Expos’ future still in flux

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 9:49 a.m.

The possibility that the Expos might play some or all of their games next season in Montreal, or even Monterrey, Mexico, has clouded Major League Baseball's relocation drama.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig met with his chief lieutenant, MLB president and chief operating officer Robert DuPuy, in Selig's Milwaukee office Wednesday to discuss a dozen relocation topics. Apparently, little was resolved.

"We discussed each of the candidates in detail," DuPuy told the Washington Post in an e-mail, "and I elaborated on the various meetings and calls of the relocation committee."

The list of candidate cities, however, was neither whittled nor arranged in a preferred order. DuPuy said there is no "perfect solution," that "each area has its plusses and minuses."

Las Vegas, which has proposed to build a 40,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas, is locked in a battle for the Expos that includes Washington, D.C., and Loudon County and Norfolk in Virginia.

Washington and the Dulles International Airport site, in Loudon County, have recently received significant national attention as the leaders for the beleaguered Expos. The potential use of RFK Stadium as a temporary home is a plus for both sites.

On baseball's Web site Tuesday, though, Selig discounted the widely held belief that those two venues are neck-and-neck in the lead for the Expos. Selig also reiterated that the Las Vegas and Norfolk bids were impressive.

"I can't tell you where (the Expos) are going because I don't know yet," Selig said. "We're still studying all the alternatives. The offers are changing and we're getting new information every day."

Some of which being fed to the public qualifies as disinformation, according to consultant Mike Shapiro, a main negotiator between Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC, and MLB relocation committee members, for 14 months.

Shapiro bristled about a Wednesday feature in USA Today that cited a Vegas disadvantage as "surveys (that) show tourists and vacationers do not go to (baseball) games."

Each of the many studies that LVSE has conducted on the topic, Shapiro said, has shown contrary results to the above statement. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates that at least 32 million people will visit the city this year.

"Because of the nature of the market, because people come to Las Vegas to be entertained and they come with disposable entertainment dollars," Shapiro said, "the penetration rate of visitors to attendees would be considerably higher (than other MLB cities).

"It's important to publicly state that that's one of the differentiating factors."

Ultimately, a decision that was supposed to be made last July might not be settled until early August.

"There's at least a few more weeks," said an insider who requested anonymity because of his ties with some of the game's hierarchy. "At some point, they have to make a decision and deal with the ramifications. (Selig) can't keep putting it off and putting it off.

"He has to make a call, but I don't think he knows what the call is."

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos has resisted attempts to have another team placed in his general vicinity, and former minority owners of the Expos have brought legal action against Florida Marlins majority owner Jeffrey Loria.

Both could be, or have been, speed bumps in the process.

"Normally, Bud likes to clean up messes," the insider said. "But he hasn't made Angelos go away or the (former Expos minority) owners. By now, he should have eliminated a lot of stuff, but it just seems to dangle. It's ridiculous, and bigger than he thought."

Another source, who requested anonymity, met with Selig after his Wednesday session with DuPuy and confronted Selig with his previous quotes that a team in Northern Virginia or D.C. would hurt the Orioles.

"And he said, 'We'll see ... we'll see,' " the source said. "I think they're a long way from making a decision. I don't have any feel at all for where they're going. It seems split five different ways. Everything's stuck."

After that meeting with Selig, DuPuy mentioned the "slim chance" that the Expos would play their 2005 home games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, which Selig said he hopes to avoid.

"It's time to get it done," Selig told MLB.com, "more than time."

In June, representatives of groups from Washington, Norfolk and Loudon County met, at different times, with some of the nine members of the relocation committee, in New York, to polish and update their proposals, according to MLB.com.

Shapiro said he has not needed, or been asked, to tweak a 125-page proposal he submitted to MLB's Park Avenues headquarters 1 1/2 months ago.

That plan highlighted a $420-million stadium that could be entirely financed with private funds, although Shapiro has cited confidentiality agreements in not identifying those possible partners.

He has refused to reveal the temporary home -- which, he told the Sun, would be advantageous for the team and baseball -- his group has proposed for the Expos while a Vegas stadium, to make its debut early in the 2007 season, is built.

Randy Vataha, of Boston-based Game Plan LLC, told the Sun that plenty of affluent financiers are interested in assembling a team ownership group if MLB awards the Expos to Las Vegas.

The team is expected to fetch more than $200 million for baseball's 29 other owners, who are in their third season of operating it.

Shapiro further declined to talk about the process or proposals from other cities, saying relocation committee chairman and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and his fellow committee members have reacted "very favorably" toward LVSE's bid.

"They looked at our proposal very carefully and have helped us shape it over time," Shapiro said. "The folks on the relocation committee were incredibly helpful in forming and directing us on how to shape the proposal, to put the very best proposal on the table.

"Reinsdorf has given us a great deal of his time and thoughts, and (MLB relocation envoy) Corey Busch has been outstanding in helping us and advising us on how to best maximize the potential of this deal. What we've gotten from baseball has been an unbelievable amount of support."