Thursday, April 15, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.
For the first time since very private negotiations to explore bringing the Montreal Expos to Las Vegas began months ago, a potential owner of the team spoke publicly Wednesday.
Lou Weisbach, chairman of Chicago-based Teamscape Corp. LLC, told the Sun he was given a charge by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman one year ago to do everything in his power to lure Major League Baseball to the city.
Goodman has been a longtime proponent of Las Vegas attracting one of the four major sports.
Weisbach said land surveys, traffic, parking, support for the team and other issues have are being, evaluated, and that the project continues to gain steam.
"A lot of due diligence has been done and it is positive. It would have to be for a major sport to consider Las Vegas," Weisbach said. "There was a lot of skepticism a year ago, but people sense that this will be a reality, at some point.
"The people of Las Vegas are believing it will happen, and I believe it, too."
Teamscape and the Las Vegas Stadium Co. LLC (LVSC), led by New York investor Robert Blumenfeld, are in a "co-op" venture, Weisbach said, to buy the Expos and house them in a $400-million, retractable-roof stadium in Las Vegas that could be built with private financing.
Caesars Entertainment Inc. has proposed land behind its Bally's and Paris-Las Vegas properties for a stadium site, with Caesars the landlord.
Teamscape and LVSC have hired consultant Mike Shapiro, of Centerfield Management Group in the San Francisco Bay Area, to serve as a main conduit between them and MLB.
And Shapiro has retained HOK Sports, the well-known architectural firm in Kansas City, Mo., to possibly design a versatile stadium.
Ownership groups and government officials in Washington, D.C., Monterrey, Mexico, Portland, Ore., and various areas in Virginia have also tried to sway baseball's relocation committee.
Until Wednesday, every Teamscape, LVSC and MLB executive involved in the negotiations who has been contacted by the Sun has refused an interview request. Weisbach said that has been intentional.
"It's the way it should be," Weisbach said. "The best work can be done in a behind-the-scenes setting. (To do otherwise) adds no value. Look at some of those other cities. It adds no value to have it in the media all the time.
"The best way to get deals done is quietly, and this is really about getting a deal done. It's not about publicity."
In an interview published in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, baseball commissioner Bud Selig noted how "aggressive" Weisbach & Co. have been and how gambling is not the major issue that it has been in the past.
"I was raised in an era when it wouldn't have been plausible," Selig told the Inquirer. "But the fact of the matter is gambling is legal most everywhere today. There are a whole lot of hurdles out there, but Las Vegas is a viable consideration.
"Thirty years ago, we would have automatically eliminated them. It's different now. No decision has been made, but they are being very aggressive."
A possible scenario would have the Expos playing in the National League West, the Colorado Rockies moving from the West to the Central, and the Pittsburgh Pirates shifting from the Central to the East.
In the past year, Weisbach said he has visited Las Vegas 25 times to meet with local officials, business figures and other potential investors to outline and advance the project.
He declined to reveal how many times, or where, he has discussed details of his groups' proposal with relocation committee members.
Weisbach would not gauge his groups' chances of landing the franchise that has been beset for years by poor attendance.
"I'd rather not do that," Weisbach said. "The charge here is to get this done, whether it's today, or in a month from now or a year from now. Las Vegas should have a major-league sport, and Las Vegas will have major-league sports.
"There are ups and downs, in one way or another, but we've set something in motion which, in the end, will result in bringing a major-league sport to the people of Las Vegas."
Neither Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the relocation committee and owner of the Chicago White Sox, nor MLB president and committee member Bob DuPuy have responded to repeated interview requests.
MLB owners will meet in New York in a month to weigh recommendations by the relocation committee for trimming the list of Expos suitors to two or three, and Weisbach confirmed the importance of that meeting.
"But there have been a lot of big meetings," he said. "For us to have gotten to this point, from where we were when I started this process, there have been many big meetings."
Weisbach, 55, is a Chicago native and lifelong fan of the city's sports teams. He started Ha-Lo Industries, a promotional products company in 1972 and left those day-to-day duties with a personal fortune five years ago.
Weisbach then started his American Center for Cures Foundation.
In April 1998, Weisbach and his wife Ruth hosted a $15,000-per-couple function for the Democratic Business Council at their sprawling compound in Highland Park, Ill. President Clinton was the guest of honor.
Weisbach tapped into his vast connections to assemble an impressive group of investors.
He had a professional relationship with Blumenfeld for 10 years before bringing Blumenfeld in last year as another principal player.
Blumenfeld is the key figure, Weisbach confirmed, in the LVSC, which comprises investment firms Blumenfeld Hueser Group and Scanlan Kemper Bard Companies (SKBC), and will lead the retractable-roof stadium venture.
Blumenfeld said he will speak "at the appropriate time."
Peter Hueser, Blumenfeld's partner, declined to comment upon being reached at his Oak Brook, Ill., office. Bob Scanlan, president of Portland, Ore.-based SKBC, responded briefly to an interview request.
Chicago Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone -- who was 107-93 in his 11-year career as a major league pitcher -- is another Teamscape partner.
Stone could not be reached for comment, but he has told the Chicago Tribune that Las Vegas is an untapped market with unlimited potential.
"Steve's been very important," Weisbach said. "He's a close, personal friend of mine, as well as a business associate. He is probably as knowledgeable a man and broadcaster as there is in the game. He's well respected by everyone."
Weisbach also declined to reveal how many other investors he and Blumenfeld, and the rest of their groups, are trying to attract, or the financing that will likely be required.
"That's the kind of detail that should only come out when Las Vegas is successful in getting a team," he said. "Otherwise, it doesn't serve a positive purpose."
Political figures in the Washington area and the Chesepeake Bay region of Virginia, which includes Norfolk and Hampton, have recently detailed plans to build stadiums almost entirely with public funds.
They said that satisfies a requirement that the relocation committee is seeking, to lessen the financial burden of a prospective buyer of the Expos. Supposedly that, in turn, will help get top dollar for the team.
Forbes magazine pits the value of the Expos at $145 million. Baseball's 29 other owners bought the team for $120 million before the 2002 season, and it since has been run by a limited partnership.
Weisbach declined to discuss whether the relocation committee favors private or public funding, but a source who is involved in the proceedings said that is not significant.
"When it comes to moving teams, winds blow differently," the source said. "Owners change their minds all the time."
Other sources said MLB is aware that three years is the desired timeline for building a stadium with a retractable roof and that those power brokers don't expect the Expos to be settled into a new home until 2007.
Where the team would play in the meantime if, say, Las Vegas were awarded with it is one of many issues that is very fluid.
That so many outside of Las Vegas have invested so much time, and are apparently willing to invest so much money, in landing an MLB team for the city says plenty, according to Weisbach.
"There are a lot of people," Weisbach said, "who see an opportunity to have a successful building as well as a successful sports franchise in Las Vegas."
Which includes Goodman and a host of other Las Vegas business leaders. Weisbach said the project wouldn't be where it is today without Goodman.
Mayor's office spokesperson Elaine Sanchez said Wednesday, after speaking with Goodman about an interview request, that he preferred not to involve himself in a developing deal.
"Whenever the deal does work out, it will be because of the mayor's vision," Weisbach said. "And a lot of people in the Las Vegas business community helped immeasurably.
"Las Vegas is known as the can-do city, and I understand why."
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