Why did the Seattle Pilots only last one season in Seattle before relocating to Milwaukee?

Question

In Major League Baseball, the Seattle Pilots were a Major League team that lasted for one season in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee in 1970 and becoming the Milwaukee Brewers.

My question is, why did the Seattle Pilots only last one season in Major League baseball in 1969 before relocating to Milwaukee?

Answer 1

The previous answer is correct regarding low attendance & money, but the root cause was the baseball facility they had to work with.

They played at Sick Stadium, which was not only the real name of the minor league park, but a good description of its condition. It was an small, old , worn out park w nothing remotely fan friendly to attract folks to see an expansion team lose games at, & of course it was not enclosed in any way, which made game conditions inadequate for players & fans.

Milwaukee had just lost the Braves to Atlanta in 1966, & were a sentimental favorite to get another team w their roots in baseball going way back.

Seattle was promised another opportunity for a team when they had a suitable facility in place. So when the Kingdome was completed the Mariners were born in 1976.

Answer 2

Seattle wasn't suppose to get a team that soon. The AL was going to wait to expand in 1971, but after the A's moved to Oakland in 1968, they expanded the next year to avoid an anti-trust hearing that the Missouri senators were going to initiate. Seattle was chosen as the second city because the AL wanted to beat the NL there.

As the previous answer indicated, the stadium was not up to major league levels, and after the 1969 season, Bud Selig influenced the other owners to let him move the team to Milwaukee.

Answer 3

This really doesn't answer your question... but it's a bit of fun trivia anyway.

I live right up the street from the old Sick Stadium site. However, it's a Lowe's Home Improvement store now. Goes to show how small the stadium actually was.

Answer 4

The Seattle and Washington fishing charters offer fishing lovers some of the best fishing experiences in the country.

Answer 5

Correct. One season only.

Answer 6

Seattle initially had a lot going for it when it joined the American League in 1969. Seattle had long been a hotbed for minor league baseball and was home to the Seattle Rainiers, one of the pillars of the Pacific Coast League. The Cleveland Indians had almost moved to Seattle in 1965. Many of the same things that attracted the Indians made Seattle a plum choice for an expansion team. Seattle was the third-biggest metropolitan area on the West Coast (behind Los Angeles and the Bay Area). The addition of a third team on the West Coast also would balance out the addition of Kansas City. Also, there was no real competition from other pro teams. While Seattle had just landed the NBA's SuperSonics, the NBA was not in the same class as baseball was in terms of popularity at the time.

The front man for the franchise was Dewey Soriano, a former Rainiers pitcher and general manager and former president of the PCL. In an ominous sign of things to come, Soriano had to ask William Daley, who had owned the Indians at the time they flirted with Seattle, to furnish much of the expansion fee. In return, Daley bought 47 percent of the stock--the largest stake in the club. He became chairman of the board while Soriano served as president.

However, a couple of factors were beyond the Pilots' control. They were originally not set to start play until 1971. But the date was moved up to 1969 under pressure from Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri. Professional baseball had been played in Kansas City in one form or another from the 1880s until the A's left for Oakland after the 1967 season, and the prospect of having Kansas City wait three years for its return was not acceptable to Symington. Also, the Pilots had to pay the PCL $1 million to compensate for the loss of one of its most successful franchises. After King County voters approved a bond for a domed stadium (what would become the Kingdome) in 1968, the Seattle Pilots were officially born. California Angels executive Marvin Milkes was hired as general manager, and St. Louis Cardinals coach Joe Schultz became manager.

To the surprise of no one outside Seattle (Schultz and Milkes actually thought they could finish third in the newly formed AL West), the Pilots were terrible. They won their very first game, and then their home opener three days later, but only won five more times in the first month and never recovered. They finished last in the West with a record of 64-98, 33 games out of first.

However, the team's poor play was the least of its troubles. The most obvious problem was Sick's Stadium. The longtime home of the Pacific Coast League Seattle Rainiers, it had been considered one of the best ballparks in minor league baseball. By the 1960s, however, it was considered far behind the times. 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 due to numerous delays. The scoreboard wasn't even ready until the eve of 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. Attendance was so poor (678,000) that the Pilots were almost out of money by the end of the season. The team's new stadium was slated to be built at the Seattle Center, but a petition by stadium opponents ground the project to a halt.

During the offseason, Soriano crossed paths with Selig. They met in secret for over a month after the end of the season, and during Game 1 of the World Series, Soriano agreed to sell the Pilots to Selig for $10 million to $13 million (depending on the source). Selig would then move the team to Milwaukee and rename it the Brewers. However, the owners turned it down in the face of pressure from Washington's two senators, Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson, as well as state attorney general Slade Gorton. MLB asked Soriano and Daley to find a local buyer. Local theater chain owner Fred Danz came forward in October 1969 with a $10 million deal, but it fizzled when the Bank of California called in a $4 million loan it had made to Soriano and Daley for startup costs. In January 1970, Westin Hotels owner Eddie Carlson put together a nonprofit group to buy the team. However, the owners rejected the idea almost out of hand since it would have devalued the other clubs' worth. A more traditional deal came one vote short of approval.


Pilots uniformsAfter a winter and spring full of court action, the Pilots reported for spring training under new manager Dave Bristol unsure of where they would play. The owners had given tentative approval to the Milwaukee group, but the state of Washington got an injunction on March 17 to stop the deal. Soriano immediately filed for bankruptcy - a move intended to forestall any post-sale legal action. At the bankruptcy hearing a week later, Milkes testified there wasn't enough money to pay the coaches, players and office staff. Had Milkes been more than 10 days late in paying the players, they would have all become free agents and left Seattle without a team for the 1970 season. With this in mind, Federal Bankruptcy Referee Sidney Volinn declared the Pilots bankrupt on April 1 - six days before Opening Day - clearing the way for them to move to Milwaukee. The team's equipment had been sitting in Provo, Utah with the drivers awaiting word on whether to drive toward Seattle or Milwaukee.

Much of the story of the Seattle Pilots' only year in existence is told in Jim Bouton's classic baseball book, Ball Four.

With the season's opening day only six days away, there was not enough time to order completely new uniforms, so the club had to remove the Pilots logo from team uniforms and replace them with Brewers logos. In fact, the outline of the old Pilots logo could still be seen on the Brewers' uniforms. Selig's original intention had been to adopt navy and red as the team colors, hearkening back to the minor league club (souvenir buttons sold at White Sox games at County Stadium featured the major league club's logo in that color combination), but with no time to order new uniforms, the Brewers adopted the blue and gold of the Pilots as their own. That color combination, in various shades, is still used by the club. The short notice also forced the Brewers to assume the Pilots' old place in the AL West. While this resulted in natural rivalries with the White Sox and Twins, it also meant the Brewers faced the longest road trips in baseball.

Under the circumstances, the Brewers' 1970 season was over before it started, and they finished 65-97. They would not have a winning season until 1978.

Answer 7

didn't make alot of money and low fan attendence