Vegas backers remain upbeat

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

Major League Baseball executives and members of the league's relocation committee have focused on stadium proposals in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia for almost three weeks.

However, the lead figure in a Las Vegas group's effort to land the troubled Montreal Expos said further investigation of those plans, since the end of an owners meeting in Philadelphia, does not spell doom for Vegas.

San Francisco Bay Area-based consultant Mike Shapiro also said he has been in regular contact, mostly in an informal, "insubstantial" manner, with members of MLB's nine-person relocation committee.

"They know how to find us," said Shapiro, who has been working for Las Vegas Sports and Entertainment (LVSE) LLC for more than 18 months.

Shapiro knows how to find them, too. He is scheduled to spend all of next week in New York on business, but he declined to reveal whether he will spend substantial time in MLB's three 30th-floor offices at 245 Park Avenue.

Two other industry sources, who requested anonymity, suggested that further discussions with MLB executives and relocation committee members will be high on Shapiro's itinerary next week.

Shapiro said he didn't know if continued studies into the likelihood of the District and/or Northern Virginia being able to finance most, or all, of the construction of a new ballpark with public financing is a favorable development for Las Vegas.

A group in Norfolk, Va., has also been trying to lure the Expos.

"They're doing the right thing," Shapiro said of relocation committee members' attempts to determine a solid candidate city. "They have to examine every nuance of every proposal and know what (each) is capable of accomplishing. We don't really know anything more right now."

Although he declined to reveal with whom he spoke, Shapiro said he had telephone conversations with relocation committee members last week.

"But those were nothing, just really checking in," Shapiro said. "They understand. They've checked in to say, 'Hey, nothing's been decided yet. We're trying to reach a decision soon and let you know we're still working on this.' "

After that two-day meeting in Philadelphia adjourned, national reports indicated that visits by relocation committee members to the four unofficial final candidate cities would be imminent.

Within a week, Chicago White Sox owner and relocation committee chairman Jerry Reinsdorf led a contingent of baseball officials on jaunts to further explore proposals with representatives in the District and Northern Virginia.

At that time, Shapiro said it would be worthless for baseball officials to visit Las Vegas since only minute details of the LVSE 125-page proposal he submitted to MLB in mid-May had required alteration or revision.

In Philadelphia, MLB commissioner Bud Selig said the team's fate could be decided by late September or early October. Multiple sources confirmed that no relocation committee members or other baseball executives have visited Las Vegas or Norfolk since the end of that owners meeting.

"We do expect them to come back," William Somerindyke Jr., chief executive officer of the Norfolk Baseball Co., told The Virginian-Pilot on Monday.

LVSE plans to privately finance the construction of a $420 million, retractable-roof stadium on 15 acres behind Bally's and Paris Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment Inc. owns that land but would act only as a landlord in the stadium venture.

Glass and "expressive steel," according to architects for HOK Sport in Kansas City, Mo., would highlight its facade. It would seat 40,000 for baseball, but a flexible design would enable it to be used for other events, such as concerts, boxing matches and UNLV football games.

Shapiro has said that year-round usage is what a mostly unnamed group of financiers, which includes some international figures, find attractive about the project, in servicing its debt and providing a sufficient return on their investment.