Peter Magowan knows that 653,284 bricks can't hit home runs -- he counts on Barry Bonds for that -- and 4,066 tons of steel can't stop a rally like closer Robb Nen can, but the San Francisco Giants' president and managing general partner says his team wouldn't be in the World Series if it were not for the stadium it plays in today.

	Peter Magowan, right, did the impossible by privately financing Pac Bell Ballpark, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Dodger Stadium was built in 1962.

"If we were somehow still in Candlestick (Park), we'd have a payroll of $35 million to $40 million, plus we'd be losing at least $10 million per year," said Magowan, whose partnership group purchased the Giants nearly 10 years ago with the promise it would keep the team in San Francisco.

A change in home field not only has kept the Giants in the Bay Area, but made the team competitive in baseball's free-spending era. Things have gone so well in new Pac Bell Park, the team was able to re-sign Bonds this season and increase its player payroll each of the past two seasons, to $65 million in 2001 and $78.4 million this year.

Since moving into their new home in 2000, the Giants regularly play before sellout crowds, a central ingredient in Magowan's formula for success. Unable to win public approval for four stadium referendums under its previous ownership, the Giants raised $150 million in revenue under Magowan by guaranteeing the sale of 15,000 season tickets then landing a lucrative naming rights deal and corporate sponsorships. That gave Magowan's group enough leverage to secure private financing for the remaining $207 million needed to built the stadium.

"Magowan came in with a great vision and, despite the fact that the Giants previous track record would tell you that responsibly building a privately funded ballpark would be a nearly insurmountable task, they did it," said David Carter of the Sports Business Group, a California-based sports consultancy firm. "In fact, they did it so well that Pac Bell is now being mentioned in the same breath by tourists as the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz."

Giants management had calculated it could make ends meet if it were able to bring attendance up from the 2.1 million tickets it sold in 1999, its last season at Candlestick, to three million tickets for the first three seasons in the new park. It beat that goal, selling more than 3.25 million tickets in each season since 2000.

That's an impressive accomplishment given the sluggish economy. In the second seasons in their new ballparks, the Pittsburgh Pirates' attendance at PNC Park fell 26.7 percent, and the Milwaukee Brewers experienced baseball's second worst attendance decline this season with 30 percent fewer fans passing through the turnstiles than a year ago.

"If we were unable to build a new ballpark there would be no way this team would have stayed in San Francisco," said Larry Baer, the Giants' executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Either that or we would have definitely been on the contraction list."

Still, strapped with annual $20 million payments against the stadium's debt, the Giants remained a money loser again this season, Magowan said. Even after calculating playoff revenue through the League Championship Series, the team is $5 million in the red. But a competitive World Series with the Anaheim Angels could to balance the books.

In a four-game series, most of the money goes toward paying players' postseason salaries, leaving the Angels and Giants only $500,000 each in revenue. But an extended series would erase most of the Giants' debt, Magowan said. The Giants would earn $1.7 million if the World Series would be extended to five games, a total of $3 million if there are six games and $5 million if the Series is decided with a seventh game.

"I'd rather win in four than lose in seven, but I'd also rather lose in seven than lose in four," said Magowan, 60, who stepped down as chairman and CEO of Safeway in 1993, after 32 years with the company. "In reality, winning a World Series really isn't important from a financial perspective. In terms of a psychic need to be champions in this city, that's life-and-death to me."

This year, the team will make at least $2 million by instituting its variable ticket pricing and from resale of season tickets. But Giants management has resisted the temptation to expand Pac Bell beyond its 41,467-seat capacity, fearing it would undermine its money-making leverage of supply vs. demand.

"There's a lot of money in the Bay Area and it's a growing population," Baer said. "But because of our scarcity we had 28,000 full season tickets and 450,000 group tickets sold before the season. I think the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks gave in to the temptation of making their ballpark bigger and I think they regret that. If there's any way to measure how financially healthy you are in the business of baseball, it's to look at how many seats you have sold before you throw that first pitch."

Win or lose, Magowan says tickets will go up again for next season -- but won't reach a double-digit increase -- as they have every year and payroll likely won't go any higher.

"I think we're different than some other ownership groups in that if we wind up losing money, we don't go to the banks to borrow it, we immediately write out checks," said Magowan, who has a 15 percent stake in the Giants. "What that does is it puts some financial discipline in this business. Some owners that fund their losses through the bank loans argue that the debts are going to be somebody else's problem." The Giants ownership group wrote out checks to the tune of $100 million from 1994-1999, while the team was still paying at Candlestick Park.

Magowan is aware that his team's success with a publicly financed ballpark, in a time where other baseball owners see the threat of moving as the only option when all public stadium support fails, causes some tension among the ranks. But he can at least look his fans in the face and tell them that, while he and his partners care about their wallets, they care just as much about what goes on the field.

"One of the problems in our sport is that there are some owners that don't care about the game of baseball or have any sort of long-term commitment to their teams," Magowan said. "And it causes us a lot of problems because as soon as they buy the team, they are thinking about what they can make from selling it."