Expos move to be announced Thursday

[Dogbert 0]

Link (yahoo.com Sports)

 

Expos announcement might come Thursday

 

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer

September 28, 2004

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Washington's wait is almost over.

 

Exactly 33 years after the Washington Senators played their final game, the nation's capital could learn Thursday that major league baseball plans to return next season.

 

Several baseball officials said Monday that's the most likely day for an announcement that Washington, D.C., has been selected as the new home for the Montreal Expos, although there was a slight chance the timetable could be moved up.

 

After a meeting of the sport's executive council last Thursday, a high-ranking baseball official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said major league baseball would attempt to finalize negotiations with Washington within a week. It would be the first franchise relocation in the major leagues since the expansion Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers after the 1971 season.

 

The deal to move the Expos to Washington would be subject to government approval of funding for both a $13 million refurbishment of RFK Stadium and a new ballpark costing slightly over $400 million, which would be built along the Anacostia River in the southeast section of the city.

 

A move also must be approved by three-quarters of major league owners and survive legal challenges by the Expos' former limited partners and possibly by Baltimore owner Peter Angelos, who objects to having a team just 40 miles from the Orioles. Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, went to Baltimore on Friday to negotiate a compensation arrangement with Angelos.

 

The Orioles owner told The (Baltimore) Sun that he could be persuaded to drop his opposition if he could be assured that his team and the state of Maryland's investment in Oriole Park at Camden Yards could be protected.

 

``If those two goals can be accomplished, and I feel the franchise would be secure and the revenue stream is protected and the asset value is secure, it might be possible to make a deal,'' Angelos told The Sun for a story Tuesday.

 

After an announcement, the process of selling the Expos will start. A group that includes former Rangers partner Fred Malek has been seeking a Washington franchise for five years. In addition, several baseball officials have said in the past week that Stan Kasten, former president of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, might be trying to assemble a group.

 

Kasten is close to baseball commissioner Bud Selig, which likely would be an advantage during the bidding process.

 

``I am studying all the situations in all of the sports right now,'' Kasten said Monday. ``I haven't committed to any group, any city or any sport.''

 

Northern Virginia had been one of the contenders to land the Expos.

 

``At the end of the day, if baseball comes back to the national capital region, then the whole region benefits,'' Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner said in his monthly radio show on Tuesday.

 

The original Washington Senators played 4,610 home games before becoming the Minnesota Twins after the 1960 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The expansion Senators played 883 home games before moving to Texas.

 

In the Senators' last game, on Sept. 30, 1971, they led the New York Yankees 7-5 with two outs in the ninth inning when fans seeking souvenirs went on the RFK Stadium field, which could not be cleared. The Yankees wound up winning the game in a forfeit.

 

The Rangers retain ownership of the name ``Washington Senators,'' baseball spokesman Carmine Tiso said after consulting with Ethan Orlinsky, a lawyer for Major League Baseball Properties, the sport's licensing division.

 

Montreal's last home game is scheduled for Wednesday night against Florida. Monday's series opener drew a crowd of 3,923 to Olympic Stadium.

 

``Now that it looks like it's going to happen, that this is going to be the end, it's a little tough for people to get up and talk about it in the positive way that they should,'' Expos manager Frank Robinson said. ``And I think that's kind of a pity, really, because it deserves that people say more about how they feel about the situation, about the possibility of losing baseball in the Montreal area. ...

 

``I think there were a lot more good times possibly than bad times. This is where an expansion ballclub grew into one of the best organizations in baseball, at one time, and it's sad the way it has gone over the last few years and the way it is going out, if this is the end.''

 

Former Expos star Tim Raines, now a manager in their minor league system, was saddened by the impending move.

 

``I feel for the fans, mostly, because it was a new game to them, starting in '69, and I think they really started to grasp the game,'' he said. ``And to see it taken away from them, I feel really bad because to me, this is where I grew up as a major league player. Regardless if they no longer play here, I still feel like my heart is here in Montreal.''

 

 

Well, that's it. 35 years of Expos baseball is about to be for naught.

 

Thanks, Claude Brochu and Jeffrey Loria, for trading all of our players away.

 

Thanks, René Levesque, Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard, for driving the English Quebecers (and the baseball fans) out of the province.

 

Thanks, Bud Selig, for making sure that baseball in Canada would have its last legs blown off time and time again.

 

You all helped to kill a once-beloved franchise, and one that I've been a fan of for 13 years.

 

A part of me has died with the Expos.

[Lightning Flik 0]

This sucks... Another franchise that has huge history is gone because of stupid greed (the others I speak of are Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques). I agree with Al on this occassion that the owners (MLB) basically didn't want to save the franchise and just get the organization to wherever...

 

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

...well, so when do the Jays adopt the name "The Canadian" Jays?

 

I'm guessing early next year.

[Guest Staravenger]

Let's see...

 

Quebec Nordiques

Winnipeg Jets

Vancouver Grizzlies

Montreal Expos

 

Who's next?

[Lightning Flik 0]

Well with the current strike in the NHL, I can see one or two Canadian teams falling flat.

 

...I will be a very pissed man if I lose my Battle of Alberta, because those are the two teams I can see us losing next.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

The Grizzlies were different. They had a strong fanbase for a while, but the team was so utterly bad that it drove everyone away. Who wants to buy season tix when they win maybe 4 games at home? Not a lot of people were very sad to see them go in this town.

[Guest Staravenger]

When you have Big Country as your starting center, how can you NOT win?

[The Czech Republic 0]

I don't want baseball in DC, it'll suck. It'll be another team in a football stadium, the team is still gonna suck, and nobody is going to care because DC belongs to the Orioles right now (probably why the road uniforms don't say "Baltimore" like they ought to). They really would have been better off in Norfolk, where there's no major league sports whatsoever, and they could monopolize a great geographical area in most of Virginia (save for the northern fringe) and some of the Carolinas. Oh well. L.A. lost three football teams, maybe DC will lose three baseball teams.

 

I'll miss those quirky Montreal Expos. They were one of the first teams I ever recall watching as a kid. Don't ask why, but I remember the ass-kicking Expos and not liking them. And Olympic Stadium, for all its faults, could have been a fine stadium had they torn the roof off the sucker and reconfigured it just a tad to make it look like a real ballpark.

 

But shame on Jeffrey Loria. He was the one who screwed the team over, who let the plans for the Labatt Park downtown evaporate, he basically drove the nail in the coffin as far as the Expos go. But nobody talks about how he ruined the team on his way out before snatching the Marlins and a World Series, they just hail him as the savior of the Florida franchise. That little troll did a lot more harm than good by destroying Montreal rather than rebuilding Miami.

 

Good luck Washington Senators/Nationals/Potomacs/whatever the hell they're called this time around. You may be in a bad neighborhood, but at least you know it's YOUR bad neighborhood.

[2GOLD 0]

The Washington don't unpack just yet guys

 

Or the Washington Presidents.

 

Something stupid.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

http://www.fieldofschemes.com

 

The taxpayers (obviously) will foot a good portion of the bill, despite soundly voicing in the elections that they don't want to. The stadium initiative is being rushed through by a lame-duck legislature. But hey, as long as Bud's cronies make money, everyone wins!

[The Czech Republic 0]

I heard they're leaning towards Nationals since the Rangers own Senators. Weren't the Twins originally the Nationals AND Senators?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Yes they were. They were actually the Nationals for most of their existance.

 

As for the Expos, let's not forget the owners still have a pesky little racketeering lawsuit staring at them.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Why don't you think they wanted to move to Norfolk? It would be a baseball-only market (like Portland in the NBA), there would be a prospect for a very interesting park, I'm sure, the people have actively campaigned for a team, and Hampton Roads is a very quickly growing region. Plus you've got an instant rivalry with fellow Navy town, San Diego.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Goodbye Expos. This has been at least 5 years overdue.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Why don't you think they wanted to move to Norfolk? It would be a baseball-only market (like Portland in the NBA), there would be a prospect for a very interesting park, I'm sure, the people have actively campaigned for a team, and Hampton Roads is a very quickly growing region. Plus you've got an instant rivalry with fellow Navy town, San Diego.

Because the owners don't care about markets, amenities, or anything like that. They just want free stadiums.

[CanadianChris 0]

 

*sniff* Goodbye, Youppi.

[Cuban Linx 0]

I almost expect Selig and friends to change their minds at the last minute on Wednesday and push the decision back a few more months or whatever, so they can continue sitting with their thumbs up their ass and keep jerking the team and the whole situation around.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

They would have, but if they did, they would not get a better deal from Washington D.C., thanks to the incoming city boardmembers.

[The Czech Republic 0]

My favorite proposal was putting a team out in the middle of nowhere in northern Virginia and using the Expos as the cornerstone for a new community called "Diamond Lake." So now instead of creating teams for cities, we're creating cities for teams?

[treble 0]

I really wish I could get to tomorrow's game, but I've got to work and probably couldn't get a ride anyway.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I'll lay good odds that Angelos sells the O's within 3 years.

 

I wonder if that whole Move the Orioles to the NL East thing will happen or not.

[Guest Anglesault]

 

*sniff* Goodbye, Youppi.

The ugliest mascot in baseball (what the hell is it?) the ugliest stadium in baseball, they really had nothing going for them.

[bob_barron 0]

Fuck Loria. Fuck Selig.

 

:-(

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

And people wonder why baseball fans are jaded.

[The Czech Republic 0]

How much you wanna bet the move gets voted down?

[Vern Gagne 0]

I'll take the bet.

[Guest Staravenger]

I don't want to start it's own topic, but does ANYONE like Selig? (no, I don't in case anyone will ask)

[Vern Gagne 0]

I don't mind Selig.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I don't want to start it's own topic, but does ANYONE like Selig? (no, I don't in case anyone will ask)

He's the worst thing to ever happen to professional sports in North America.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

How much you wanna bet the move gets voted down?

I'd take that bet. Selig may be an ass, but he's formed solidarity with the owners.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

What's with all this hippie whining about the Expos moving? If some of you would have bothered going to the games, then maybe they would still be in that crappy stadium.

 

And that's just what the D.C. area needs -- a taxpayer-funded baseball stadium. It's done WONDERS for Pittsburgh.

 

Goodbye Expos, now go out there and make a buttload of money on some city dumb enough to take you in...