Good news for VA/DC baseball fans

Looks as if Portland is out now. They deal for the stadium has been rejected. The players have already told MLB they do not want to travel between two different home parks next year. If we don't get the Expos in 2004 then it is a lock for 2005. MLB knows they can't make same amount of money in San Juan as they can in DC or VA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34605-2003Aug22.html

Oregon's Senate Thwarts Expos Bid

By Craig Timberg and Mark Asher

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, August 23, 2003; Page B01

The Washington area's leading rival for a relocated Major League Baseball team lost a crucial battle yesterday when the Oregon Senate rejected a $150 million finance package for a ballpark in Portland.

Baseball boosters there acknowledged that the 19 to 11 vote was a major setback, and they are scrambling in hopes of overturning it today. They have said for months that failure to win state approval for the bond package would doom Portland's bid.

"We're still hopeful, but I have to be candid -- this is not a good day for the effort to bring baseball to Oregon," said Stephen Kanter, president of the Portland Baseball Group. "It does look bleak right now."

The demise of the Portland bid would leave Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia as the only contenders left from the group that began meeting with Major League Baseball officials in March about relocating the league-owned Montreal Expos.

Baseball sources cautioned, however, that new candidate cities have emerged and some team owners favor pushing the league into Latin America. They also emphasized that baseball may choose to keep the Expos in Montreal until after the 2006 season, when the league's union contract will allow the team to be contracted out of existence.

Major League Baseball President Robert DuPuy, responding to questions by e-mail, said: "We'll continue to weigh the options."

Boosters of bringing baseball to the Washington area cheered the vote in Oregon. D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee, said it was clearer than ever that baseball should come to the city.

"We're ready, willing and able to build them a stadium. All they need to do is ask," Evans said. "Meet with us, and let's work this out together."

He reiterated his insistence that baseball declare Washington the preferred home of the Expos before the council approves a stadium financing package. But he relented on his previous demand that baseball make a decision this year, before the 2004 election year dawns for him and other members of the council.

Asked why he changed his position, Evans said, "Because I want to get a baseball team here."

Virginia officials were more circumspect about how the Oregon Senate vote affected their bid.

"That's a shame," said Gabe Paul Jr., executive director of the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority. "I've never looked on Portland as really a competitor in this, mainly because of market size. But I know baseball certainly does want to develop some West Coast locations, and Portland is a nice city. But it is a relatively small market."

Officials from the District, Northern Virginia and Portland went to Phoenix in March with hopes of winning the troubled Expos on the strength of stadium deals anchored by hundreds of millions of dollars in public financing.

All three bids have run into trouble. Even before Portland's setback, Arlington officials opposed a stadium, hobbling efforts to build on three of the most popular sites in Northern Virginia. And Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has struggled to win support on the D.C. Council for his $339 million ballpark financing bill.

Baseball's relocation committee, meanwhile, has shown little evidence of progress. It ignored a self-imposed deadline for making a recommendation to Commissioner Bud Selig by the All-Star Game in July. More recently, baseball officials have said a decision might come by Labor Day or by the World Series, but even many team owners, who are the ultimate decision-makers, remain in the dark about Selig's thinking, sources say.

After yesterday's vote in Oregon, Washington area baseball boosters and league officials said that prospects of moving the Expos for next season are dwindling.

"It's getting to be a challenge," said Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers and a member of the relocation committee. But he added that many owners still hope to move the team for next season.

Baseball officials have also left open the possibility of keeping the Expos in Montreal next year while plans are readied for moving the team in 2005. This season, Expos games are split between Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In recent months, San Juan, Monterrey in Mexico and Las Vegas have emerged as potential homes for the team, sources say.

The two Washington area groups have gotten impatient for action after years of courting baseball, and months of doing so with great intensity. Officials on both sides of the Potomac River say they will not seek any new legislative action until the league designates a preferred home for the Expos.

Frederic V. Malek, head of one of the potential Washington ownership groups, said yesterday, "The stars are really aligned as far as I know. I believe Mayor Williams, Jack Evans and our ownership group are all committed to getting it done. Now I can't guarantee those stars will be aligned as well in six, eight or 12 months."

Now, if these two groups could get together and put a ballpark in spot that hovered over the border of DC and Virginia, everyone gets their wish. They could mow the grass in DC one direction and the VA grass in the other.