The Colorado Rockies baseball team has been fully owned by the Monfort family for 24 years. The team’s had its moments in that time: they made it to the World Series in 2007 and they’ve won a few wildcard berths. But, by in large their “commitment to winning” seems to many to be waning.
At least, that’s what Andy Berger, the owner and head brewer of Denver Beer Company thinks. That’s why he posted a video to Youtube Video on April 30th, explaining that it’s time for a change. And proposing a goal that might have been a little lofty.
Berger wanted to raise $1 billion (read: $1,000,000,000) to buy the Colorado Rockies outright.
“The Monfort family has had their time, but we think the team is ready for a change. We want to buy the Rockies from the Monforts and bring a commitment to winning back.” The GoFundMe page reads. “We believe the people of Colorado and the fans of the team are motivated to come together to buy the Rockies. This can happen when we fans work together and use our collective power to change the status quo.”
Berger and Denver Beer want to start a movement that puts the city first. They want an ownership change, to revamp the entire culture of the baseball team — to breathe fresh life into a stagnant image.
Sadly however, by the time the May 1st deadline rolled around, marking the end of Denver Beer Company’s attempted $1 billion fundraiser, the brewery had fallen a little short. They raised only $6,215 in that time.
Which, is nothing to be laughed at. Six grand is enough to buy the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, or enough to pay for a couple months of rent in RiNo art district. However, it is much less than the stated goal of one billion dollars. They only needed 160,901 times that amount actually raised to actually accomplish their goal.
It’s not a loss though. As stated on the GoFundMe page all of the money that they did manage to raise is going to the Colorado Restaurant Fund’s Angel Relief Fund to help hospitality workers across the state. So, the funds will still be used to better Colorado — they just aren’t going to change the culture of the Rockies Baseball team.
Or, maybe they will. On Friday, when it became clear that they weren’t going to reach their fundraising goal, Denver Beer Co. announced on their Facebook Page that they would still make an official offer to purchase the team using the $6,215 in funds raised. And maybe they’ll agree to it.
Or maybe, Monfort will wait until Denver Beer Co comes up with the other $999,993,870. Either way Berger and Denver Beer Co. made a statement with this fundraiser: Denver isn’t happy with the current ownership of their city’s baseball team. At least, Denver Beer Company isn’t — and they want a change.
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