According to the San Jose Mercury News' Mark Purdy managing partner and CEO of the San Francisco Giants Bill Neukom is set to exit stage right in December, leaving his post with the franchise he helped bring a world championship to just a season ago.
Neukom's 'retirement' is scheduled to go into effect December 31, 2011 when current team President Larry Bear will assume duties as CEO. In the public eye there seemed to be no problem internally with the Giants, but after Neukom was asked to step down by the 10 person Executive Committee of team owners recently, obviously there was a discord mainly visible from inside out. The Giants' ownership structure features 32 "principal partners," but all the power comes from the Executive Committee; the owners with the most money in the team. This committee appoints the Giants' managing general partner, who is the frontman for the franchise and takes care of day-to-day activities.
Neukom's falling-out with the Executive Committee, according to sources, began over how to spend the additional millions of dollars that flowed into team after their World Series championship in 2010. Neukom, according to report, believed that this was his money to spend as he felt necessary-- which he did and then some- while the Executive Board wanted to put it into a 'rainy-day' type fund for when the team wasn't as flush with cash.
The team will hold a press conference at 11 am on Thursday to make the official announcement, where Neukom is said to become chairman emeritus, basically a glorified retiree who still can come in the office and fiddle with things. Sad to see it have to come removing power from somebody, especially someone who wrote 'The Giants' Way' as a sort of blueprint on how to be part of the organization. Hopefully it will be for the best for both Nuekom and the Giants themselves in the long run.