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Stadium Analyses Put Cost Far Higher

2004-11-14T05:57:00.000-08:00

$174 Million More May Be Required
By Serge F. Kovaleski and David Nakamura
The Washington Post
November 14, 2004

A proposed new stadium in Southeast Washington could cost up to $174 million more than the figure that District government leaders cited in their agreement with Major League Baseball and at community meetings aimed at winning support for the deal, according to interviews and documents.

In announcing a long-sought pact with baseball officials two months ago, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) put the price tag of building a ballpark at South Capitol and N streets and renovating Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, for interim use, at $440 million, most of it to be financed with public funds.

But an analysis by The Washington Post -- based on interviews with city officials, internal memos and e-mail obtained under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act -- shows that the cost could rise to $614 million if the District were to undertake all the infrastructure projects that might be needed to accommodate a team playing in Washington.

Most of the additional money is the nearly $100 million it could cost to expand Metro's Navy Yard rail station and move a major Metro maintenance garage. Officials at the transit agency said the District would be expected to cover those expenses.

The D.C. Department of Transportation estimates that it would cost $13.5 million to improve streets and sidewalks and add traffic signals and signs around the ballpark, a figure that could change after the stadium design is done.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Angels, City Still at Odds

2004-11-13T05:16:00.000-08:00

By Bill Shaikin and Patrick McGreevy
The Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2004

Relations between the Angels and the city of Anaheim deteriorated further during a meeting Friday, when club President Dennis Kuhl refused the city's demand to say once and for all whether the team would change its name to the Los Angeles Angels.

Although the meeting was designed to ease tensions between the two sides, a plan to issue a joint statement collapsed. Kuhl issued a statement that did not mention the possibility of a name change; the city's statement focused on that issue and blistered the Angels for being "unwilling to publicly clarify their position" and "not committed to honoring the terms of their lease."

In the meeting, city officials emphasized there would be no negotiation on the topic. The Angel Stadium lease requires the team to be called the Anaheim Angels, and the City Council voted this week to sue if the team proceeds with the name change.

"From our standpoint, it's still a concept," Angel spokesman Tim Mead said. "It doesn't become more definitive because they've threatened a lawsuit."

City officials appear convinced the Angels might make the change shortly and plan to act accordingly. The council will consider Tuesday whether to sue on the basis that removal of the city name in team publicity constitutes a de facto violation of the lease, spokesman John Nicoletti said.

Read the entire article here on the Los Angeles Times website

Season ticket sale to begin Thursday

2004-11-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
The Washington Times
November 13, 2004

Major League Baseball's Washington franchise will begin collecting deposits for 2005 season tickets Thursday, ending several weeks of delays in establishing a ticket distribution system.

With no team name in place and the D.C. Council more than two weeks away from ratifying stadium financing, the long-awaited ticketing announcement provides the first visible sign of the club's re-establishment in Washington.

"It's been a long time coming, but things are finally beginning to settle into place," said Kevin Uhlich, a special consultant assisting team president Tony Tavares. "This is a major component of making this relocation happen."

Several key pieces of the ticketing equation, however, are not publicly known. A baseball seating chart for RFK Stadium, where the team will play for three seasons, has not been released. Nor has a detailed price list, though season tickets will average between $24 and $26 a game, coming to about $2,000 for the season, and the cheapest upper-deck seats will be $7 a game. The most expensive seats are being targeted at $45 a game.

But those details will be firmed up and e-mailed by Wednesday to fans who sign up at either www.dcbaseball.com, the official team site, or www.baseballindc.com, the Web site operated by the prospective ownership group led by Fred Malek.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Delay likely in vote on ballpark

2004-11-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The D.C. Council is unlikely to vote on its ballpark financing bill until after the Thanksgiving holiday because of scheduling conflicts among several council members.

A deal brokered this week between Mayor Anthony A. Williams and council chairman Linda W. Cropp calls for the stadium bill to reach the full council for a vote by Nov. 23. In exchange, a formal process will be established to seek potential sources of private funding for the ballpark.

But some key votes in favor of the stadium project, most notably at-large Democrat Harold Brazil and Ward 7 Democrat Kevin Chavous, will be unable to attend a vote Nov. 23 or a potential substitute date Nov. 19. The most likely date for a vote is now Nov. 30, with Cropp to set one next week.

The delays do not present any real threat to the city's requirement to provide Major League Baseball with ratified financing for a ballpark near the Anacostia River waterfront in Southeast by Dec. 31. But they do extend the vigorous, citywide debate on the delivery of District services sparked by the ballpark bill.

And with passage of a council bill requiring two approvals 13 days apart, the delays also mean the second vote will not take place by Dec. 7, as originally intended.

"It's hard to get everybody together on a date that has not been previously identified, so we may not end up voting [for the first time] on this bill until November 29 or November 30," said Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat.

*(Further down)*

Regardless of how the final financing structure turns out, Evans said his strident support of the ballpark package has killed his chances to win the 2006 District mayoral election.

"This has done me enormous political damage, and I'm aware of that," Evans said. "But I think it's very important to take a stand on things. It's the only way things get done. But in 20 years, when all the dust has settled, baseball will still be here, and people will be happy."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Private Financing Of D.C. Ballpark Just a Tax Shelter

2004-11-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

By Steven Pearlstein
Friday, November 12, 2004; Page E01

Wouldn't it be delicious if Washington, D.C. -- the mecca of tax lobbying -- were to mark the renaissance of Major League Baseball here by building a new stadium that was nothing more than a tax scam.

But that is exactly what would happen if the District were to take up the "private" financing proposal for the $500 million stadium project that so intrigued D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp. About the only good thing you can say for it is that it would finally resolve the question of what to call the new team. What else could you call them but the Washington Loopholes?

In truth, there is nothing private about the financing scheme that has been proposed here and in other cities.
The District would still have to impose some sort of gross receipts tax to cover the $150 million it will take to fix up RFK Stadium as a temporary home for the new team, assemble the land for the new stadium and pay for the infrastructure improvements around it.

And the District would still be expected to impose a special sales tax on tickets, parking and everything sold at the new stadium. However, under the "private" financing scheme, this money would go to the partnership to cover interest payments on the money borrowed to build the stadium at rates 3 percentage points above what the city would pay.

But here's the really beautiful part of this deal: The rent the partnership would pay the city for the land on which the stadium sits would be recorded on its books as an expense even though no cash would change hands. Instead, payments could be deferred for 25 years until the expiration of the lease, at which point the partnership would either have to cough up the rent in its entirety, with interest, or turn the stadium over to the city for "free," which is what certainly would happen.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Ballclub suffers first loss

2004-11-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

By Thom Loverro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

We have been begging for a baseball team in Washington for 33 years now, so the preposterous fashion in which it appears to be arriving shouldn't be a surprise.

Decisions about what officea equipment to bring from Montreal seemed to have a higher priority than who will put together the roster fans will pay to see at RFK Stadium in April.

Each day that passes, players are filing for free agency, and agents are talking to general managers.

Soon there will be deals to be made and — even as handicapped as this franchise is — bargains to be had once the big spenders blow their budgets on superstars like Adrian Beltre and Carlos Beltran.

But the Washington club didn't get a general manager until Tuesday, when it was announced former Cincinnati Reds GM Jim Bowden agreed to take the job. So the Washington franchise, in its infancy, is taking on an identity: Home of Dysfunctional General Managers. Dan Duquette and Bowden — these were the candidates for the Washington job? Heck, why not Syd Thrift?

One high-ranking baseball official declared vice president of on-field operations for MLB Bob Watson "already on the payroll" as Washington's GM, but he turned down the job last week.

Bud Selig and his sidekick, Bob DuPuy, scrambled to find someone willing to run this zombified franchise temporarily — with no promise of security once baseball turns it over to its new owners, whoever they may be.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Small market reality arrives

2004-11-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

By Thom Loverro
The Washington Times
November 12, 2004

Washington is the nation's eighth largest media market, but for baseball's purposes in 2005, it is Kansas City, Milwaukee or even Montreal.

As long as Major League Baseball owns the relocated Expos, the team will be run like a small-market franchise.

Contrary to published reports, club president Tony Tavares said the team has not received any payroll figure from baseball for the next season. Speculation based on the anticipated Washington revenues suggests it will be higher than the $41 million spent last season in Montreal.

Nevertheless, it will still be at the bottom of the sport's economic food chain, a familiar place for general manager Jim Bowden, who spent 101/2 years as the Cincinnati Reds' GM. He knows about small-market strategies, and they don't include bringing in a big bopper outfielder or top-line starter.

Bowden, who has the reputation as an aggressive trader, is unlikely to emerge from the weeklong general managers meetings without making any deals. Yet that doesn't mean he won't be active this winter.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

D.C. Baseball's White Elephant Is Running Wild

2004-11-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

By Sally Jenkins
Friday, November 12, 2004; Page D01

The new baseball stadium is already a drain on Washington, D.C., and ground hasn't been broken yet. The project grows more illogical by the day. You really think a publicly funded baseball stadium is going to be good for the municipality, after watching the quarreling of the last week? Allow me to voice a small but nagging suspicion: The mayor and the city council could be devoting such energy, attention and argument to better things than a ballpark.

Perhaps as early as this week, Mayor Anthony A. Williams and his colleagues on the city council will probably pass a publicly funded stadium deal, over the objections of two thirds of city residents and contrary to all good advice. Why?

"Politicians have an edifice complex," says David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute. "They like to be seen building big things."

But this thing is a big cheat. Williams's statements on the costs and benefits are alternately wrong or bogus, and in either case, you have every right to feel cheated that your local politicians don't show this kind of devotion and creativity to bigger problems. You also have a right to feel that your representatives have been robbed of common sense. For example: This week, city council chairman Linda W. Cropp was accused of Reneging and Political Maneuvering because she tried to save the city oh, I don't know, maybe a hundred million dollars.

That's the kind of moral confusion and rot this stadium deal has plunged the city into.

It's actually very clear: Sixty-nine percent of residents don't want to use public funds to pay for a stadium. They don't want to give Major League Baseball a half-billion-dollar subsidy out of taxpayers' pockets. Not a single independent economic study bears out the mayor's claim that a public-funded stadium will be a boon to the local economy. Yet the mayor has willfully ignored these facts -- until he was forced to pay attention by Cropp's sudden desertion and attempt to do a better deal. Personally, I don't call that "serving the people."

Cropp, whatever you think of her or suspect her motives to be, has done one good thing, something the mayor hasn't. She's listened to her constituents. She's heard the small- and medium-sized business owners and residents who will bear an unfair and disproportionate tax burden. Pepco and Verizon can easily stand the tax hits the stadium will cost, but people who run vegetable markets can't.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Some Firms Say Baseball Tax Looks Too High and Hard

2004-11-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

By Neil Irwin and Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page E01

On Monday, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams stood in front of the press to make his pitch for a publicly financed baseball stadium, flanked by leaders of some of the city's largest companies -- Pepco, Verizon and Bank of America among them.

The image was clear: Businesses stand behind baseball in Washington, even though they will have to pay a new tax on revenue to help pay for it.

Some mid-size businesses say they can't afford Mayor
Anthony Williams's plan to finance a new baseball stadium.
(Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

But behind the scenes yesterday, a far more complicated mix of business views was apparent, as various groups launched last-ditch lobbying efforts to shift the brunt of a $26 million annual tax onto other companies. Confusion over which plan would emerge and the fast-evolving debate over the issue led some groups to move more aggressively to state their positions to make sure they weren't ignored.

Many mid-size businesses, especially those with low profit margins, complain that the mayor's plan puts too much of the load on them, and they are pushing to get more of it shifted to large companies. Major real estate developers, among the most stalwart supporters of baseball, are upset that the mayor's plan would treat each building they own as a separate enterprise, raising the total baseball tax burden the developers would face. They want that provision changed.

Meanwhile, business leaders who have embraced the baseball tax worry about the possible long-term impact of the confusion that resulted after D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp proposed a rival plan for a stadium at a different site, withdrew that proposal and then put forth a new idea on Tuesday for private financing. By yesterday, Cropp had backed away from the private financing proposal and said she was more amenable to the mayor's original plan.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Cropp agrees to compromise on ballpark

2004-11-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp and Mayor Anthony A. Williams yesterday agreed to a compromise that would keep on track his financing plan for a ballpark in Southeast.

Mrs. Cropp said she will bring the Williams proposal up for a full council vote by Nov. 23.

In return, the mayor and his allies on the council agreed to amend the Williams bill to provide for a six-month search for private financing for the ballpark.

The agreement ended five days of rancor over competing proposals, disputes that prompted fears Major League Baseball (MLB) would void its deal with the District to relocate the Montreal Expos to the city.

Private financing would not necessarily violate the District's deal with MLB.The city must produce a ratified financing bill for the Southeast site by Dec. 31. However, the financing structure can be altered afterward so long as the changes do not affect the ballpark itself or the team's revenue sources.

Several city officials said the prospects of finding a viable private source of stadium funds are uncertain and perhaps unlikely.

Private investors could not borrow against stadium revenues dedicated in writing to the Washington team. Nor could they disrupt a planned community benefit fund created through the establishment of a tax-increment financing district around the Southeast ballpark.

City officials also are concerned about the ramifications of yielding control of stadium construction to private entities.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Cropp goes the weasel

2004-11-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

By Tom Knott
The Washington Times

Linda W. Cropp has decided to be a woman of the people, if not the leading populist of the D.C. Council.

She also has some Elmer Gantry in her, only she is clutching the ballpark's fiscal impact report instead of a bible. She is preaching to the masses, talking of monies better spent elsewhere, making the case of the unfriendly confines on Half Street in Southeast Washington.

The at-large Democrat has a zillion ideas with the proposed ballpark, with each subject to change depending on which way the political wind is blowing.

One day Cropp is behind the mayor's ballpark site, the next day she trots out the previously dead RFK Stadium site and yesterday she found the necessary support to take a two-week powder after objecting to the publicly financed arrangement.

Washington, we have a problem.

Hers is the ever-shifting maneuvering that comes a Cropper.

Hold the printing of the season tickets, in other words.

We do not have a baseball team just yet. We have the rotating Cropp instead.

We have the concept of a team hanging in the balance and a mayor who would be pulling his hair out if he had any hair to pull out.

We have an "at-risk" baseball team and a politically depressed city slipping further into the abyss.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Cropp seen as playing politics

2004-11-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp's 11th-hour opposition to publicly financing a ballpark in Southeast is a well-timed political maneuver that is reinventing her as a populist at a time when voters are souring on incumbents, city activists and politicians say.

"Linda Cropp is one of the few people on the council who is reacting favorably to the political tremors that were unleashed on September 14," said longtime political insider Lawrence T. Guyot, referring to the Democratic primary in which three incumbents on the D.C. Council were swept out of office.

It was no coincidence that the ousted incumbents all supported Mayor Anthony A. Williams' plan to publicly finance the entire cost of a $435.2 million Major League Baseball stadium and their challengers all opposed the "sweetheart" deal, he said. For many residents, the ballpark deal has come to symbolize what they see as the city government's willingness to coddle businesses at the expense of ordinary residents.

"There are two ways to deal with a train coming at you," Mr. Guyot said. "One is to stand there and wait for it to hit you. The other is to get on. ... Linda got on the train. ... It is putting her in the right position, at the right time, on the right issue, for all the right reasons."

Mrs. Cropp, at-large Democrat, had supported Mr. Williams' stadium plan, but she began distancing herself from the mayor amid a groundswell of opposition to his financing scheme. Her move on Tuesday to delay a council vote on the plan and offer an alternative proposal to privately finance the project completed her realignment.

"She has made herself a very relevant player," said Betsy Werronen, chairman of the D.C. Republican Committee. "She has put herself in the middle of this to try and work it out. ... If she can save the city money, it would be terrific and she would be a big hero."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Cropp Backs Stadium Plan, With a Caveat

2004-11-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

Council Leader Agrees to Support Williams's SE Proposal if Private Financing Is an Option
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page B01

Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) says she
is "just looking for a better deal" for the city.
(Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday that she would support Mayor Anthony A. Williams's plan to build a publicly financed baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in Southeast, as long as the contract stipulates the possibility of adding private funding in the future.

"We probably will do that," she said. "I have said from the start that I am in favor of baseball. I'm just looking for a better deal. It's premature to say whether anything will come up that is a better deal."

Cropp's statement came after she and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) met with Fred Cooke, an attorney for BW Realty Advisors LLC. That group has proposed using as much as $350 million in private funds to build the stadium, estimated to cost as much as $530 million.

Evans said Cooke was unable to answer many of the key questions about the company's plan. Cooke said in an interview that he needed more data from the city about the ballpark to supply those answers. Cooke will return Monday to provide additional information to the full council.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Rockies fire McMorris

2004-11-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

By Mike Klis
Denver Post Staff Writer

Post file / Andy Cross
Jerry McMorris of the Colorado Rockies in a 1999 photo.

Jerry McMorris, the Rockies' No. 1 boss during the team's first nine years who once was credited with saving the major-league franchise for the city of Denver, essentially has been fired by the club.

Having lost positions as president to Keli McGregor after the 2001 season and chief executive officer and chairman to Charlie Monfort after the 2002 season, McMorris has been removed as vice chairman.

Although McMorris retains his 12.4 percent overall financial stake in the ownership group and 40.4 percent share of the general partnership, his voting rights have been rescinded.

Read the entire article here on the Denver Post website.

Delay by council surprises some GMs

2004-11-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

By Thom Loverro
The Washington Times
November 10, 2004

Several of the general managers meeting here were stunned the D.C. Council yesterday delayed a vote to approve the building of a ballpark on the Anacostia riverfront, as specified in Major League Baseball's decision to move the Montreal Expos to the nation's capital.

"They're going to lose that team," one official said privately.

Some baseball people say there is more riding on the city council vote than the return of the majors to Washington. The integrity of the industry and the legacy of commissioner Bud Selig also is at stake, they say.

"We're going to look worse than the Arena Football League if this doesn't get done," one club official said.

Jim Bowden, the Washington club's new general manager, has tried to separate baseball matters from the political infighting that is putting the franchise relocation at risk, but it is impossible to separate the two. As he returned from an outdoor luncheon overlooking Biscayne Bay, the first words out of Bowden's mouth were, "What happened with the vote this morning?"

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

Stadium Backers In Line for Reward

2004-11-10T03:57:00.000-08:00

Williams Agrees To Fund Projects
By Lori Montgomery and Yolanda Woodlee
The Washington Post
November 10, 2004

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams has persuaded seven of the council's 13 members to line up in support of his baseball financing plan by slipping more than $70 million in enticements into the stadium legislation, including $40 million for commercial development in Southeast Washington, $2 million for a high school in Ward 5 and $10 million for unspecified projects in Wards 6 and 7.

The expenditures showed up in a 41-page draft that Williams's allies on the council planned to offer yesterday in place of the mayor's original bill. Several items were added at the request of council members who were early supporters of the ballpark proposal. Others were added just this week to secure the votes of members who had been considering voting no.

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), for instance, agreed Monday to vote for Williams's stadium package after the mayor promised to sign separate legislation dedicating $45 million to rebuilding the city's underfunded public library system.

Graham would have provided the seventh crucial vote for the baseball package yesterday. But as it turned out, Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) pulled the stadium legislation from the council's agenda, saying she wants two weeks to study a last-minute proposal to build a ballpark with private funds.

The substitute bill was never offered, but some council members obtained copies, as did The Washington Post. Several council members accused Williams (D) of buying votes.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Cropp Blocks Council Vote On Stadium

2004-11-10T03:54:00.000-08:00

Chairman Says She Has Private Financing Plan
By David Nakamura and Lori Montgomery
The Washington Post
November 10, 2004

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp blocked approval of a bill to build a baseball stadium with public money yesterday, announcing that she has a plan that could provide up to $350 million in private funding.

Cropp's action came during two hours of closed-door debate by the council shortly before its legislative session and marked the second time in five days that she has stunned her colleagues with a new stadium proposal.

Seven of the 13 council members said that they were prepared to vote in favor of Mayor Anthony A. Williams's plan to construct the stadium along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington. Cropp (D) abandoned an alternative proposal she made last week to build near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. That proposal had failed to muster much council support.

But after telling colleagues that she would support the mayor's site, she tried and failed to get them to agree to delay the vote for two weeks. Cropp then exercised her power as chairman and removed the bill from consideration, placing it on the agenda for Nov. 23.

Cropp said that over the next two weeks, she will finalize details of a plan to provide private financing for the stadium, estimated to cost as much as $530 million.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

No Joy In Mudville OR DC!

2004-11-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
WMAL Radio

WASHINGTON (AP) - A time out is being called in the effort to bring baseball to Washington.

A vote on the more than 400 million dollar ballpark plan was scheduled for today. But DC Council Chair Linda Cropp suddenly yanked it from the agenda.

She hopes to bide time to consider her alternate plan, which would require more private financing. Cropp is now promising a vote in two weeks. Councilman Jack Evans -- a big baseball backer -- calls delaying the vote ``the wrong thing to do,'' though he acknowledges Cropp has the right to do so.

An official with the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission says private financing can't be a substitute for the current deal. But he says he's open to companies taking on more of the financial burden.

Read the entire article here on the WMAL Radio website.

Mayor Tony Williams Disappointed About Vote Delay

2004-11-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
WMAL Radio

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mayor Tony Williams calls the delay in a baseball vote a setback, but he vows to continue moving forward.

The mayor spoke to reporters after DC Council Chair Linda Cropp took a scheduled vote on the stadium plan off today's agenda.

Williams believes the real reason for the delay is because -- quote -- ``we have the votes.'' The mayor and members of the city's sports commission say they have at least one offer from a private financing company to help pay for the stadium, in exchange for development rights. But they call the deal inadequate, and say the existing deal is better for DC residents.

Read the entire article here on the WMAL website.

D.C. Council Takes Baseball Off the Table

2004-11-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
WTOP Radio
Updated: Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 - 2:00 PM

WASHINGTON - Baseball has been taken off the agenda at the D.C. City Council meeting, according to Council Member Harold Brazil.

The council had been set to consider the mayor's plan, which would build a stadium on the waterfront, and a proposal by D.C. Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp to build a stadium at RFK stadium. Major League Baseball supports the waterfront site as the new home of the Expos.

As WTOP first reported, the decision to table all baseball talk came during a closed door session where Cropp presented a second plan to finance the stadium, Brazil says.

Read the entire article here on the WTOP Radio website.

Cropp Postpones Vote on Stadium Legislation

2004-11-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; 11:36 AM

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp abruptly removed a bill to build a baseball stadium with public money along the Anacostia River in Southeast from the council's legislative agenda this morning, announcing that she has a new plan that could provide up to $350 million in private funding for the project.

Cropp's action, which shocked her colleagues, came after nearly two hours of closed-door debate by the 13-member body. Council members said that the chairman, who had opposed details of Mayor Anthony A. Williams's pact with Major League Baseball to build the stadium, asked them to table the legislation for two weeks.

When Cropp (D) could not secure a majority of votes to table the bill, she exercised her right to set the council's agenda and removed the item. She said she will place it on the council's agenda for two weeks from today.

In that time, Cropp said, she will be able to provide more details about her latest plan. In brief remarks to reporters at the Wilson Building this morning, Cropp said that her new proposal will use a creative means to finance the stadium, choosing a developer to privately fund much of the project. The city would provide about $150 million for infrastructure improvements and to pay for the 21 acres of land that will be needed.

Cropp told council members that a developer has already approached her with the idea.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Public Financing Opposed, Poll Finds

2004-11-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

By Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A01

More than two-thirds of District residents oppose using public funds to build a baseball stadium in the city, and an even larger majority fears that average taxpayers would end up paying for the project under Mayor Anthony A. Williams's financing plan, according to a Washington Post survey of area residents.

Throughout the city, opposition to a publicly financed baseball stadium is both broad and deep. Sixty-nine percent of District residents said city funds should not be spent on a new baseball stadium, and half of those interviewed said they are strongly opposed to public financing.

Most residents of the District and nearby suburbs agree that a Major League Baseball team in Washington will benefit the city and the region. And many Baltimore Orioles fans said they expect that they will attend games in the District next year -- and proportionally fewer Orioles games.

But although the plan by Williams (D) calls for the stadium to be financed mostly through a tax on major D.C. businesses, three out of four city residents worry that District taxpayers eventually will foot the bill, siphoning city dollars from more urgent priorities.

"The money should be used for something else: schools, street repairs, neighborhood repairs, homelessness," said Barbra Douglas, 22, of Southeast Washington, who was recently laid off from her job as an aide in a foster care program. "Why should we spend this money on a stadium when the schools are going under? I have a 6-year-old who's getting beat up in elementary school. What are they doing for children like him?"

On Friday, D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) proposed her own stadium plan that also calls for public financing. Cropp recommended building the stadium at a different site and said her plan would cost about 20 percent less than the mayor's proposal. The Post's survey was conducted Wednesday through Sunday, and results of interviews done before and after Cropp's announcement did not differ significantly.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Mayor sure of ballpark support

2004-11-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher and S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday he is "very confident" that he has the seven necessary votes from the D.C. Council for his plan to build a ballpark near South Capitol Street Southeast.

Mr. Williams and numerous city sources said a frenetic, three-day lobbying campaign solidified enough political support to trump a rival plan for a ballpark at the grounds of RFK Stadium offered by council Chairman Linda W. Cropp.

The full council is set to vote on the measure today.

"I believe we have the votes," said Mr. Williams, who was flanked at a press conference by 19 local business leaders. "Neither one of us wants to kill baseball."

Major League Baseball (MLB) has threatened to walk out on its deal to relocate the team to the District if funding for the Southeast ballpark site is not obtained.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

D.C. first plays paying game

2004-11-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

By Laura Vecsey
The Baltimore Sun
Originally published Nov 9, 2004

IN NEW YORK, baseball officials sit and wait. This is Washington's problem now. If D.C. can't deliver what it promised, then the Expos don't become the Nationals and they can go back to Montreal.

"Adieu?" to Canada.

How does "Bonjour" sound? "We struck a deal with the city council. They have until the end of the month to get it passed. We're supportive of that deal. We'll let it play out. We don't want to get into the middle of a political battle," Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said yesterday.

In Baltimore, the owner of the Orioles is likely attending to business far more pressing, like Vioxx lawsuits, than figuring revenue guarantees for when the Expos move into the Orioles' "territory." With the D.C. stadium proposal cracking like a Maryland crab, what's the rush? If anyone out there can think of a stadium deal that got done in this country without a crisis and widespread panic, not to mention some righteous name-calling, please pass along the time and place.

These are the main ingredients of stadium deals: threats, doomsday deadlines, scorched earth scare tactics, political ploys.

So it is in D.C. A key vote for the proposed baseball stadium's location and financing is today - but not before Mayor Anthony A. Williams and council chairwoman Linda W. Cropp took to the airwaves and Internet yesterday. Each tried to drum up support for different proposals about where District taxpayers should dump hundreds of millions and just how many millions the District should spend on public welfare for the great game of baseball.

Read the entire article here on the Baltimore Sun website.

D.C. mayor urges council to pass stadium proposal

2004-11-09T04:54:00.000-08:00

Williams lobbies for waterfront site; alternate plan might be put to vote, too
By Jeff Barker
Sun Staff
Originally published November 9, 2004

WASHINGTON - Mayor Anthony A. Williams' plan to finance a baseball stadium headed for a tantalizingly close vote in D.C. Council today, as the mayor warned opponents that baseball won't deliver a team if the city scraps or tinkers with the original stadium proposal.

Williams said yesterday that he had secured the required seven votes for passage, but council opponents, who have complained about the stadium's cost, characterized his majority on the 13-member body as shaky. Williams said in the afternoon that, "We're trying to tighten them up and reinforce them [the votes]."

Later, the mayor appealed to the public in a rare televised address to approve the bill for a publicly funded stadium on the Anacostia River waterfront.

"For the sake of new jobs, homes, businesses - and a new river - I'm urging the council to pass it," Williams said in a taped speech broadcast last night on radio and a District cable station. "History is written in moments. In the story of our city, tomorrow is one of them."

The city has waited 33 years for a new team. On Sept. 29, city leaders announced they had reached an agreement with Major League Baseball to move the Montreal Expos here by spring.

Among those joining Williams at a raucous downtown celebration that afternoon was council chairwoman Linda W. Cropp. "I was singing with the best of them: 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' " Cropp said yesterday in her own recorded speech, broadcast last night on WTOP-AM.

Now, Cropp has emerged as the mayor's chief adversary. On Friday, she introduced a plan to instead build the new stadium adjacent to RFK Stadium, the former home of Washington's last team, the Senators. Original estimates put the price of the Anacostia stadium at about $440 million, including financing costs, but an analysis by the District's chief financial officer increased the cost to about $530 million.

Read the entire article here on the Baltimore Sun website.

Mayor Says He Has the Votes on D.C. Baseball

2004-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

By David Nakamura and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A01

Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday he believes he has lined up the seven crucial votes on the D.C. Council that he needs to pass his plan to build a baseball stadium on the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington.

Williams (D) spent the day pushing his message to council members, business leaders and the public in a furious race to consolidate support in time for a vote today by the council on the stadium legislation.

"I believe we have the votes," Williams said at a midday news conference, flanked by council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) and nearly two dozen business leaders. "We're just trying to shore them up. We're close."

Under his pact with Major League Baseball, the city would build a stadium, which could cost $530 million, through a combination of a gross receipts tax on big businesses, a tax on concessions and an annual rent payment by the team. In exchange, baseball officials would relocate the Montreal Expos to Washington this spring.

The mayor focused largely on securing the votes of Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8). Staffers for the two said they were leaning toward supporting the mayor because Williams would fund libraries for Graham and a recreation center for Allen.

Graham said yesterday that the mayor has promised to create a $45 million investment fund for libraries that Graham had sought. Cropp has not offered a similar deal.

"We're close. We're still discussing the language," Graham said of a deal with Williams. "We're working hard to create something very real and tangible for the rebirth of our libraries."

The mayor promised activists that he would create a community investment fund that could reach $450 million and could be used for schools, libraries and recreation centers. A deal with Graham would focus the first $45 million from that fund on libraries.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

New York Developer Aims to Buy Baseball's Expos

2004-11-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

BY JULIE SATOW
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 8, 2004

New York developer Mark Broxmeyer, best known for erecting sprawling multifamily developments in Long Island, is trying to buy the Montreal Expos.

The team has been tentatively renamed the Nationals and could play in Washington, D.C., next season. Major League Baseball's 29 owners bought it in February 2002 for $120 million. And having reportedly lost millions on the purchase, the league is anxious to unload the Nationals by January.

"The last time I checked, the Yankees and the Mets weren't up for sale, so Washington, D.C., is about the closest thing you can get to a New York franchise," said Mr. Broxmeyer, a native New Yorker and chairman of the think tank the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Mr. Broxmeyer has so far convinced Fox News's Bill O'Reilly's lawyer, Ben Morelli, and the chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Fred Zeidman, to join his investors. Steve Forbes has also said he "wants to participate," and Mayor Giuliani is "definitely interested," said Mr. Broxmeyer.

Within the next month, Mr. Broxmeyer expects Major League Baseball to publish an acceptable minimum bid for the Expos purchase, which rumors have put at $300 million. After the minimum has been set, the potential buyers have 30 days to examine the Expos' books before putting in their official bid.

Investor groups do not have to be finalized until the official bids are made. Mr. Broxmeyer is still hammering out his final list of investors and continues to meet with wealthy individuals in the hopes of raising more funds, including a meeting today in Washington with an unnamed vice presidential candidate who has expressed interest in investing in the team.

Read the entire article here on the New York Sun website.

Key Expos vote set for Tuesday

2004-11-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

By BRETT ZONGKER,
Associated Press Writer
November 8, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mayor Anthony A. Williams predicted Monday he has enough votes in the District of Columbia Council to approve financing for a ballpark for the Expos in the location agreed to in the team's contract to relocate to the capital.

The Council plans to vote Tuesday, and seven votes are needed for approval.

Council Chair Linda Cropp, saying the site south of the Capitol along the Anacostia River waterfront would be too costly, proposed an alternative plan Friday to construct a stadium next to RFK Stadium. The Expos' contract with Washington calls for financing to be enacted by Dec. 31 and does not allow a change in site without the team's approval.

Williams gathered 20 business leaders at a news conference to demonstrate support for his proposal for a $435 million stadium.

Read the entire article here on Yahoo! Sports.

Report: Selig OKs 'Los Angeles' Angels

2004-11-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The city of Anaheim will resist any attempt by the Angels to change their name to the Los Angeles Angels.

The franchise began play as the Los Angeles Angels in 1961, became the California Angels when it moved to Anaheim in 1966 and has been the Anaheim Angels since 1997, after the team negotiated a 30-year lease with Anaheim.

"We're pretty fired up. We want the Angels to understand this is very important to us," Anaheim city manager Dave Morgan told The Associated Press on Monday. "They won the world championship as the Anaheim Angels two years ago and should remain the Anaheim Angels. The mayor and City Council of Anaheim are very clear and unambiguous that we will do whatever we need to do legally to enforce the lease we have with the Anaheim Angels."

The possibility of a name change was first reported in July. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times quoted an unidentified high-ranking baseball official as saying baseball commissioner Bud Selig has given permission to Angels owner Arte Moreno to rename the team.

Angels president Dennis Kuhl declined comment Monday.

Read the entire article here on ESPN.com.

Mayor seeks vote without Cropp

2004-11-08T05:27:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

District Mayor Anthony A. Williams, pushing to save his proposal for a ballpark in Southeast near the Anacostia River waterfront, seeks a majority vote on the D.C. Council without the aid of powerful chairwoman Linda Cropp.

Long thought of as a key vote for the mayor's plan, Cropp sent shock waves through the city Friday with her last-minute plan to move the ballpark location to the grounds of RFK Stadium, a maneuver that would violate terms of the city's relocation agreement with Major League Baseball.

But rather than hinge hopes on a resurrection of Cropp's support for the mayor's plan, city sources said yesterday Williams is looking for the majority seven votes without the powerful Cropp. Sources close to the mayor said Williams believes he has six solid votes, with a full-throttle effort under way to secure the crucial seventh.

The full D.C. Council is scheduled to vote on the ballpark bill tomorrow. MLB is mandating legislative approval of financing for the Southeast site by Dec. 31.

"[The Southeast plan] has got to get through on Tuesday," a city source close to the mayor said. "There's still technically time to come back if it doesn't, but it's going to be real tough."

According to several city sources, the most likely road map for Williams to get to seven votes is with Democrats Jack Evans, Harold Brazil, Kevin Chavous, Vincent Orange, Sharon Ambrose, Jim Graham and Sandy Allen.

Graham widely is seen as a potentially critical swing vote. The Ward 1 councilman strenuously lobbied for a direct link from the gross-receipts tax on large District businesses that would fund much of the ballpark costs to city amenities such as libraries and recreation centers.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Cropp Stadium Plan Lacks Council Votes

2004-11-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Chairman Says Mayor Also Falls Short
By Serge F. Kovaleski and David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 8, 2004; Page B01

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said yesterday that she appears short on votes to win approval of her alternative proposal to build a major league ballpark adjacent to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium when the council takes up the matter tomorrow.

But Cropp (D) said she believes that Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) does not have enough votes for his plan to construct a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in an industrial area of Southeast Washington.

Both sides were angling yesterday to win broader council backing, and the mayor hopes to rally the public with a four- to six-minute televised address at 8 tonight on District cable, Channel 16.

Even if neither plan wins council approval tomorrow, Cropp said, it would not necessarily doom the District's deal to bring the Montreal Expos to the city. She suggested that a compromise bill could be crafted before the Dec. 31 deadline agreed to by the Williams administration and Major League Baseball to have a stadium package ratified by the 13-member council. She did not say how a compromise might resolve the disagreement.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Williams Rushes to Rescue Plan For Stadium

2004-11-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

Mayor Vows to Prevail In Council Vote Tuesday
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 7, 2004; Page C01

Mayor Anthony A. Williams fought yesterday to save his plan to bring baseball to a stadium along the Anacostia River, even as he canceled a scheduled meeting tomorrow with the D.C. Council that he is trying to persuade to approve his proposal.

"Yes, I do believe I will win," Williams (D) said in a telephone interview after spending most of the day at a summit on city schools.

The 13-member council is to vote Tuesday on the mayor's agreement with Major League Baseball to build a stadium, estimated to cost $440 million to $530 million, near the Washington Navy Yard and South Capitol Street in Southeast. Baseball officials have agreed to move the Montreal Expos to Washington this spring if the deal is approved.

But late last week, council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) said she would instead pursue building a stadium near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium because the mayor's plan is too expensive.

Williams and Cropp each have four or five supporters, with the remaining members uncertain or opposed to both plans.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Tuohey: RFK site will cost D.C. team

2004-11-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Major League Baseball has made plain its firm intent to move the Montreal Expos out of Washington if the plan by D.C. Council chairwoman Linda Cropp to build a ballpark on the grounds of RFK Stadium stands, said Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission.

MLB officials publicly took a neutral stance on Cropp's surprise maneuver Friday, when she sought to alter a detailed relocation contract calling for a ballpark near South Capitol Street SE. But in extensive private discussions with District officials continuing this weekend, baseball's tone is considerably darker.

"Baseball is very unhappy about this. This has got to be worked out," Tuohey said. "RFK is not the appropriate long-term site. Baseball was set on that, and so were we. And Linda was certainly in on these negotiations. If this doesn't get worked out, baseball is simply going to be looking elsewhere. They will not be here."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Angelos could actually hold winning hand

2004-11-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

By Thom Loverro
The Washington Times
November 6, 2004

Peter Angelos will sit in his office high above the streets of Baltimore and let the smallest deal remain on his desk for weeks. This has traditionally driven baseball people crazy, because the nature of the business sometimes requires quick decisions. Several times, good deals appeared to pass the Baltimore Orioles owner by because of his hesitancy.

But sometimes, as Angelos knows, stuff happens. Things change, and if a person waits long enough, things can change in his favor — particularly when he has a deal involving people who have a difficult time negotiating parking tickets, let alone multi-million-dollar ballpark deals for a competing franchise down the road.

Sometimes, unpredictability can be a real cool hand.

It's the hand Angelos has been playing in the negotiations with Major League Baseball for a payoff to move the Montreal Expos to Washington, and D.C. Council chairwoman Linda Cropp dealt Angelos a pair of aces yesterday when she introduced an entirely new ballpark deal and threatened to walk away from the proposed Anacostia waterfront ballpark that put the District over the top in the quest to land the Expos.

Cropp wants a ballpark built next to RFK Stadium. MLB already has seen that deal and was less than enthused with it.

Where did a fully funded ballpark on RFK land put the District back when this was a horse race? Even with Northern Virginia's two-thirds funded ballpark way out near Dulles Airport. That was before Virginia Gov. Mark Warner bailed out of his moral obligation backing the state's bond funding for the ballpark. Warner's decision, coupled with the District's new fully funded Southeast ballpark proposal, sealed the deal for baseball in Washington — a deal now in danger of falling apart.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

Scheduling Conflicts Addressed

2004-11-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

MLB Reduces Number of Common Home Dates for Washington, Baltimore Clubs
By Jorge Arangure Jr.
The Washington Post
November 6, 2004

Final changes were made to the Baltimore Orioles' and new Washington franchise's schedule released on Friday so the teams would share only 25 home dates. Originally, the schedule had the two teams sharing more than 30 home dates.

"When you add another layer to the scheduling," said Katy Feeney, baseball's senior vice president of scheduling and club relations, "it complicates the overall process. The schedule had been done prior to knowing the Expos were potentially going to play in Washington. There are still more conflicts than you normally have in two team markets."

In order to reduce the number of common home dates, a July 8-10 series the Washington franchise was going to host against the Philadelphia Phillies was moved to Philadelphia. A three-game set to end the year from Sept. 31-Oct. 2 at Philadelphia has been moved to Washington. And a pair of Orioles-Yankees three-game series were flipped as well.

Feeney said it's likely the two teams would share fewer home dates next season if both teams petition to be considered a two-team market such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Cooke Took a Pass On Site Near RFK

2004-11-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

Soil Cleanup, Residents' Worries Still at Issue
By Serge F. Kovaleski
The Washington Post
November 6, 2004

The site where D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) wants a baseball stadium built was a prime parcel for a sporting venue in the early 1990s, when Jack Kent Cooke offered to build a $206 million home for the Washington Redskins.

Cooke abandoned his plans in 1993 and instead built what is now FedEx Field in Landover. The late Redskins owner gave up on the site near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium because of neighborhood opposition, environmental concerns and the slow pace of obtaining approval for the project from federal agencies and Congress, which have jurisdiction over the land.

Today, the environmental problems in the land just north of RFK remain, and yesterday Cropp estimated that it would cost $20 million to clean up the area. She said in an interview that the funds would most likely be raised through the bond issue that would be used to finance stadium construction.

An environmental impact study completed in October 1993 found potentially harmful lead contamination in soil. Safely handling the hazardous material, most of it lead-heavy incinerator ash, would have required more than a dozen air-monitoring stations and the naming of a dust-control manager, the study said. Access roads would have to be paved to prevent dust from kicking up, and windscreens and spray curtains would be needed to wet truck beds during filling and dumping.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Mayor's Lack of Lobbying Disparaged

2004-11-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

Cost Concerns Ignored, Cropp and Others Say
By Lori Montgomery
The Washington Post
November 6, 2004

A little over a month ago, District Mayor Anthony A. Williams stood onstage at the City Museum, surrounded by D.C. Council leaders, awash in the joyous noise of a crowd welcoming baseball back to the nation's capital for the first time in more than 30 years.

Since that day, Williams (D) has acted as if getting the council to agree to pay for a ballpark was virtually a done deal, the mayor's critics -- and even some of his supporters -- contend.

The mayor showed up at just one community meeting to sell his stadium financing package. Then he left on an 11-day mission to Asia. And when he returned to Washington, he brushed off a growing chorus of complaints from council members, business leaders and even the council chairman about the plan's costs.

Council members say that Williams never personally engaged in the stadium debate even as it became increasingly clear that the package was in trouble. And yesterday, the mayor's baseball dreams seemed in danger of unraveling as Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) announced that she would withdraw her support and introduce an alternate plan to build the ballpark near Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium rather than on the Anacostia waterfront.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

MLB to Rename The Expos 'Soon'

2004-11-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

News on Ticket Plan Expected Monday
By Barry Svrluga and Thomas Heath
The Washington Post
November 6, 2004

While D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp was proposing a new baseball stadium plan that could derail plans to move the Montreal Expos here, team officials continued working on details of the transition.

Expos President Tony Tavares said the team expects to announce its plan to sell tickets on Monday. Fans should have a number to call to order season tickets by midweek, "We have to get that done," he said.

Two published reports stated that the team will be named the Nationals if they move to the District, and a source said any name could be a temporary one. Whoever buys the team from Major League Baseball will be allowed to ask to change the name in time for the scheduled opening of a new stadium in 2008, the source said.

The Washington Times and USA Today reported that baseball is likely to choose the Nationals, the name of Washington's franchise in the 1870s and '80s, over the Grays and Senators. A source told The Post that the Nationals is the favorite of at least one top baseball official, but no decision has been made.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Alternative D.C. Stadium Site Proposed

2004-11-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Council Chairman's Plan to Build Near RFK Could Sink Baseball Deal, Mayor Says
By David Nakamura
The Washington Post
November 6, 2004

The District's attempt to bring major league baseball back to the nation's capital was thrown into uncertainty yesterday when D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp declared that she will pursue building a publicly funded baseball stadium adjacent to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, breaking sharply from Mayor Anthony A. Williams's plan to build along the Anacostia River.

Cropp (D) made her announcement just four days before the council's key vote Tuesday on the future of the stadium. She shocked Williams (D) and her council colleagues by saying that the mayor's plan was too expensive and risky for the city's businesses that would be taxed to pay for construction.

It is not clear, however, whether either Cropp or Williams has enough votes lined up on the 13-member council to pass a plan. Both have four or five solid supporters, with the remaining members undecided or opposed to both proposals. The mayor vowed to continue his fight, saying he will make a public appeal Monday on the city's cable channel.

Building a stadium next to RFK would save the city at least 20 percent compared with Williams's preferred site in Southeast near the Navy Yard and South Capitol Street, Cropp said. The cost of the mayor's plan, estimated by his advisers at $440 million, could soar to $530 million or more, according to an analysis released last week by Natwar M. Gandhi, the city's chief financial officer.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Major League Baseball Disagrees With Stadium Site

2004-11-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
WMAL Radio

WASHINGTON (AP) - The whirlwind of activity about a possible new stadium site apparently caught Major League Baseball by surprise. Spokesman Rich Levin tells The Associated Press they'd just heard about it and had no comment.

Mark Touhey of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission is hoping the disagreement can be talked out, but adds that the lords of baseball want the waterfront site, not one by RFK.

DC Council Chair Linda Cropp unveiled the alternate proposal today, and she's lining up her Council allies.

Councilman Phil Mendelson says he likes the 20 percent lower price tag. Councilman David Catania says her proposal is less costly for the city. And Councilwoman Carol Schwartz says the movement toward the Anacostia River site is a move in the right direction.

Read the entire article here on the WMAL Radio website.

Mayor Fuming Over New Stadium Plan

2004-11-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
Updated: Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 - 2:46 PM

WASHINGTON - A proposal from left field may prevent Major League baseball from returning to the District next year.

D.C. Council Chair Linda Cropp told WTOP Friday that she would introduce an alternate proposal to build a ballpark adjacent to RFK Stadium on land the city already owns. Cropp says it could cut the cost of the project by 20-percent.

Mayor Tony Williams is fuming at Cropp. Williams says her plan threatens to undo the deal city leaders negotiated with baseball owners.

With his voice raised and his hand pounding the podium at a press conference, Williams warned the alternate plan threatens to undo 30 years worth of efforts to bring baseball back.

Read the entire article here on the WTOP website.

Council Chairman to Propose New Stadium Plan

2004-11-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 5, 2004; 1:34 PM

D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp has developed a plan that would significantly alter a deal to bring Major League Baseball to Washington by changing both the site of a new stadium and the cost of the controversial project, a source close to Cropp said this morning.

Cropp (D) held a 12:30 p.m. news conference at the Wilson Building to announce her new proposal, which would move the location of a stadium from the banks of the Anacostia River in Southeast. Cropp favors a 67-acre parcel of land near the site of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium known as Reservation 13.

The new proposal would significantly reduce costs, by up to 20 percent, Cropp aides said. The funding mechanism would remain the same, with the financing provided by a gross-receipts tax on the city's largest businesses, a tax on stadium concessions and an annual rent payment by the team. The team's payment, starting at $3.5 million per season and rising annually, would stay the same under Cropp's plan, but the gross-receipts tax would be reduced, the sources said.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has agreed to build a stadium largely with public funds by 2008 in order to convince Major League Baseball officials to relocate the Montreal Expos to Washington this spring. He scheduled a press conference for the afternoon to respond to Cropp's proposal.

How Cropp's deal would go over with baseball officials and whether it could kill the deal is not known.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

City wants $3.3 mil. for Wrigley lot

2004-11-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

BY FRAN SPIELMAN
City Hall Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times
November 5, 2004

The Chicago Cubs were asked Thursday to pay $3.3 million for the right to transform city-owned land adjacent to Wrigley Field into a Fenway Park-style pedestrian promenade bustling with shops and restaurants.

True to her word, Planning and Development Commissioner Denise Casalino told the Cubs she was willing to forgive the team for the 22 years they've already used the property.

But if the Cubs want the right to turn what was once a continuation of Seminary Avenue into a moneymaker, Chicago taxpayers deserve to be compensated, City Hall sources said.

For decades, the Cubs have used the land as a parking lot for players and team employees.

A search of century-old documents prompted by a request by the Chicago Sun-Times determined the city owned the land and the Tribune Co. bought it -- for $150,000 shortly after purchasing the Cubs in 1982 -- from a railroad that didn't have the right to sell it.

Read the entire article here on the Chicago Sun-Times.

Cropp to Propose Changes to D.C. Stadium Plan

2004-11-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
WTOP News
Updated: Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 - 11:08 AM

WASHINGTON - D.C. City Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp has a proposal to build a new baseball stadium on the grounds of RFK stadium and to reduce the fiscal impact to the city by 20 percent, WTOP has learned.

Cropp is expected to announce a new financing proposal that would reduce the risk to the city.

It would mean that no new ballpark would be constructed on a site near the Anancostia River just over one mile south of the U.S. Capitol.

Read the entire article here on the WTOP News website.

You Can Click In Baseball

2004-11-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

By Dick Heller
The Washington Times
November 5, 2004

If you've ever dreamed of working for a major league team, potential fulfillment now is no further away than the Internet.

A headhunter company is listing a variety of front-office jobs — excuse me, positions — on the Web site TeamBuilderAlliance.com. What are you waiting for, horsehide breath? It's time to update your resume and fire up the computer.

Yes, indeed, the Washington Whatevers — indications are they'll most properly be named the Nationals — have turned to cyberspace to get an executive team in place before the ball team takes the field next spring. New general manager Jim Bowden was hired the old-fashioned way this week, but I'm sure he isn't adverse to using modern technology to select his underlings.

Considering the Montreal Expos' 67-95 record last season, some of you might be inclined to apply for jobs in uniform. Unfortunately, this list is limited to nonplaying positions, 32 of 'em.

Applicants are advised to seek only positions for which they are qualified, a standard that obviously didn't apply last season to many of the Expos' players. If you don't believe me, just ask Frank Robinson.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

Orioles, D.C. Team Will Share Date for 28 Home Games

2004-11-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press
November 4, 2004

Baseball officials have reduced the number of days on which the Baltimore Orioles and the new Washington team will compete for fans.

Officials say a revised schedule has reduced from 30 to 28 the number of times the Orioles will play at Camden Yards while Washington competes at RFK Stadium.

The Orioles will no longer host the New York Yankees on September 20th and 21st -- for good reason. Washington is home on those nights against Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants.
Instead, the Orioles will play at Yankee Stadium on those nights, and the teams will play at Camden Yards later in the month.

Orioles spokesman Bill Stetka says baseball officials tried to move more games around, but it was difficult because it affects every other team.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Baseball group says Expos refunds are on the way

2004-11-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

By HARRY MINIUM
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 4, 2004

NORFOLK — The check’s in the mail, or so say officials from the Norfolk Baseball Co.

Nearly five weeks after the Montreal Expos announced they were relocating to Washington and not Norfolk, hundreds of Hampton Roads fans who paid $100 deposits for Expos season tickets have yet to receive refunds.

Fans placed deposits for nearly 10,000 season tickets. William Somerindyke Jr., chief executive officer of the Norfolk Baseball Co., vowed in September that the refunds would be received within two weeks. He apologized on Wednesday for the delay, and said those who haven’t received refunds should receive them by Nov. 10.

Somerindyke said the problem has been with the escrow agreement with SouthTrust Bank. It called for all refunds to be made by check. However, hundreds of fans paid their deposits through an Internet pay service called PayPal, which doesn’t do refunds with checks.

“The funds taken in by PayPal were transferred to an escrow account established at SouthTrust Bank that was set up by the baseball company’s law firm, Troutman Sanders,” officials said in a press release issued Wednesday. “When the funds were to be returned, there was a technical dispute concerning the mechanism to accomplish the refund.”

Somerindyke said attorneys negotiated an agreement Tuesday and that the refunds will be wired to PayPal by the end of this week. They should show up beginning Monday.

Read the entire article here on the Virginian-Pilot website.

MLB Plans Dominican Exhibition Games

2004-11-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

By ENRIQUE ROJAS
Associated Press Writer
Posted November 4 2004, 10:58 AM EST

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The major leagues plan to put some 2005 spring training games in the Dominican Republic, returning exhibition baseball to the country after a five-year absence.

Baseball "wants to strengthen its ties with the Dominican Republic," said Lou Melendez, the commissioner's international operations director.

No dates or teams were announced.

Major league teams last played spring training games in the Caribbean country in 2000, when the Boston Red Sox played the Houston Astros twice.

Major League Baseball has held eight exhibition tours in the capital of Santo Domingo since 1936.

Read the entire article here on the Miami Sun-Sentinel website.

Going, Going...

2004-11-04T03:52:00.001-08:00

Tuesday's Bistate II setback effectively rang a death knell for the Truman Sports Complex
By Joe Posnanski
The Kansas City Star
November 4, 2004

Wednesday afternoon, before it began to rain, I spent some time at the Truman Sports Complex. I love the place. I took the super-secret back route to get there. Everybody has a super-secret back route to the Truman Sports Complex.

Then I drove around the parking lots, and I walked around the stadiums that, even 30-plus years later, still look good. This crazy job has taken me to all but four NFL and major-league stadiums, and I can tell you there's no better place in America to watch football or baseball and no place quite like this little nexus that connects Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums.

Well folks, the clock just started ticking on the Sports Complex.

OK, let's get this out of the way: There are many excellent reasons why four out of five counties voted down Bistate II on Tuesday (just as there are many excellent reasons why four out of five dentists choose Trident gum for their patients who chew gum).

Read the entire article here on the Kansas City Star website

O's Name Stockstill Minor League Head

2004-11-04T03:47:00.000-08:00

Seeking continuity, O's stay within nest, promote 11-year member of staff
By Roch Kubatko
The Baltimore Sun
November 4, 2004

Looking for the stability that comes with making an in-house hire, the Orioles have named David Stockstill as their director of minor league operations.

Stockstill replaces Doc Rodgers, whose contract wasn't renewed after two years on the job.

The Orioles interviewed only two candidates, including assistant Tripp Norton, who will remain in his present capacity. They still must hire a scouting director to replace Tony DeMacio and will interview their East Coast cross-checker, Jeff Taylor, today at the B&O warehouse before the general managers meetings begin next week in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Stockstill, 47, has been part of the Orioles' minor league staff for 11 years. He spent the past two seasons as field and hitting coordinator.

Read the entire article here on the Baltimore Sun website

Anti-Stadium Amendments Fail in D.C.

2004-11-04T03:41:00.000-08:00

Associated Press
November 4, 2004

Opponents of the financing plan for a new ballpark for the Expos were defeated in nearly all of the amendments they tried to approve yesterday.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams has proposed a $440 million package to refurbish RFK Stadium and construct a new ballpark. Among the amendments defeated during a meeting of the District of Columbia Council's finance and economic development committees was a provision that would have required the team to remain at RFK Stadium.

"I have attempted to memorialize promises made to this community," Councilman David Catania said after offering a series of 20 amendments. "I ask myself, in whose interest does this council operate?"

The one concession Catania won was to have "nonbinding" inserted to the type of recommendations a panel of city and baseball officials can make on stadium construction.

Read the entire article here on the Baltimore Sun website

D.C. Council Panels Back Stadium Plan

2004-11-04T01:30:00.000-08:00

Proposal Moves Ahead On 3-2 Committee Votes
By David Nakamura
The Washington Post
November 4, 2004

Two sharply divided D.C. Council committees approved legislation to build a baseball stadium with public funds yesterday, setting up a vote by the full 13-member council next week.

During separate meetings that included roughly three hours of heated debate, the Committee on Finance and Revenue and the Committee on Economic Development each approved the bill by a vote of 3 to 2. Council member Kevin P. Chavous (D-Ward 7) serves on both committees and for the first time indicated his support for the legislation.

At one point, council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), chairman of the finance committee, used an expletive while discussing one of the 20 amendments offered by David A. Catania (I-At Large), who opposes the measure.

More than two dozen amendments were offered by council members, but only two minor ones were adopted.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Victorious Barry vows to stop stadium

2004-11-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

By Jim McElhatton
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
November 3, 2004

Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, voting yesterday morning at Wilkinson Elementary School in Southeast, tried to quiet concerns about his health and vowed on his return to elected office to fight plans to build a baseball stadium.

The 68-year-old Mr. Barry has diabetes and hypertension, but he surprised reporters by jogging out of the school and chiding them for not keeping up with him on his "morning jog."

Throughout his visits to voting precincts in Ward 8, he seemed assured of victory over Republican challenger Cardell Shelton, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner, for a seat on the City Council.

*(further) *

Outside the school, Mr. Barry said he plans to fight for better education, reduce crime and create more summer jobs. He also restated his opposition to plans by Mayor Anthony A. Williams to build a stadium along the Anacostia River for the relocated Montreal Expos.

"I'm still fighting against the baseball stadium," he said.

Mr. Barry said that even if the council approves financing for the new stadium before he takes office, he can still work to defeat the project.

"A lot of votes come in after January," he said, pledging to block construction contracts for the new stadium.

City law requires the D.C. Council to approve all contracts of more than $1 million.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Stadium Bill Revised By District

2004-11-03T04:08:00.000-08:00

By Eric Fisher
The Washington Times
November 3, 2004

District officials will nearly double the top-end fee to large city businesses in the gross-receipts tax, considered the dominant funding source for a new ballpark, according to a revised version of the stadium bill.

In a series of sweeping changes to the legislation that will be voted upon this morning by the D.C. Council's finance and economic development committees, the highest annual fee will soar from $28,200 per business to $48,000. Rather than use the extra money to retire the stadium construction bonds early, which would follow typical District fiscal policy, the additional funds will funnel into a community benefit fund proposed last week by Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

That community benefit fund, originally designed to generate money from a tax-increment financing (TIF) district around the proposed stadium in Southeast, is now slated to be supplied by both TIF revenue and extra money from the gross-receipts tax collections. The fund, now projected at $450 million over a 30-year span, would help support libraries, recreation centers and other city amenities.

But even with that benevolent goal in mind, the changes, resulting from a flurry of high-level meetings in recent days, are angering many trade groups around the city. Businesses are being targeted to provide $26 million a year, up from $24 million. The changes, however, could extend the stadium bond repayment period by as many as 12 years.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

New Stadium Bill Adds Community Fund

2004-11-03T04:04:00.000-08:00

Mayor Changes Plan for Business Tax; Council Panels to Vote Today
By David Nakamura
The Washington Post
November 3, 2004

Mayor Anthony A. Williams delivered a revised baseball stadium bill to the D.C. Council yesterday that alters the way businesses would be taxed for the project and adds a $450 million community investment package.

Mayoral aides said the changes answer the major concerns expressed by business owners and residents, who have reservations about the proposed use of public funds to build a stadium. Two council committees will consider the legislation and vote on it today. If approved by both, the bill will go to the full 13-member council for a first vote Tuesday. A final vote could take place Dec. 7.

In a pact with Major League Baseball, which intends to relocate the Montreal Expos to Washington in the spring, Williams (D) agreed to build a stadium in Southeast along the Anacostia River. The project would be financed through a combination of a gross-receipts tax on the city's largest businesses, a tax on ballpark concessions and an annual rent payment from the team.

Under the original legislation, all businesses that took in more than $3 million in gross receipts per year would have paid some taxes for the stadium. In the latest version, Williams raised the minimum to $4 million, exempting a few hundred companies.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

MLB Hires Bowden to Run Expos

2004-11-01T16:35:00.000-08:00

By Barry Svrluga and Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 1, 2004; 6:27 PM

Major League Baseball has hired Jim Bowden, the former Cincinnati Reds' general manager, as the general manager of the franchise that is scheduled to move from Montreal to Washington for next season, two industry sources said.

Bowden, who served for 10 1/2 seasons with the Reds before being fired in July 2003, became the choice after MLB official Bob Watson turned down the job last week, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because the team has scheduled an official announcement for Tuesday.

Bowden could not be reached for comment. Expos President Tony Tavares said this evening that there was an announcement "on baseball matters" scheduled for Tuesday, "but I do not comment publicly on searches that are on-going."

The job could well be temporary. The Expos are owned by the other 29 major league clubs, and MLB is soliciting offers to buy the team. A new owner will have the right to hire a completely different management structure.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Backman takes D-Backs' helm

2004-11-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

Former second baseman named manager
By Steve Gilbert
MLB.com

PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks announced on Monday that their new manager will be former Major Leaguer Wally Backman, a scrappy infielder who helped lead the Mets to a World Series victory in 1986.

Backman, 45, has agreed to a two-year contract as manager, including a pair of one-year club options. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Backman joined the organization prior to last year and managed Arizona's Class A Lancaster team into the California League Championship Series, in which they fell three games to two. The Sporting News named him minor league Manager of the Year for his efforts.

Read the entire article here on MLB.com

Hunsicker resigns as Houston GM

2004-11-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Will remain with team, Purpura named to post
By Jim Molony /
MLB.com
11/01/2004 12:00 PM ET

HOUSTON -- Gerry Hunsicker, the most successful general manager in the history of the Houston franchise and the architect of five playoff teams during his nine years with the Astros, resigned on Monday.
Tim Purpura, Houston's assistant GM and director of player development, who has been with the club for the last 11 years, will assume the role of general manager, effective immediately.

Since Hunsicker took over as GM in 1996, the Astros are 701-595, the sixth-best winning percentage (.541) in baseball. Only three GMs have been in their current post for more seasons than Hunsicker, who will remain with the team as an advisor.

Read the entire article here on MLB.com

How The Baseball Commish Calls It

2004-11-01T03:56:00.000-08:00

Bud Selig on money in the majors, steroids, and a certain rich New York team
Business Week
November 1, 2004

In the midst of a thrilling post-season, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig took time out to talk with Sports Biz Contributing Editor Mark Hyman about everything from satellite radio to profits, steroids, and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.

On Major League Baseball's just-announced, $650 million (over 11 years) deal with XM Satellite Radio (XMSR ):The deal is significant because we're going to [roughly] $65 million a year from a zero base. That alone is remarkable.

On how many franchises will be profitable this season:I'm hopeful it's going to be half.... In the last five years there were times when [only] two or three teams showed a profit. It was a very, very serious situation, and a lot of people were concerned, including our bankers.

On the recent death of former National League MVP Ken Caminiti, who admitted to steroid use:I have a great sense of sadness about [Caminiti's] death. One worry I have is that 10 years from now, long after I'm done as commissioner, someone will say: "You people knew about this and didn't do anything about it." [Caminiti] didn't deny he took steroids, and he claimed 50% of players were using. [But] he's my only source about that.

Read the entire article here on the Business Week website

PNC Park getting new grass

2004-10-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Pirates want sod 'perfect' in time for All-Star Game
By Mark Belko
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, October 30, 2004

There will be something different about PNC Park when baseball returns next spring, but if all goes according to plan, even the most diehard fans won't be able to tell.

With an eye toward the 2006 Major League All-Star Game, the Pirates are replacing the turf in their acclaimed ballpark. Crews have been ripping out the old grass and laying down new sod for the past week.

Before they are finished, all 2.5 acres of PNC Park grass will be replaced for the first time since the ballpark opened in 2001. As of yesterday, only the center field area remained to be done.

Patty Paytas, vice president of communications for the Pirates, said replacing the park's grass will be done on a routine basis, and was not the result of any problems or unhappiness with the playing surface.

"It's a regular project that you do every so often," she said.

Read the entire article here on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Stadium tax scale due for revision

2004-10-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

District officials hurriedly are seeking changes to the gross-receipts tax that would fund the largest portion of the city's proposed baseball stadium.

The changes come in the aftermath of Thursday's 16-hour public hearing on the stadium bill that featured theatrics, grandstanding and unhappiness among at least five members of the D.C. Council with the legislation as it is currently written.

The structure currently offered by Mayor Anthony A. Williams and top aides calls for District businesses grossing at least $3 million a year to pay a fee ranging from $3,000 to $28,200 a year. Businesses generating at least $16 million a year would pay the top-end fee.

But after hearing from hundreds of citizens and trade groups, many council members and administration officials believe it is not proper to assess the same fee to one business grossing $16 million a year and another grossing 10 or 20 times as much.

In the changes, which are still under discussion, businesses grossing more than $20 million might be split into one or two new categories on the fee scale, with the top-end tax perhaps surpassing $40,000 a year. City officials estimate about 280 businesses in the District meet this high-end threshold. The tax as currently written would apply to 11 percent of city businesses.

"We're working though the numbers, seeing where we can include more proportionality to the model, shifting a bit more burden to the top end," said Steve Green, special assistant in the city office of planning and economic development. "This is a good point that's being made, and it certainly possible to try and make this more progressive."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Approval for New Stadium in Washington Hits a Snag

2004-10-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
The NY Times
Published: October 29, 2004

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 - Maybe the idea of financing a new stadium here for the relocated Montreal Expos seemed easy last month when the city received the news that Major League Baseball would send the team to the nation's capital.

The celebratory rally was led by the bow-tied Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who wore a red Senators cap, John Fogerty's song "Centerfield" played on loudspeakers and children in baseball uniforms shared the stage with politicians eager to congratulate themselves.

Legislation to authorize the $440 million stadium package is still likely to pass, but the ride is getting bumpy.

The plan has exposed a schism within the District of Columbia's City Council, which must approve it, and among its citizens, over the size and predominance of the public contribution - taxes on tickets, concessions and parking at the ballpark, plus a citywide business tax. The team will pay rent starting at $3.5 million annually.

Read the entire article here on the NY Times website.

Baseball proposal evokes anger

2004-10-29T04:15:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The District's $435.2 million proposal for a baseball stadium in Southeast received a hostile reception yesterday from the D.C. Council during a public hearing that lasted more than 12 hours.

The council's skepticism heightens the tension as ballpark advocates race against the clock to complete the move of the Montreal Expos to Washington.

Five of the 10 council members at the hearing expressed serious problems with the stadium-financing package as currently constructed by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, bringing the relocation deal perilously close to the seven fatal "no" votes. The concerns ran the gamut from financing and land-acquisition costs to the team's role in paying for the stadium.

"I cannot in good conscience support a plan in which the city foots the entire bill and assumes all the risk," said Carol Schwartz, at-large Republican. Mrs. Schwartz's often-high level of vitriol yesterday surprised many observers, particularly because she stood right behind the mayor four weeks ago during a press conference celebrating the Expos' move.

"I don't think we negotiated a good deal with baseball, and I'm not going to just buy anything," she said.

The mayor's plan calls for the city to issue bonds up to $500 million to pay for a new stadium and improvements at RFK Stadium, where the soon-to-be-renamed Expos will play for three seasons. The bonds then would be paid off through a combination of ballpark-related sales taxes, annual lease payments from the team and a gross-receipts tax on large D.C. businesses.

The bill is slated for markup next week and a first vote by the 13-member council on Nov. 9. The measure must be ratified by Dec. 31 to preserve the Expos' relocation.

Joining Mrs. Schwartz in the opposition to the stadium yesterday were Ward 1 Democrat Jim Graham, at-large independent David A. Catania, Ward 3 Democrat Kathy Patterson, and Ward 4 Democrat Adrian M. Fenty.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

It's Our Ballclub and Our Town

2004-10-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

By Tom Knott
The Washington Times
October 29, 2004

The hidden cost to make nice with those whose lives do not revolve around the 6-4-3 double-play ball is certain to rise with each protest, meeting and report that questions the revitalization power of the proposed ballpark in Southeast Washington.

The latest initiative of D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams is a community benefit fund intended to assuage the anger and concern of a citizenry resistant to the $435.2 million ballpark plan.

The publicly financed tab, of course, is bound to rise as well, assuming there are legal battles, weather-induced construction delays and cost overruns.

The economic delicacy of the proposed ballpark has come to be the mayor's hangover following the celebration that coincided with the awarding of the Expos to the city.

The mayor did what he had to do to secure the barnstorming team, and now he is endeavoring to complete the deal before those activist groups with real or imagined objections. The proposed ballpark has evolved into a typically Washington issue, with the attendant question, "What's in it for me?"

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website

Vocal Crowd Turns Out to Talk Baseball

2004-10-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

Many Give Up and Leave As D.C. Hearing Drags On
By David Nakamura and Clarence Williams
The Washington Post
October 29, 2004

The D.C. Council yesterday began considering whether the city should use public dollars to build a stadium for its new baseball team, drawing a raucous crowd of supporters and opponents to an all-day hearing.

With more than 300 people on hand at 10 a.m., supporters wearing red Washington Senators hats got early prime seating because opponents were staging a rally outside. Despite efforts to maintain order, the hearing was interrupted twice by people who shouted out of turn and were removed by police.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), whose stadium financing package has been the focus of protests for weeks, did not testify and avoided the fifth floor of the Wilson Building during the first 10 hours of testimony, saying he watched a live broadcast on the city's cable channel. In an interview after a midday news conference announcing a traffic control initiative, Williams said he was confident that the stadium will be built.

"It's going to happen," Williams said, although the project requires the approval of the 13-member council. Asked why he chose not to testify, Williams said: "Everyone knows my views. It's important that people disassociate their opinions of baseball from their opinions of me."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

The new Red Sox curse

2004-10-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

Economics and structure of the game and team will make it difficult for Red Sox to repeat in 2005.
A weekly column by Chris Isidore,
CNN/Money senior writer
October 28, 2004: 5:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The curse is dead. Long live the new curse.

As anyone with a pulse knows by now, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years Wednesday night. But the denizens of Red Sox Nation should not expect happy celebrations to become an annual ritual.

The cold truth is that a number of obstacles make it more difficult than ever for any team to repeat as baseball's champions.

First up is the fact that 18 players on Boston's roster are potential free agents. Some are bit players at best, but the list includes almost half of the everyday starters -- Orlando Cabrera, Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller and Jason Varitek -- as well as starting pitchers Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe.

....

Last year, the Marlins held the line better on payroll, keeping many stars but letting team leader Ivan Rodriguez leave a free agent. They also fell short of playoff contention.

"The Red Sox will have the same problem once they win: everyone wants more money," said Gary Gillette, co-editor of the Baseball Encyclopedia and co-chairman of the business of baseball committee of SABR, a baseball research group. "Derek Lowe probably saw his value go up 40 percent in the couple of weeks."

....

Gillette says it's probably easier to make those kinds of hard choices when trying to capture a championship rather than after winning one. If the Sox start paying top dollar for replaceable stars like Millar, Mueller or Lowe, it's a sign they're on the wrong path.

"I think the odds are good that the Red Sox will resist that kind of stuff," said Gillette. "I don't see any evidence in new ownership history that they will go hog wild on all the champagne they swilled last night and spend money in a foolish way."

Read the entire article here on the CNN/Money website.

Selig advocates shorter season, expanded playoffs

2004-10-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

By Rick Hummel& Joe Strauss
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
10/28/2004

Three years after the game threatened contraction and two years after a work stoppage was averted through negotiation of a new basic agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association, commissioner Bud Selig is presiding over a game that now enjoys relative stability. Selig recently accepted a five-year extension that will carry his term through 2009, at which point he has pledged to leave the post.

In attendance for the 100th World Series, Selig calls himself an advocate of a shorter regular season schedule, an expanded first tier of playoffs and far stricter testing for steroids. He also believes neither contraction nor expansion an imminent possibility for the game.

....

Q: Will baseball continue the two-year experiment of awarding home field in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star Game?

A: "When I left Fenway, people were very friendly, yelling, 'Thanks for the All-Star Game.' When I left (Tuesday) night here, I didn't get the same response. Look, I like it. Our fans like it. The (Fox) network likes it. I believe it should be a permanent part of our landscape and I'm sure it will be. I'm quite optimistic about its future.
"It isn't like we had Einstein's theory of relativity before in terms of who got the (home-field advantage). One year, you got it. One year, I got it. This at least re-energized the game. Last year, the Yankees had home-field advantage (in the World Series) and it didn't do anything for them, anyway."

Read the entire article here on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website.

MLB wants to make sure fans get the real deal

2004-10-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Program aims to stop fake memorabilia
By Naomi Aoki
Boston Globe Staff
October 28, 2004

Deloitte & Touche accountant Cory Boss spent Game 3 of the World Series, collecting a couple dozen balls used in the game, four bases, a commemorative home plate and pitching rubber used for the first pitch, and both the Red Sox and Cardinals line-up cards signed by the team managers.

Before returning the items to Major League Baseball, Boss and two other Deloitte accountants attached holographic stickers bearing unique identification numbers to the collectibles to authenticate them as the real deal. They went to the players' clubhouses during the game to label the special World Series nameplates on the lockers.

"Who said being a CPA was boring?" said Boss, 27, who works in the accounting firm's St. Louis office. He doesn't get paid extra for the task, he said, but "it's certainly a desirable assignment."

Boss is one of about 150 Deloitte & Touche accountants nationwide trained to authenticate official baseball memorabilia at major league games and private signing sessions. There are one to three of them at any given game, putting stickers on everything from game balls to champagne bottles the Red Sox would use to celebrate a historic World Series win. They go to players' homes to witness and authenticate the signing of bats, pictures and gloves.

Read the entire article here on the Boston Globe website.

Marlins agree to contribute more as ballpark price rises to $420 million

2004-10-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

By Sarah Talalay
Staff Writer
The Miami Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 28 2004

The Marlins have increased cost estimates for a new ballpark and parking garage east of the Orange Bowl to $420 million, up from $367 million, and have agreed to contribute more to the stadium now projected to open in 2008, according to documents the team submitted to Miami-Dade County and city of Miami officials this week.

Under the proposal, which all three sides hope can be finalized next month, the Marlins would increase their commitment to a 38,000-seat, retractable-roof ballpark from $157 million to $192 million in mainly rent payments guaranteed by ballpark revenue and cash. The team, which would be renamed Miami Marlins, also agrees to cover cost overruns through sources that could include future revenue, a lien on the franchise, a letter of credit and, if possible, a guarantee from Major League Baseball to cover up to $10 million.

"The reason the team's contribution has gone up is to allay the public's concerns that the Marlins will be unable to cover any cost overruns," Marlins President David Samson said Wednesday. "By increasing the project cost from the beginning, it is reducing the potential cost overruns."

Samson said the team's contribution is the fourth largest of any Major League Baseball team to a stadium project.

Read the entire article here on the Miami Sun-Sentinel website.

Fund created to appease ballpark critics

2004-10-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, facing heated criticism across the city for his $435.2 million plan to build a baseball stadium in Southeast, yesterday announced the creation of a community benefit fund that would be tied to the ballpark and generate up to $400 million for city schools, libraries and recreation programs.

Although the details of the plan are decidedly sketchy, the fund would be supported by the creation of a tax-increment financing (TIF) district around and immediately north of the proposed ballpark site near South Capitol and O streets. In the TIF district, tax money above what already is being generated would be funneled into the benefit fund. Also undetermined are the recipients and criteria for distributing the money.

But the primary goals of the evolving plan are to soothe political opposition to the ballpark proposal and address repeated cries for improvements to basic city services and infrastructure.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Cost Estimate on Stadium Jumps

2004-10-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

D.C. Analysis Says Price of Deal Could Rise $91 Million
By David Nakamura and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 28, 2004; Page A01

The cost of building a baseball stadium and renovating Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium could be $91 million more than city officials initially estimated, according to an analysis released last night by the District's chief financial officer.

In an eight-page letter to D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), Natwar M. Gandhi said the total cost of the stadium package could reach $486.2 million, not the $395 million stated in the agreement between the District and Major League Baseball.

The additional costs come largely in three areas: $50 million for improvements to roads, sewers and Metro; $11 million more than estimated to renovate RFK; and $30 million more than estimated for contingency funds for likely cost overruns.

"As a result of the increase in project costs, more money will have to be borrowed and debt service will increase," Gandhi wrote.

He estimated that the city would need to issue $500 million in bonds, up from an estimated $440 million. Furthermore, officials would need to collect about $2 million per year more on gross receipts taxes on the city's largest businesses to pay the debt service.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

D-Backs on course to reduce red ink

2004-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

By Craig Harris
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 27, 2004 12:00 AM

In the bizarre world of baseball economics, the Diamondbacks set a franchise record for most losses in a season yet did better financially than any year except their inaugural season, when the team made its only profit.

Team officials in interviews Tuesday said the Diamondbacks, who lost a franchise record 111 games, were projected this year to lose about $8 million - down from $42 million in 2003. Much of the reduction came from a smaller payroll and revenue-sharing money from baseball.

While the losses are still large, the reduction of red ink is expected to help further stabilize the franchise's finances and put the Diamondbacks in a better position to sign some marquee players, such as Richie Sexson, who is currently negotiating with the team, Diamondbacks officials said. Cutting the losses also could help the team refinance prior debt, giving the franchise more cash for future payrolls, a team owner said.

Read the entire article here on the Arizona Republic website.

Red Sox seek approval to expand Fenway capacity by 10%

2004-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

By Chris Reidy
Boston Globe Staff
October 27, 2004

The Red Sox yesterday received preliminary approval from the Boston Landmarks Commission to expand Fenway Park's capacity by 10 percent, presenting the club's most specific designs yet on how it would add about 1,000 seats as well as extra standing room.

Although the ball club requested increasing Fenway's capacity from 36,298 to 39,928, the team's plans would not immediately use all the additional space.

The ball club also wants to expand the team's clubhouse and weight room by an addition that would be partly built on unused space between the Fenway Park faade and Van Ness Street. The design would also ease congestion by adding space behind grandstand seats along the first-base line, team officials said.

Red Sox officials hope this project can be completed in time for next season.
Then the club would add new seats and more standing room by the start of the 2006 season, said architect Janet Marie Smith, a Red Sox vice president.

Read the entire article here on the Boston Globe website.

MLB denies stalemate in Angelos deal

2004-10-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

By Peter Schmuck
The Baltimore Sun
Originally published October 27, 2004

ST. LOUIS -Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball chief operating officer Robert DuPuy both insisted yesterday that there is no stalemate in compensation negotiations with Orioles owner Peter Angelos over the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington.

"There are just a lot of details to be worked out," Selig said, "but we'll work out all that stuff. We can only be in one place at one time."

DuPuy said he exchanged phone calls with Orioles vice chairman Joe Foss yesterday, but DuPuy also said that the delay in completing a deal to indemnify the Orioles for potential losses related to the arrival of a second team in the region.

"I read in one paper today that the deal seems to be going south and in another paper that it's almost done," DuPuy said.

Read the entire article here on the Baltimore Sun website.

Jays cut annual loss in half

2004-10-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

Canadian Press
Oct. 27, 2994

Toronto — The Toronto Blue Jays fell in the standings but inched closer to profitability this season.

Final figures are still being crunched, but it appears the Jays will post an operating loss of somewhere between $7-million and $8-million — boosted by league revenue sharing, a higher Canadian dollar and a slimmer payroll, according to a senior executive at parent company Rogers Communications Inc.

That's less than half the near $18-million the club lost in 2003, the source said.

The estimate is not included in Rogers' third-quarter results, issued Tuesday, but instead is based on projections for revenues and expenses claimed throughout the year. Rogers changed the way it accounts for the Jays on its books in July after it assumed the remaining 20 per cent of the club it didn't already own from Interbrew Breweries S.A., which owns Canada's Labatt Breweries.

Read the entire article here on the Globe and Mail website.

Report: Team Won't Aid Economy

2004-10-27T04:09:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
The Washington Times
October 27, 2004

The long-running feud between economists and stadium-happy politicians took another bitter turn yesterday.

The release of a report from the District-based Cato Institute challenged many of the city's claims that baseball's return to Washington would spur economic development.

The report, entitled "Caught Stealing: Debunking the Economic Case for D.C. Baseball," borrows liberally from more than three decades of economic research on the presence of big-time professional sports in urban areas.

Like other studies, the authors of the current report — Dennis Coates from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and Brad Humphreys from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign — argue any new development and tax revenue generated by the presence of a sports facility is more than offset by losses elsewhere in the region, and is not worthy of major public-sector investments.

"Unless you believe that people pull money out of hiding to spend it on sports, that spending has to come at the expense of spending somewhere else," Coates said

Read the entire article here at the Washington Times website

170 Sign Up to Speak At Baseball Hearing

2004-10-27T04:06:00.000-07:00

List Is One of the Longest Ever in D.C.
By David Nakamura
The Washington Post
October 27, 2004

Like two teams before a big game, supporters and detractors of a plan to bring baseball to the District are preparing their lineups for tomorrow's showdown before the D.C. Council.

More than 170 people have signed up to speak at the public hearing in the council's 160-seat chamber, one of the largest lists ever. Yesterday, Mayor Anthony A. Williams was witness No. 157, many spots below a founder of the Dance Institute of Washington, while a former council member was sandwiched between the president of the D.C. League of Women Voters and a high school baseball coach.

But the witness list had been scrambled from its true order by council staff members concerned about its sensitivity. The jockeying for position has been intense, with phones in the office of D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) ringing nonstop as people tried to secure an early speaking slot. Although staffers said speakers would be limited to three minutes apiece, they already were predicting extra innings: The hearing could last until nightfall, and arrangements were being made for overflow seating.

The Washington Interfaith Network planned to mobilize 100 members, all wearing T-shirts reading, "Neighborhoods first!" A protest organized by the group No D.C. Taxes for Baseball was set for 9:30 a.m., a half-hour before the hearing begins. Stadium opponents have passed out 2,000 fortune cookies with anti-stadium slogans. Economists, including those from the Cato Institute, have prepared statistic-laden reports about the dubious impact of a new stadium.

Read the entire article here at the Washington Post website

Penalty for Chiefs or Royals leaving? Megabucks

2004-10-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

By Jeffrey Flanagan
The Kansas City Star
October 27, 2004

he one falsehood we hear the most about the Royals and the Chiefs and their lease with the Jackson County Sports Authority is this: that David Glass or Lamar Hunt can just one day pick up their team and trot it off to another city without a penalty.

Not going to happen.

The leases run through 2015 for both teams. If one of the teams decided today that it would leave, it would have to pay a sizeable penalty based on the estimated annual economic losses to the greater Kansas City area for the remainder of the years in the lease.

Translation: Megabucks.

“There have been numerous studies on the economic value of these teams to the community,” said Jack Holland, legal adviser to the Sports Authority, “and it's safe to say that the losses would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That would be the penalty for either team breaking the lease: Hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Read the entire article here on the Kansas City Star website

Baseball confident Expos' move to D.C. will be finalized

2004-10-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

By RONALD BLUM,
AP Sports Writer
October 26, 2004

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles over the proposed move of the Montreal Expos to Washington have been slowed by the postseason, but baseball's No. 2 official said Tuesday that plans remain on track.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, has been traveling for much of the month, slowing talks with Joe Foss, the Orioles' chief operating officer.

``The negotiations remain cordial,'' DuPuy said before Game 3 of the World Series. ``We had a discussion. We had agreement on most of the philosophical points. We had disagreement on a few of the points, and we continue to discuss points like rational human beings.''

For the move of the Expos to become final, it must be approved by baseball owners, considered a formality. In addition, the District of Columbia government must enact legislation providing $440 million in financing to refurbish RFK Stadium and build a new ballpark.

``We are very confident the District will get it done, the legislation will get passed, the rehab will occur to RFK, we'll open the season in Washington next year and return baseball to the nation's capital,'' he said.

Read the entire article here on Yahoo! Sports.

Expos' GM Likely Will Be Watson

2004-10-26T03:56:00.000-07:00

Position Is Temporary Pending Sale of Team
By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post
October 26, 2004

Former major league first baseman and general manager Bob Watson has been offered what could be a temporary job as general manager of the Expos, who are scheduled to begin play in Washington next spring, according to a Major League Baseball source.

The source, who requested anonymity because Watson was still considering the offer, said an announcement won't be made until after the World Series. The source said he expects Watson to accept the job.

Watson is baseball's vice president of on-field operations -- MLB's disciplinarian -- and could return to the MLB office when the Expos are sold if a new owner wants a different general manager. Because the Expos are owned by the other 29 Major League teams, club president Tony Tavares must work with MLB officials in choosing a general manager.

Tavares, whose future is also linked to the sale of the team, reiterated yesterday that he would not announce a new GM until after the World Series and would not discuss candidates. er 26, 2004.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website

Crowd Demands Services, Not Stadium

2004-10-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

By David Nakamura
The Washington Post
October 26, 2004

An angry and frustrated crowd in Southwest Washington last night denounced Mayor Anthony A. Williams's proposal to build a baseball stadium in their community, saying they feared being displaced and worried that public money will be diverted from schools and health care.

More than 150 people attended the meeting at Waterside Mall, where city officials, including City Administrator Robert C. Bobb, presented plans for the stadium, to be built nearby. The event, billed as a question-and-answer session, largely turned into a chance for residents to express frustration over what they said was the city's inability to meet basic service needs for the community.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Doris Barnes, 60, who lives in the neighborhood. "We need schools, jobs and homes. We don't need a baseball stadium."

A spokesman for the Southwest Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which co-sponsored the meeting, said the group voted 5 to 1 after the meeting to oppose the stadium proposal.

Read the entire article here on The Washington Post website

Randolph Confident About Job With Mets

2004-10-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

By Lee Jenkins
The New York Times
October 26, 2004

Willie Randolph is still under contract with the Yankees, but while speaking yesterday about the possibility of managing the Mets, he used a couple of revealing personal pronouns.

Referring to the Mets as "we" and "us" on multiple occasions, Randolph, 50, sounded as if he expected to be the club's next manager. Asked about the team's talent level, he said, "It's hard to know what we'll need." On the veterans, he said, "They will step up and do a good job for us." And about the new general manager, Omar Minaya, he said, "I think we'll get on real fine together." Randolph even said that he had started to line up candidates for a coaching staff.

Randolph's optimism was striking, given that he has been interviewed without success for managerial positions about a dozen times. He can no longer remember the exact number. He was interviewed by the Mets in 2003, but he did not impress team officials, who gave the job to Art Howe.

A baseball executive who is close to the situation said yesterday that Randolph had had a very positive interview, would definitely be a finalist for the position and could be labeled as a leading candidate. But the executive also said that no decision had been reached and that one probably would not be made this week.

Read the entire article here on the New York Times website

Baseball's booming south of the [Canadian] border

2004-10-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

By BRIAN MILNER
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Oct. 25, 2004

The folks in charge of the Toronto Blue Jays can only look on longingly as baseball south of the border enjoys an impressive resurgence. While the Jays struggle to escape mediocrity on the field, further reduce costs and rebuild a deteriorating fan base, baseball has again become a force in the crowded U.S. world of mass-market entertainment.

The sport has plenty of underlying problems. It still hasn't figured out how to appeal to young people or blacks, revenue sharing isn't working the way it was supposed to, steroid use threatens to erupt into a major scandal, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening and most teams are mired in red ink.

But for all that, baseball's recent successes, whether thanks to smarter business practices or a remarkable string of luck, are undeniable.

....

As any of Selig's legion of critics will tell you, baseball has revived almost despite the worst efforts of its leaders.

"The biggest thing I would say baseball is doing right has been letting baseball take care of baseball," said Maury Brown, co-chair of the business of baseball committee of the Society for American Baseball Research.

"When the business aspect of the game is removed, the game seems to fare well. It's more resilient than those that run it."

Read the entire article here on the Globe and Mail website (subscription required).

Ad in the Bank, Awaiting a Sox Victory

2004-10-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

By STUART ELLIOTT
The NY Times
Published: October 25, 2004

Fans of the Boston Red Sox have been waiting 18 years for their team to return to the World Series. Executives at Nike have been waiting just one.

Last Wednesday, at the end of the Fox Broadcasting coverage of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, Nike ran an emotional 60-second commercial that celebrated the Boston Red Sox's quest to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. (The last time the Red Sox qualified for a World Series was 1986, when they lost in seven games to the New York Mets.)

The commercial, by Wieden & Kennedy, showed fans in four seats in Fenway Park, cheering for another elusive World Series crown. At the bottom of the screen, the dates advanced from 1919 to 2004, while the quartet of fans changed to reflect the changing styles, habits and mores of American society.

Read the entire article here on the NY Times website.

Baseball Tax Raises Question Of Fairness

2004-10-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 25, 2004; Page E01

Pepco wants baseball in Washington, and the electric utility is ready to pay up. Under a proposal by Mayor Anthony A. Williams, it would pay $28,200 a year in new taxes to help pay for a ballpark.

That isn't much for a company that earned $107 million last year. "We're all for it," Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin said of the Montreal Expos moving to Washington. "The tax isn't enough to make a very big difference to us."

A few miles away on Georgia Avenue NW, Dudley Dworken sees it a bit differently. He is the president of Curtis Chevrolet, which he expects will earn less than $150,000 this year. Under the mayor's proposal, the tax would cost Curtis $19,100 -- nearly 13 percent of its profit.
Pepco would pay less than three one-hundredths of 1 percent. "I want a baseball team as much as the next guy," Dworken said. "But I don't see why I should have to pay so much for it."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Game 1 of the World Series highest rated since 1999

2004-10-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Associatied Press
October 24, 2004

NEW YORK (AP) -- Boston's 11-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night got the highest TV rating for the first game of the World Series since 1999.

Fox Sports' prime-time coverage of the game got a 13.7 fast national rating, up 26 percent from Game 1 between the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees last year.

An average of 23.1 million viewers watched the Red Sox win, making it the most-viewed Game 1 since the opening game of the 1996 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees was watched by an average of nearly 23.7 million people.

Read the entire article here on Yahoo! Sports.

[Marlins] Stadium deal and Lowell in limbo

2004-10-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

By BARRY JACKSON
bjackson@herald.com
The Miami Herald

The Marlins continue to have trouble completing their stadium deal, leaving Mike Lowell on the cusp of free agency and creating uncertainty about the franchise's long-term future.

Unless Lowell is traded in the next week, he will very likely be in position to declare for free agency in the first week of November. With a stadium deal unlikely to be completed by Nov. 1, the 2006 and 2007 seasons of Lowell's contract (worth $18 million combined) would be voided.

....

Does Lowell's situation create urgency to complete a stadium deal?

''The future of the franchise depends on a stadium,'' Marlins president David Samson said, ``and that is far greater than how it impacts one player.

''The Marlins and local government officials are no longer even discussing how to bridge the $30 million funding gap. With the Marlins, city and county not willing to put in the missing piece, the parties will try to get the money from the state legislature in March and deal with it later if the state doesn't deliver.

The biggest remaining issue, the county says, is that the Marlins have not provided a $100 million letter of credit from a bank, or other firm revenue sources, to guarantee they would pay for cost overruns beyond the $367 million price tag for the project.

Read the entire article here on the Miami Herald website.

For D.C. Mayor's Assistant, Baseball Is Latest Triumph

2004-10-24T02:01:00.000-07:00

By Debbi Wilgoren and Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff WritersSunday,
October 24, 2004; Page C12

The party to celebrate baseball's return to Washington was winding down at Georgia Brown's, and D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams had already left the downtown restaurant. With him was Stephen M. Green, the city official who had led the successful negotiations with Major League Baseball.

The two men enjoyed a victory cigar -- not as mayor and aide but as Tony and Steve, buddies since Yale University nearly 30 years ago.

Five years ago, Green was a developer who had never worked in government. Now he finds himself at the helm of one of the most important initiatives of Williams's tenure: the $440 million financing package to move the Montreal Expos to Washington this spring and house them in a new waterfront stadium by 2008.

Green, 49, whose title is special assistant to the mayor for planning and economic development, was one of three city officials who hammered out the District's agreement with Major League Baseball during marathon sessions last month. Now, most days, he appears before two or three community or business groups to tout the baseball project, trying to convince a skeptical public that the stadium will spur development in nearby neighborhoods, create jobs and generate tax revenue to support social programs.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.

Playoff ratings pure gold for MLB

2004-10-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
The Washington Times
Oct. 24, 2004

The bleary eyes. The frayed nerves. The fevered anticipation for yet another night of the same. These are the tell-tale signs of another October being taken over by postseason baseball.

The New York Yankees are gone and the Chicago Cubs never even made it to the party, but once again Major League Baseball is basking in the glow of a nation rediscovering and relishing the playoffs.

Football, of course, remains the country's truest sporting love and will be for at least the foreseeable future. The NFL, however, can't dominate water-cooler conversation as baseball does in October.

Wednesday's Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between Boston and New York generated an average audience of 31.5 million, the second-most watched baseball game ever on Fox behind Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

The total beat any single night of the 2004 Summer Olympics. And in Boston, more people watched the game than either of the New England Patriots' Super Bowl wins. Comparable audiences for another LCS game go back to 1988 and 1991, years before the Internet, satellite and digital cable TV became national staples.

The National League Championship Series between St. Louis and Houston, while not equaling the mammoth levels of the AL clash or last year's numbers generated by the Cubs, helped Fox close out the second round of the playoffs with its second-best LCS ratings ever, trailing the 2003 ratings by 4 percent.

Read the entire article here on the Washington Times website.

Officials expect Expos deposits to be returned by next week

2004-10-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

By HARRY MINIUM,
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 23, 2004 Last updated 9:40 PM Oct. 22

NORFOLK — If you’re one of the thousands of people who paid a $100 deposit for a season ticket to help attract the Montreal Expos to Norfolk and haven’t yet received a refund, Norfolk Baseball Co. officials say it’s coming next week.

More than three weeks ago, when Major League Baseball announced the Expos were headed to Washington , the company pledged to have deposits refunded in two weeks. William Somerindyke Jr., chief executive officer of the Norfolk group, conceded Friday that 25 percent of the nearly 10,000 pledges haven’t been refunded.

He said he hopes to have all the money refunded by early next week.

“This has been more difficult than we anticipated,” he said. “We’ve had to go through the parameters of all of the escrow agreements. We apologize that we haven’t gotten them all out. They should be out soon.”

Read the entire article here on the Virginian-Pilot website.

Game 7 highest-rated LCS game since 1991

2004-10-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

ALCS Game 7 draws 19.4 national rating
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The Boston Red Sox capped off an improbable comeback in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series Wednesday night -- and so did the TV ratings.

Boston's 10-3 win was the highest-rated league championship series game since 1991, drawing a 19.4 national rating for Fox Sports. That was up 13 percent from last year's Game 7 between the same teams, which the Yankees won on a home run by Aaron Boone in the 11th inning.

Game 7 of the NLCS between Pittsburgh and Atlanta in 1991 got a 19.9 rating. Wednesday's game was the highest-rated ALCS game since Game 7 of the Boston-California Angels series in 1986 (21.2).

The ratings in New York and Boston were impressive. There was a rating of 56.6 in the Boston area, better than either of the Patriots' two Super Bowl wins. New York had a rating of 30.7.

Read the entire article here on ESPN.com

Major glory, maybe, but major gains? No.

2004-10-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

Series appearance not expected to bring big windfall for Sox
By Naomi Aoki,
The Boston Globe Staff
October 22, 2004

Phones across Boston went down yesterday when World Series tickets went on sale. Hotel rooms are already so scarce that Major League Baseball booked rooms at a dozen hotels to come up with the 800 it needs.

Red Sox mania is so great that one licensee said it is printing twice as much American League championship apparel as it would have had the Yankees won and it expects to sell two to three times as much World Series championship merchandise if the Sox win.

''I want the Red Sox to win," said Rick Becker, vice president of sales and marketing for the major league licensee, VF Corp. The Greensboro, N.C., company is the maker of North Face, Nautica, Wrangler, and other clothing brands. ''Ultimately, we're a business, and I want what's best for our business."

For the Red Sox, however, making history doesn't necessarily translate into a mammoth windfall. A franchise's financial well-being rests largely on the willingness of fans to pay high prices for purely discretionary purchases. For most teams, that willingness waxes and wanes with their on-field success. But with such a devoted fan base, the Red Sox have relatively little to gain financially from winning.

....

''There's no doubt the Red Sox will see a financial boost," said Maury Brown, cochairman of the Society for American Baseball Research's business of baseball committee. ''It just won't be as significant as with the Marlins or the Diamondbacks because the Red Sox are already a popular brand. It's a nice problem to have."

Read the entire article here on the Boston Globe website.

Angels Plan to Train in Tempe Through 2007

2004-10-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

By Bill Shaikin
The Los Angeles Times
October 22, 2004

The Angels plan to honor the three years left in their agreement to hold spring training in Tempe, Ariz..

"They told me they're going to be here through 2007," City Manager Will Manley said Thursday.

Angel spokesman Tim Mead confirmed the decision.

Owner Arte Moreno has yet to decide whether to move the Angels' spring home to a proposed new $40-million complex in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear or remain in a renovated facility in Tempe.

Read the entire article here at the Los Angeles Times website

RFK due to retain prime soccer seating

2004-10-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

By Eric Fisher
The Washington Times
October 22, 2004

D.C. United will retain its lucrative base of sideline seats at RFK Stadium despite the arrival of baseball at the 43-year-old stadium, according to plans being developed by the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission.

As the District vigorously pursued the Montreal Expos in Major League Baseball's protracted relocation chase, the long-held assumption was that about 5,000 of United's most fervent and well-paying fans would be moved to less desirable locations to make room for a baseball outfield.

Many of those seats will still be moved from the north end of the stadium to the west side in the reconfiguration for baseball. But for every United game, sports commission officials plan to use temporary seating on the baseball field to protect the soccer team's revenues.

The seats currently are occupied by the Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava fan clubs for United games and provide more than $90,000 in revenue for the team each home match. "We're going to do everything we can to keep the United fan support right around the field," said Mark Tuohey, sports commission chairman. "We need to make this work for everybody."

Read the entire article here at the Washington Times website

Without a New Owner, Expos Sit in Limbo

2004-10-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

Until Team Is Sold, Making Moves on and off the Field Are Difficult; Top Priority Is Hiring a GM
By Barry Svrluga
The Washington Post
October 22, 2004

Somewhere in the whirlwind of logistics surrounding the Montreal Expos' move to Washington for the 2005 season lies the following reality: The Expos are a baseball team that, for now, has baseball on the back burner. They are without a general manager. Their field manager and coaching staff are in limbo. They have one free agent they would like to re-sign. They have arbitration cases to prepare. They have a team to reassemble.

"We're moving on that part, too," Expos President Tony Tavares said yesterday. "We have conversations about those issues all the time."

Since arriving in Washington last week, Tavares has spent most of his time on issues such as choosing a means to sell tickets and preparing RFK Stadium for its first baseball season since 1971. The first issue for the baseball side of things, Tavares said, is to hire a general manager, who will in turn have a significant say in whether Manager Frank Robinson and his staff come back for another season. Omar Minaya served as the club's GM from 2002 until last month, when he left for the same job with the New York Mets.

One interested party is Pat Gillick, the former GM in Toronto, Baltimore and most recently Seattle. Gillick said yesterday that he had not been contacted by the Expos, but that he would like a crack at being a general manager again, despite the fact that he stepped away from his post with the Mariners last fall.

Read the entire article here at the Washington Post website

D.C. Seeking Bids to Fix Up RFK in Time For Baseball

2004-10-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

$13 Million Worth Of Renovations Planned
By David Nakamura and Paul Schwartzman
The Washington Post
October 22, 2004

District officials said yesterday they are soliciting bids for the estimated $13 million renovation to get Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium baseball-ready, with construction to begin in December.

Major League Baseball plans to sell the Montreal Expos and move the team to Washington pending the D.C. Council's approval of a proposed new baseball stadium on the Anacostia waterfront near South Capitol Street. Beginning in April, the team would play at RFK until a new stadium is completed.

With a temporary home plate lying in the western corner of RFK's soccer field, officials from the city's planning office and sports commission guided reporters on a tour of the stadium yesterday. They said the field, locker rooms, dugouts and stands would be ready for play April 15, when the new Washington team would open its home season against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The key elements include replacing seating for soccer that is in left field with retractable seats that would be removed for baseball; installing foul poles and backstops; cutting a baseball diamond into the grass; painting and carpeting the locker rooms; installing cables, phone lines and electrical wiring for the media; and fixing minor cracks in some parts of the concrete stands.

Read the entire article here on the Washingtong Post website

Dodgers to Offer Tracy Multiyear Deal

2004-10-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

DePodesta says he wants a longer extension for the manager, and he also hopes to retain all of his coaches
By Bill Shaikin
The Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2004

The Dodgers plan to offer a multiyear contract extension to Manager Jim Tracy, General Manager Paul DePodesta said Wednesday.

"We haven't talked about a one-year scenario," DePodesta said. "One year doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Then I'm just back in the same spot next year."

DePodesta, hired on the eve of spring training and awarded a five-year contract, inherited Tracy, whose contact expires this fall. DePodesta deferred a decision on the manager's future at the time of his hiring and throughout most of the season.

The Dodgers won the National League West this season, for the first time since 1995. The club has posted a winning record in each of Tracy's four seasons as manager.

DePodesta said he planned to offer extensions to Tracy and all of his coaches, with the hope of concluding negotiations before the general managers' meetings Nov. 9-12 in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Read the entire article here on the Los Angeles Times website

Cashman returning in 2005

2004-10-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Steinbrenner tells Yankees GM his job is safe
By Mark Feinsand /
MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Brian Cashman wasn't worried about his job status after watching the Yankees lose the American League Championship Series to the Red Sox on Wednesday night.

It turns out that he had no reason to worry, as George Steinbrenner informed his general manager that he would be returning for the 2005 season.

"My mindset is not to worry about things like that. I worry about what I can control, and those are decisions that are above me," Cashman said. "If it was an issue, it would have been an issue whether I was worrying about it or not. I chose not to think about it."

Cashman is closing out his seventh season as the Yankees' GM, and he has one more year remaining on his contract. Having watched his team blow a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS, Cashman knows that organizational meetings in Tampa are imminent, as the club will figure out a course of action to take this winter.

Read the entire article on MLB.com

For Sale: One Baseball Team

2004-10-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Bidders for Expos Must Submit Their Offers by Nov. 1
By Thomas Heath and Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 20, 2004; Page D03

Major League Baseball yesterday officially announced that the sale of the yet-to-be-named Washington baseball team is under way and that prospective bidders have until Nov. 1 to throw their hats in the ring.

Baseball is hoping to earn at least $300 million, and possibly much more, from the sale of the Montreal Expos, which the league is moving to Washington in time for next year's Opening Day.

The Expos were purchased by the league's 29 owners in February 2002 for $120 million, and the league is eager to sell the team after losing millions in Montreal. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig last month made the decision to move the Expos to a $400 million, publicly financed stadium along the District's Anacostia waterfront.

"We have already had a number of expressions of interest and we want to move the process along as expeditiously as possible," said league President Robert DuPuy, who is heading up the sale of the Expos. "The announcement today is consistent with that goal."

Read the entire article here on the Washington Post website.