of that sentence that may not be true is its tense.

Now, Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Troy Tulowitzki and Jeff Francis are familiar names - local heroes. And hopes of a World Series in Denver are accompanied by talk of post-season leaguewide honors: Holliday should be the National League's Most Valuable Player; Tulowitzki deserves to be Rookie of the Year; skipper Clint Hurdle has earned NL Manager of the Year.

There is no award for Owners of the Year. But if there were, Charlie and Dick Monfort just might deserve consideration for recognizing the problem, adopting a plan, believing in it, and sticking to it even when unforgiving fans clamored for them to get out.

In the meantime, maybe Businessmen of the Year will do.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News