Westar wanted a piece of America’s pastime

Testimony Thursday in the Kansas City, Kan., federal retrial of former Westar Energy executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake recalled a forgotten fact — that in the summer of 1998, Westar tried to buy the Kansas City Royals. This was just before the same company, then known as Western Resources, started making headlines for piling up $3 billion in debt, grappling with regulators, feuding with Wichita over rate parity and failing at two merger attempts. Had Westar gotten into the baseball business, quipped Eagle columnist Mark McCormick, “At the night games, you’d have to be putting coins in the machine to keep the lights on.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

3 Comments

  1. Gary C.
    Posted July 10, 2005 at 9:41 am | Permalink

    I just saw a Fox News report with the Author of “100 people screwing up America” Bernard Goldberg.

    I hope these two are on the list!

  2. Joe Williams
    Posted July 10, 2005 at 11:39 am | Permalink

    Kansas City Royals? Professional Sports Teams are never profitable. They are owned by wealthy men who want it for bragging rights, not because it is a viable profitable business.

    David Wittig would have loved it if they bought the Royals. He would have a special parking lot designated for his Ferrari.

    I guess we have our own little Tyco here in Kansas. The spending spree these guys had were outragous. I hope Westar can get rid of this bad stain and focus on energy production and nothing else.

  3. kelly
    Posted July 10, 2005 at 1:11 pm | Permalink

    The spending spree included $25,000 paid to the TRMPAC organization which promised access to Tom Delay in return for the illegal contribution. As with so many things, Wittig et. al. didn’t care about the legalities, evidently.