Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Drama winds into final weeks

RFK Stadium isn't necessarily a lock as a temporary home if the Montreal Expos wind up in Northern Virginia, which isn't exactly embroiled in a home-stretch showdown with Washington, D.C., to land the troubled franchise.

That's if recent reports on the Expos' relocation drama, which is in its third season and allegedly a few weeks from a final decision, are to be believed.

Meanwhile, Robert Blumenfeld, one of the main financiers involved in an effort to woo Major League Baseball with a Las Vegas stadium plan, publicly spoke about the project for the first time Tuesday.

Blumenfeld, chairman of New York-based Pembroke Development Corp. who built his fortune on business turnarounds and liquidations, is a key figure for Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC.

LVSE has retained Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm HOK Sport to potentially design a versatile $420 million, 40,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof, to be built behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas for a 2007 debut.

Blumenfeld had declined Sun interview requests for months. Reached on his cell phone Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, he reluctantly agreed to talk, albeit briefly, about the project.

"I've been very fortunate," Blumenfeld said, "to work with the best people I've ever met, the best team I've ever known."

Blumenfeld is known for his patience. Of a former client who once misappropriated a $5,000 check that had been earmarked for him, Blumenfeld said he admired her for her aggressiveness.

In a rare interview, for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in 1993, Blumenfeld emphasized a disdain for wasting time or money in discussing the two types of small business owners -- the eternal optimists and the realists.

"The optimists assume that no matter how bad their companies may be suffering, in the end they will recover," he said. "They say, 'I've run a successful business for 15 years, and nothing can stop me from running it for another 15.'

"In contrast, the realists recognize that this is little more than wishful thinking. They know that regardless of their business prowess, market forces beyond their control can wipe out what was once a successful company."

Peter M. Hoffman, an executive with Merrill Lynch in Manhattan, is another of LVSE's most influential players, but he has not returned phone messages seeking comment for weeks.

Not surprisingly, two of UNLV's most prominent coaches said they would be excited if LVSE enables Las Vegas to obtain its first team from one of the four major sports.

However, football coach John Robinson and baseball coach Buddy Gouldsmith also questioned whether residents would provide the support that would be critical to the team's survival and success.

"Without knowing the demographics, I would be concerned about the number of hardcore fans" who would regularly attend Expos games, Robinson said, "because most people haven't grown up here ... everyone's from somewhere else. I don't know how many times I'd go, but I would go.

"And if they got to be a good team, I think people would become real fans. I think it's all in developing fans. This town is expanding so fast. Geez, I think it would be a great thing for us. Suddenly, there would be a stadium sitting right (on the Strip) that we could all walk to."

Which would make an enticing home for a college football team, too.

"Of course," said Robinson, who is signed through the '04 season. "I would think that an indoor environment would be unique for us."

LVSE executives have cited the many surveys they've conducted, which they have declined to reveal, as evidence that the city's tourism industry would help support a major league team in impressive waves.

At least 36 million visitors are expected in Las Vegas, according to latest Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates, in 2004.

According to Mike Shapiro, the point man in LVSE's negotiations with MLB executives for 15 months, those surveys show that almost half of regular crowds of nearly 30,000 would be comprised of out-of-towners.

Gouldsmith would relish sharing the city with a professional team and playing it in an annual exhibition game.

"What a great opportunity for us," he said. "And to hopefully have great camaraderie between the two organizations? I couldn't be more excited about that."

Gouldsmith, like Robinson, is realistic.

"I don't know that Las Vegas has shown a history of being able to support something like that, which 'the Las Vegas Expos' would need for long-term viability," he said. "At one time, UNLV basketball was very successful. Currently, it's moderately successful. UNLV football is moderately successful.

"All those are in direct result of support from the community. There are some money guys who are obviously ready to support it, but will the community? Enthusiastically, everyone is saying, 'Yes. Yes. Yes.' But the reailty of it remains to be seen."

Many national media outlets have considered Northern Virginia and Washington to be the unofficial leaders in the Expos derby -- over bids from groups representing Las Vegas, Norfolk, Va., and Portland, Ore. -- for several weeks.

Last week, an MLB players' union official refuted an ESPN.com story that highlighted two Expos supposedly being told by union figures that the team would play in the Washington area next season.

"Nobody gave them assurances that they will be going to any location as opposed to anyplace else," MLB Players Association executive director Donald Fehr told the Washington Post. "People can make their own judgments on that."

MLB president Bob DuPuy called the ESPN allegations "preposterous" and "not true."

On another front, Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said last week that, if Northern Virginia were to get the franchise, RFK would not be guaranteed as a temporary home for it for two or three seasons.

"You can't just presume," Williams said on a radio interview, stating the rivalry that has long existed on both sides of the Potomac River.

LVSE has declined to name its proposed temporary home, but sources have told the Sun that Monterrey, Mexico, figures into that plan.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig, with three-quarters owners approval, expects to reach a conclusion on the Expos' new home by Aug. 19, at the end of the next quarterly owners' meeting in Philadelphia.

Selig intends to first pinpoint a new home for the Expos before coordinating a new ownership group. Baseball's 29 other owners bought the team for $120 million in 2002, and it reportedly could fetch more than $300 million.

LVSE has obtained the services of Randy Vataha, of Game Plan LLC in Boston, to search for capable owners, and Vataha told the Sun he has many affluent candidates who are interested in the venture.

Lou Weisbach, president of Teamscape LLC in the Chicago area, has included former Cubs pitcher and current broadcaster Steve Stone in a possible Las Vegas Expos ownership group.

The previously mentioned timetable, though, is shaky to at least one interested observer.

At the Hall of Fame inductions for Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor in Cooperstown, N.Y., last weekend, former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent doubted that the deadline will be met or that the process will appease Baltimore owner Peter Angelos.

Angelos, a successful lawyer and member of MLB's exclusive executive council, has long contended that another team in the Washington area would hinder it and the Orioles.

If Selig, the relocation committee and/or other owners heed Angelos' threats, legal or otherwise, Las Vegas, Norfolk or Portland could benefit.

"I hope (the Washington area) gets (the Expos), I really do," Vincent told the Washington Times. "But I just don't see how they're going to get around Angelos. He's going to be such a formidable opponent, in court or wherever. I really don't think (MLB) wants to get caught up in that."

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