June 25, 2004
Whither Youppi, cont'd
Hecksapoppin in the Montreal Expos relocation saga. With D.C.'s onetime lock of a bid faltering as people realize there's no agreement on either a site or a funding mechanism - Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll went so far as to declare Washington's bid "all but dead" - other contenders are again gearing up their own hype machines. Las Vegas stadium consultant Mike Shapiro said a $420 million, 40,000-seat retractable-roofed stadium could be built without local tax dollars (presumably he's not counting the tax-increment financing that has been floated as a stadium funding source). Meanwhile, Northern Virginia is touting itself as the new front-runner for its plan that supposedly can provide a $442 million stadium with existing legislative approvals - except that lawyers for the stadium effort now say neighboring Fairfax County will need to approve new highways before the plan can go forward.
"We have been told that the decision will come during All-Star break and announced in August," Loudoun County Board of Supervisors chair Scott York told the Loudoun Times-Mirror. While that's certainly possible, given the unsettled nature of all the stadium plans, we're putting even money on nothing getting decided until 2005. (See the righthand column for the latest Expos odds.)
Thanks to FoS correspondents Erika T. and Herschel K. for the links.
