Vegas isn’t in MLB’s travel plans

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

Contrary to widespread reports from the Major League Baseball owners meeting in Philadelphia last week, no prominent Las Vegas officials have been contacted for further discussions about the relocation of the Montreal Expos.

Through a spokeswoman, Mayor Oscar Goodman said he has not spoken with anyone from MLB recently and his only baseball-related conversations of late have been with San Francisco Bay Area consultant Mike Shapiro.

Shapiro has been the point man for Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC, in its negotiations with MLB, for 18 months.

Goodman has long supported Las Vegas landing one of the four major sports. However, his jurisdiction does not include the Strip, where LVSE hopes to build a privately financed $420 million stadium behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

Essentially, the mayor is a high-profile cheerleader.

Clark County oversees that property, but Clark County manager Thom Reilly said he has not fielded any inquiries from MLB seeking answers to infrastructure questions, such as zoning approvals or traffic studies, in LVSE's proposal.

"At the county level, we haven't had any of those discussions," Reilly said.

A team of relocation committee members and other baseball officials met Tuesday with government leaders and prospective investment groups in Washington, D.C., and they met with Northern Virginia factions Wednesday.

Reports from Montreal, Washington and Virginia said groups in Norfolk, Va., and Las Vegas will be visited by next week. But the Vegas part of that alleged itinerary is, at best, vague.

When those Philadelphia meetings concluded, MLB lawyers were instructed to further detail stadium sites, land acquisition, government funding and road construction pertinent to the four unofficial finalists.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig -- who will ultimately decide the Expos' fate, with approval from three-quarters of the owners -- talked about the abundance of work still needed to be done in each of the four markets.

The decision on the team's new home has been delayed for two years. Selig has vowed to move it by next season, so it can permanently settle into a new stadium sometime in 2007. That decision might not come until late October.

Shapiro said he has not heard from MLB executives or relocation committee members about further face-to-face discussions, nor did he think such meetings necessary.

"There's been no need to speak with us, since our proposal is complete," Shapiro said. "We have given them a complete financial plan and a proposal that doesn't require any further negotiations.

"They've seen our model and understand our financial plan is viable. There's not much more you have to ask."

Randy Vataha, whose Boston-based Game Plan LLC specializes in the sale and acquisition of sports franchises, was hired by LVSE to potentially assemble an ownership group for a Las Vegas major league team.

"Obviously, the activity has been in Washington and Northern Virginia," Vataha said. "To a certain extent, there's a significant amount of public financing in those cities and there's a lot of discussion that needs to take place.

"In Las Vegas, given its (private) proposal, there isn't a lot to discuss. It is what it is. I think everyone in Las Vegas is waiting to hear where it's going to go. I wish I knew more."

Shapiro submitted a 125-page proposal, which included design concepts from renowned Kansas City, Mo.-based stadium architectural firm HOK Sport, to MLB offices on Park Avenue in New York more than three months ago.

A hallmark of the 40,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium would be its year-round versatility.

Shapiro said he had no idea if Vegas would get "one of these magic visits."

"We're all pretty clear that the proposal we turned in on May 14 was very complete," he said. "Again, we had the luxury of doing that because it was the only private model submitted. That put us in a different position."

Washington and Northern Virginia have received much attention as the supposed leaders for the Expos this summer. Their stadium proposals, plus Norfolk's, call for heavy public funding.

Baseball has demanded that the public foot the bill, or most of it, for the Expos' new home.

"I think there are concerns, or reasons, why they are having further negotiations with the other cities," Shapiro said. "It has more to do with baseball's financial concerns. I think the primary concern is whether the cities that have bid for the Expos can, in fact, deliver what they've proposed.

"You can imagine, in some other city's publicly financed model, that there might be a wide range of questions with respect to the actual delivery of that public financing and what the steps are that need to be taken."

Baseball's negotiators, led by relocation committee chairman and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, met with D.C. officials for almost eight hours Tuesday and toured 43-year-old RFK Stadium.

The District is unsettled on four possible sites and will need legislation for a financing plan that hasn't been revealed.

The MLB group met Wednesday with the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority, which is trying to woo the Expos to a planned development in Loudoun County, one of the fastest-growing counties in the country that already experiences heavy traffic congestion.

Most of the 450 acres of Northern Virginia's planned complex, near Dulles International Airport, is not under control of developers working with the Virignia Baseball Stadium Authority, according to the Washington Times.

Moreover, the commonwealth's ability to access ballpark-related tax revenues to service construction bonds expires at the end of the year, and Virginia officials are questioning the state's "moral obligation" to provide that stadium financing.

RFK could be used as a temporary home in either of the aforementioned scenarios. But as relocation delays mount, the four to six months required to renovate RFK gets more compromised, as does baseball's scheduling and travel arrangements, and the team's staffing and marketing plans.

Baseball must also address Orioles owner Peter Angelos's concern that another team near Baltimore, which is about to record its seventh consecutive losing season, would be a detriment to both teams' fan bases.

"I do not think that anyone at baseball should have to apologize for attempting to ensure that wherever the Expos end up, it will be a situation that results in the long-term viability of the franchise," MLB president Bob DuPuy wrote in an e-mail this week to the Washington Post.

"Nor is it incorrect to be concerned about the impact the location of a relocated team will have on any of the other franchises in Major League Baseball. To not be concerned would be naive and shortsighted."

Groups representing Norfolk and Vegas must both convince baseball's hierarchy that their small markets, of approximately 1.6 million people, can support a franchise.

Whereas Norfolk has some neighboring communities to draw from, Las Vegas can boast of a tourism industry that will draw more than 36 million tourists to Southern Nevada in 2004.

Without suitable answers from any of the four supposed finalists, MLB can renew contraction talks when the labor agreement expires in two years.

"We sit back with a good deal of confidence that what we put on the table was very, very unique and intriguing, and has captured their attention," Shapiro said.

Vataha, a former NFL wide receiver, sounded eager to tap a list of financiers who, he said, are interested and capable of running a major league team in Las Vegas.

"There's always going to be a level of skepticism about whether or not baseball would select Las Vegas," Vataha said. "We think the population is starved for major league sports.

"It's already got the best entertainment in the world, but not at the sports level. I certainly believe the city can support one team, in the right spot and with the proper financing from Day 1. There's enough population and support to make it work, definitely."

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