February 7, 2011
Matier & Ross, San Francisco Chronicle

Esoteric CEO of Golden Entertainment Michael Topham was seen dining with cousin and CFO of the family business Edward Castle in North Beach last night at noisy Rose Pistola, and apparently popcorn and the latest Will Farrell film was not the main topic. Gianni Fillopolini, Maitre d’ of the loud hot spot, reported that the dinner/meeting lasted late into the night, with numerous bottles of Bray Verdelho consumed and a loud and animated conversation that caught the eyes of many of the diners. “They seemed excited about something,” waiter Roberto Sánchez said.

A press conference was held Wednesday afternoon at San Francisco’s waterfront outside the Ferry Building and it was clear that something was up as both Topham, Castle and other Golden Executives attending the conference were clearly excited about something. That something was a disclosure of a secret that really wasn’t much of a secret in Golden’s expansion plans.

“We are exploring the purchase of a team in one of the professional leagues here in the States,” began Michael Topham in a brief statement. “Because of the delicate nature of the negotiations, I cannot elaborate on the details other than to say it’s a historically significant franchise that has been in the news of late. We believe they will bring a renewed interest into our corporation and dovetail nicely with many of our other projects.”

Rumors have been circulating about the business world for six years since Topham took over control of the corporation in 2005. Topham has long been known to be interested in purchasing a professional team, although there has been no official statement from him or Golden. When asked why the press conference for such a short and vague statement, Topham said, “We wanted to put the fires of rumor to bed and let the public know we do indeed have plans.”

Speculation has it that Golden has its eyes set on a struggling San Francisco 49ers franchise that has threatened the Bay Area numerous times with moving to southern California after the failed Santa Clara stadium project. Keeping the team in San Francisco would be a natural action for the image-conscious Bay Area company, particularly after the decay of MLB and the San Francisco Giants. Topham and the rest of the company remained mum as to what their options are, though speculation is that he’d prefer baseball over other sport options.

One reporter asked if they had interest in the PEBA and perhaps the franchise located in Aurora, where conflict with the legal community and infighting within the Rodriguez family lead to speculation that the team will be up for sale, and Topham replied, “No comment.” Another reporter asked if he had interest in buying out Tom Hicks and taking control of Liverpool of the Premier League, and Topham chuckled, “It’s tempting. I love the Reds. Our family history leads back to Merseyside, but no. We are dedicated to the US and in particular the western states. We have no plans to go abroad.”