Promoting from within - is someone who is primarily money driven, a good candidate for management?

So here's the situation - I've hired two different operations managers and had to let them go for various reasons. The reason I was seeking outside the company was for a fresh outlook and a new way of doing things. Although I think there were things I could have done in the hiring process to sniff these bad candidates out, I'm now feeling like I should be promoting from within with someone already familiar with our systems and company culture. 

The obvious choice would seem to be the guy who's been here the longest. He's the site super on all our bigger jobs and everyone recognizes him as the most senior person, the person they call if they have a technical related question. 

I offered him the position (which is a healthy base salary plus incentive bonuses for gross profit, customer satisfaction, and clearly outlined administrative task goals) and he's very hung up on the money. Objectively, it's more money overall than he earned last year plus the bonuses but the weekly base is lower than if he worked in the field that week. He earned roughly $82k in the field (working roughly 80% of the available hours we COULD have worked him, because of slow weeks), this is a base of $88k with incentive bonuses that should definitely take this north of a size figure position. People should obviously care about the money they earn but he's basically super worried about the guarantee of money instead of the opportunity to earn a lot more with the bonuses. 

I tried encouraging him that this is something he can do but he keeps going back to the guaranteed money. I definitely want this position on performance pay so a high flat salary is off the table. My concern is he will be a few weeks in, working harder than he did before, getting paid less in the immediate term, and will not be giving it his all. He doesn't view this as a good offer. 

Question is - if someone isn't excited at an opportunity like this, should I take the offer off the table? Or is there a different way I could be thinking about this?