February 05, 2004
Expos status report
It's been a few weeks since we've checked in on Bud Selig's Stadium Extortion Across North America Tour, as Doug Pappas has called the endless saga to find a new home (preferably publicly funded) for the Montreal Expos. The current state of non-affairs:
- Washington, D.C. is considering a new stadium site near the waterfront that, the Washington Post confusingly notes, "might save money because the land is owned either by the federal government or the city" but also "could exceed the approximate $470 million cost of each of the other sites currently under consideration." D.C. still has no financing plan for a stadium, and won't consider one unless MLB first agrees to move the Expos there.
- Norfolk is apparently being taken seriously as a contender by MLB, despite its dinky size. Doug Pappas notes that the city's plan - which would include hotel and restaurant taxes, a ticket tax, and player income taxes, in addition to a state TIF district - is being led by "'a pair of 26-year-old former stock brokers,' a phrase not likely to inspire confidence." The Virginia state legislature, meanwhile, has decided to let the Virginia Stadium Authority expire next Jan. 1 if no stadium deal is in place, effectively giving MLB a deadline to put up or shut up if it wants to move the Expos to either Northern Virginia or Norfolk.
- Portland, Monterrey, and Las Vegas are all reportedly still in the running, though none has made much headway on stadium financing plans.
- A guy who went 1-for-7 with the Expos in 1991 wants to buy them and move them to Tiger Stadium.
Undaunted, MLB president Bob DuPuy told USA Today of finding a new home for the Expos: "We'll get it done this year, I promise you." That's what they all say.
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