The Montreal Expos will not be returning to Quebec in 2005 — this much is certain. Beyond that, the future of the team remains the source of wild, frenetic speculation and interest.
A report on ESPN.com yesterday, later corroborated by industry sources, said the Major League Baseball Players Association met Wednesday with two player representatives for the Expos to outline the club’s potential future.
The meeting, according to union sources, centered on three leading elements, all of which have been assumed for weeks within baseball and sports industry sectors. First, the team will be in a new city next year. Second, a decision is expected by the Aug.18-19 meetings of MLB owners in Philadelphia. Third, the Washington area remains the most likely relocation destination.
“There was a meeting and the talk of moving, of knowing something soon, is definitely on everyone’s mind [within the Expos],” said a union source.
The union does not have a formal role in the Expos’ relocation but over the past three years has argued forcefully for a prompt end to MLB’s unprofitable ownership of the club. The union last fall unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a written pledge mandating an Expos move in time for the 2005 season, but it appears the players will get their wish anyway.
“The top candidates are still Washington and Northern Virginia,” union chief operating officer Gene Orza told MLB.com.
Baseball officials were quick to downplay the significance of the union meeting, which last night became the source of intense interest among local broadcast outlets. But during last week’s All-Star break, MLB president Bob DuPuy confirmed the Philadelphia meeting is the new target date for the naming the Expos’ home.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the other bidding jurisdictions, is no longer being considered, said MLB commissioner Bud Selig. Other candidates like Portland, Ore., have begun to think about relocation options for other clubs after the Expos are moved.
Livan Hernandez, Expos pitcher and the team’s lone All-Star representative, said last week his teammates are discussing what life might be like in greater Washington, even to the point of investigating local real estate prices.
“This is all consistent with what we continue to hear,” said Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission, yesterday. “It definitely looks we’re going to know something in just a few short weeks.”
The District, like Virginia, continues to be in regular if not daily contact with MLB officials. Both jurisdictions are supplying baseball’s relocation committee with detailed data such as construction and amortization schedules and prospective term sheets for a stadium deal.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority met last night in McLean, one of its last sessions if the commonwealth’s long-running effort is not successful. The authority’s ability to capture ballpark-related tax revenue to service construction bonds expires at the end of the year, but a selection in favor of the District next month would stop the authority much sooner.
But rather than focus on that ominous outlook, authority optimism stands at a peak level. The board moved to hire the law firm of Piper Rudnick to help it negotiate with MLB officials. The authority also is giving formal notice of its progress and activities to the Virginia General Assembly, a step its legal statute requires must happen at least 30 days before it enters into any lease agreements with MLB.
“[MLB is] seriously considering us,” said Keith Frederick, authority chairman. “Now what we’re doing is talking specifics, seeing if we can’t get our offer to move to a final stage. In the meantime, what we’re doing is a lot of necessary prep work.”
Last night’s meeting also drew the presence of John Antonelli, an Arlington activist who loudly campaigned last year against efforts to put the commonwealth’s ballpark in Pentagon City. Those plans were scuttled last summer in the face of heated government and landowner resistance.
“The deal is still absolutely a bad one for the taxpayers,” Antonelli said. “My concern is not so much where the ballpark is put but how it’s paid for. There’s a lot more here than what we’re being told.”
Schedules for next season are now being developed, with the Expos being listed as “Montreal” until a new home is formally selected.
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