The timing of this latest ownership shuffle by the Mariners could not have been better for a team with some damage control to manage.
There was already the nightmare of the team owning baseball’s longest playoff drought at 15 years. But now, a vocal segment of Seattle fans also feel – rightly or wrongly – that the Mariners played a significant role in the city council thwarting a proposed Sodo District arena.
New majority ownership group head John Stanton hardly endeared himself to those fans by labeling Chris Hansen’s planned arena a “big, ugly house at the end of your driveway.