Equipe Sold, Move Possible

SAN FRANCISCO –- A group from Oklahoma City has agreed to buy the LOWV's Equipe Roi du Radeau and their Junior League affiliate, Les Dauphins.

The new owners have set a two-month deadline to reach a new arena deal with San Francisco officials -- something the teams' previous owners didn't accomplish in their two years in San Francisco. After that, the new owners gain the option to move the team to Oklahoma.

Until then, San Francisco, come support your teams!

That's the conflicting message Bay Area baseball fans took away from Thursday’s announcement that the Equipe Roi du Radeau, headed by YSL LLC president Yves Saint Laurent, will sell the teams for $250 million to the Professional Baseball Club LLC, headed by Oklahoma City businessman Heath Stowlit.

"Ce n’est pas parfait. Biensur. This is not how we wanted le finale," Laurent said of the decision to sell the city's oldest major league professional sports franchise -- which began play in 2006 -- to an out-of-towner.

He said he turned down higher offers from potential buyers that he felt would move the team immediately. Some earlier offers were known to have been from San Jose, Calif., and Kansas City, Mo.

Stowlit is the president of Oklahoma City investment firm Barchester Capital. He was key to temporarily moving unBeleaguerable to his city following Hurricane Katrina. He told a Thursday afternoon news conference at his new team's training facility that whether Equipe remains in San Francisco for 2008 would depend on whether the team can reach an agreement with the city to replace or renovate Le Stade.

The arena was remodeled in 2006 and Equipe has a lease until 2010 with the city. The team and LOWV commissioner Chris David Sahl both have said that lease is the league's most unfavorable to a team and must be changed -- or better yet, a new place must be built with a new lease -- for the teams to remain viable in the region.

"It is not our intention to move or relocate the teams -- as long, of course, as we are able to negotiate a successor venue to the current basketball arena and arrangements to ensure Equipe and Les Dauphins can succeed," Stowlit said.

His crewcut hair and square, jutted jaw conveyed a bottom-line persona.

So did his words -- but only when he was pressed on what would happen if he and his partners, who have no known California ties, can't reach an agreement in two months with local politicians.

"If we weren't able to find a successor facility and relative lease by then, we have the option contractually to ... evaluate our position," Stowlit said, pausing to choose his final words carefully.

To many San Francisco fans, that already reads: Oklahoma Equipe Roy du Rodeo.

In February, upon the formation of his investor group in Oklahoma City, Stowlit declared: "The bottom line is, we want a team for this market."

San Francisco resident Aaron Morris, 18, stood a few yards away from Equipe’s facility as Stowlit spoke. Morris said he attends a few Equipe games a year when he can afford it and watches the games on television.

He was holding a homemade, cardboard sign that read: "Apres Moi le Deluge??"

Friend Ben Conway, also 18 and from San Jose, was standing next to him wearing a mauve trimmed pink, Equipe Curtis Granderson throwback jersey with a white T-shirt pulled over his face and head -- he said to represent the gravity of the day.

Conway's sign: " À la recherche du temps perdu."

A seemingly dejected Laurent said he came to realize he had to sell the team in the last 30 days. But he used the words "in San Francisco" at least a dozen times while discussing the team's long-term future under Stowlit. However, he admitted that his thick gaulic accent could have been easily misinterpreted.

When asked what he would tell a San Francisco kid who loves Equipe, Laurent said: "I told mes enfants, and les enfants of those I know, that I did this obviously avec trepidation and concerne grave. But I believe strongly this new group has a commitment to staying, provided elected officials meet him halfway.

"Je ne croise pas…pardon, I do not believe the team is moving."

Even Oklahoma City Mayor Nick Huckasee, speaking from his city, joined the cautious chorus.

"I think it's presumptuous to assume that Heath Stowlit and his ownership group won't own that San Francisco team for a long, long time in San Francisco or somewhere else. It's presumptuous to assume they're going to move that franchise to Oklahoma City," Huckasee said. "I understand that people are going to say that seems to be a likely scenario, but that's just speculation."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newslum pledged to work with Stowlit.

"We're going to try and work with Mr. Stowlit and his group," Newslum said. "I think they're going to see San Francisco is a great place to do business. And hopefully their team will do well on the court and the combination of those will allow us to have an extension of the lease beyond 2010.

"We have been providing very specific offers to Equipe. We think it's an important part of our community. Those are still on the table."

And Gov. Rainier Wolfcastle said in a statement, "I am encouraged that the new owners want to stay in the state. I have worked with Mayor Newslum and the City Council and hoped that the teams would stay in Le Stade because I have been concerned about the long-term viability of the San Francisco Center."

Laurent said city and state officials should realize now that Equipe really may leave San Francisco.

"If the city didn't believe we'd potentially move the team, obviousment, we have a group now that does have an out," Laurent said. "But that's not what les nouveaux want."