Vegas’ stock on the rise?

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.

Mike Shapiro agreed Monday with a recent Rocky Mountain News assertion that Las Vegas should not be taken lightly in the relocation of the Montreal Expos.

"Either Washington (D.C.) or northern Virginia is considered the likely relocation destination for the Montreal Expos," the paper reported Friday. "But don't rule out Las Vegas ... (its) stock rises as each day passes.

" ... Vegas keeps resurfacing whenever baseball executives start to narrow the choice to move the team directly into the nation's capital or into the suburban area of northern Virginia."

Shapiro, of Centerfield Management Group in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a main liaison, with Eric Blatt, between Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC, and Major League Baseball relocation committee members and officials.

The article appeared under the paper's regular "On second thought... " feature without a byline.

"I think that (the News) is reflecting the sentiment that we all feel at LVSE, that our chances are very good," Shapiro said, "and that all the other press estimates to the contrary, that (said) Northern Virginia and D.C. are ahead of Las Vegas in this ...

"No one's going to be able to handicap this until baseball makes this decision. I don't think the press will make this decision. I think baseball will make the decision."

Tracy Ringolsby, the veteran national baseball writer for the News, has not anointed the D.C. area or Northern Virginia as the leader for the Expos in columns in recent months.

Shapiro spoke about Friday's article as being penned by Ringolsby, which Ringolsby confirmed Monday night.

"I just think that there's a feeling that Las Vegas is as legitimate of a candidate as either one of those locations, if not more," Ringolsby said. "I also think (baseball officials) look and say, even if the stadium is privately funded, I don't think there's any fear that they can't get the stadium built there."

LVSE has proposed a $420 million, retractable-roof stadium -- to be built entirely, or mostly, with private financing on 15 acres behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

Shapiro said he was pleased to learn of those developments from such a well-connected source.

"It gives us some heart," Shapiro said, "to see a nationally renowned baseball columnist come out and say, 'Look, you can't necessarily give it to Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia until baseball makes its own decision.' "

The piece highlighted MLB commissioner Bud Selig's concern about the impact a team in the D.C. area would have, not on the neighboring Baltimore Orioles but on the overall health of the game.

Selig reminisced about his early days in the game, when he was trying to finalize a proposed move of the Chicago White Sox to Milwaukee in October 1967.

"Arthur Allyn (the then-owner of the Sox) told me that Charley Finley was moving the A's (from Kansas City, Mo.) to Oakland," Selig told the News. "I asked him, 'What about the Giants?' He said, 'Who cares? They are in the National League.'

"I just sat and wondered, 'Aren't we all in baseball?' "

The article tapped into the fact that Selig and his lieutenants don't view gambling as the threat to the integrity of the game that it once was, citing that gambling is now legal in 23 states.

Actually, according to SportsBusiness Journal and other publications, some form of gambling is legal in every state except Hawaii and Utah. Pari-mutuel wagering is legal in 41 states, and 34 states house casinos.

The News piece also mentioned the major tourism industry in Las Vegas, "creating an attendance base much greater than the area's (1.6 million) population." Premium suites and seats would also be attractive.

"(Baseball officials) also know that luxury boxes would be a premium," the News reported, "because corporations from around the world would want access to such a venue for entertaining clients during their visits to Las Vegas."

Shapiro summed up his interpretation of the News story.

"The point was, while Washington and Northern Virginia were being highly touted to this point," he said, "don't lose sight of Las Vegas."

Selig probably will not announce a decision on the relocation of the Expos by the mid-July All-Star break, as he had once hoped. Four weeks ago, MLB senior vice president Rich Levin said as much to the Sun.

"We're hopeful," Levin said, "to have a decision sometime this summer."

Shapiro said that timetable is consistent with what he has heard lately, too, from MLB.

HOK Sport, the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that has been retained by LVSE to possibly design a stadium, must begin official planning for such a building no later than late July.

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