MLB could bring boost to community

Thursday, June 24, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

Outfielder Brad Wilkerson and second baseman Jose Vidro spent generous amounts of their free time teaching kids the finer points of the game, while third baseman Jamey Carroll became a fixture in Quebec schools and hospitals.

Expos relief pitchers Joey Eischen and Rocky Biddle visited Montreal's four children's hospitals last winter to give toys and team photos to young children who weren't able to attend games at Olympic Stadium.

Eischen made such an impact with the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, which raises funds to aid needy children across Canada, he was a nominee for the 2003 Roberto Clemente Award.

Perhaps in the near future, Biddle, a Las Vegas native, and promising young reliever Bill Bray will tour Southern Nevada hospitals, and host clinics at Sunset Park and camps at area high schools.

Mike Shapiro, a lead consultant for the groups who are trying to lure the Expos to Las Vegas, said he has heard all about the many altruistic endeavors of those players north of the border from Montreal executives who are his friends.

"They have told me all about what the players do for the community," Shapiro said. "The sad fact is that didn't get reflected in the attendance, because of the facility. It's a great example of where the community should have invested in a facility.

"They would have kept their team. They would have been able to sustain all of those wonderful public benefits that they are currently getting from the team, that they will dearly miss when they're gone."

Player philanthropy, the growth of Las Vegas and the uniqueness of this market are all intriguing aspects of this city's attempt to land its first major professional sports franchise.

"We've talked to baseball about being the first mover into this particular market," Shapiro said. "It's brand new territory and would have tremendous value, in terms of selling licensed products and tickets. It's virgin territory.

"If they have the foresight and vision to come here, it will provide significant advantages for them."

MLB's 29 other owners are running the Expos for a third consecutive season, at a reported loss of about $1 million per owner, per year, which they will undoubtedly aim to recoup in an glorified auction for the franchise.

Forbes magazine has established the value of the Expos at $145 million, but it has been widely circulated that MLB will try to fetch at least $200 million for the team.

Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC, which Shapiro represents, has proposed to house the Expos in a $420 million retractable-roof stadium that could be built entirely with private financing.

A flurry of recent reports suggest that Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia are in the lead to land the Expos, with Vegas, Portland, Ore., and several other candidates somewhere in the mix.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig plans to announce a new home for the troubled franchise by the mid-July All-Star break.

Shapiro, however, told the Sun, during his first extensive in-person interview this week, that more than a year of work to promote Las Vegas as a viable, and enviable, MLB market will pay off in the Expos being relocated here.

He said members of baseball's nine-person relocation committee have given him favorable feedback.

"They've told us that this is a very, very realistic opportunity," Shapiro said. "They believe it's possible, and they've led us to believe it's possible."

A former executive for the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves who witnessed similar goodwill from players on those clubs that Montreal has experienced with the Expos in recent years, he said the community would reap extensive benefits.

"I think the Las Vegas community needs to understand that ... it's going to impact their lives in a very profound way, and in a very positive way," Shapiro said. "It will provide valuable attributes to the kids in the community.

"There would be a great deal of interaction between the ball club and the community, particularly in Little League camps and clinics. I would safely say that every major league team has a huge emphasis on public outreach, in particular with the kids."

For a while, at least, those kids might be wise not to pay too much attention to what the team does between the lines in that glass dome behind Paris Las Vegas and Bally's.

At 23-46, Montreal has the worst record in the sport. Tuesday, only 4,564 showed at Olympic Stadium for a game against the Phillies in which the Expos' ace, Livan Hernandez, started and won. Wednesday's game drew only 4,209 fans.

The team averages a MLB-worst 9,416 in home attendance, which also factors in "home" games that it is playing in Puerto Rico for a second consecutive year. On the road, it is the only team that averages fewer than 20,000 a game.

Montreal has drawn a million fans to its home games in a season only once in the past six years. At a total price, stadium included, of more than $600 million, which might bust $700 million, who would pay so dearly for such mediocrity?

"I mean, they're a franchise," Shapiro said. "There is a nucleus to build an absolutely outstanding team. There's a minor league system. There are a number of attributes that I wouldn't characterize as crappy. I wouldn't use that word at all.

"Some people say that maybe you're better off having a team that isn't stocked with lots of big-name stars. That way you can form the team the way you want ... but that's so out in the future."

An August 2003 study by two University of Maryland-Baltimore County economics professors determined that the "novelty effect" of a new major league baseball stadium was worth an additional 2.56 million tickets over its first eight seasons.

"At first" that novelty effect will be big, Shapiro said, "then you have to win."

The Sports Business Journal has noted a dwindling novelty effect, which was worse for stadiums and arenas not placed "in a lively neighborhood, where people are happy to gather even on nongame days."

That might fit Vegas, with its 36 million annual tourists, and the Strip to a tee. With so many transplants among the city's 1.6 million population, regular crowds of nearly 30,000 that LVSE projects might mostly cheer for the visiting team.

"A lot of people who have moved here over the last 10 years came from markets that have major league baseball," Shapiro said. "These are people used to seeing baseball and have had baseball in their past. And nothing is common about Las Vegas.

"Every time you look out there, you can point to something about Las Vegas that is entirely unique. It all convinces you that this market can support major professional sports."

A friend recently told Shapiro that baseball's playing field needs to be leveled, that the all-star Yankees are not good for the game. As a Yankees fan, Shapiro disputed that theory.

"It's a good thing that the Yankees are out there," he said. "Every time the Yankees go to a city, that team sells out every time. If the Yankees are going to come to this community and they're going to sell out the seats and (their fans will) buy (Yankees) hats from our vendors, great.

"It's all about baseball."

For Shapiro, it's all about the passion of the game. The San Francisco Bay Area resident is grateful that his two children can see two big league teams, the Giants and Oakland Athletics.

So maybe he's biased. He didn't want to get too emotional about the subject, but he counts baseball stadiums and teams as equally important to civic pride as libraries and opera houses.

"(Baseball) is one of those things that's handed down from generation to generation," Shapiro said. "It's one of the great places where parents and children can find some common ground, and I think it would be a great service to this community."

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