September 17, 2004
Rush job on D.C. stadium?
With stadium opponents set to take over the D.C. city council, there's increasing speculation that the lame-duck council will try to push through a stadium bill for the Expos before it leaves office. The timetable would be extraordinarily tight, reports the Washington Times' Eric Fisher: Given procedural requirements of the council, "a bill introduced in October would not be completed until early December at the soonest, just days before [stadium supporters Harold] Brazil, [Kevin] Chavous and [Sandy] Allen make way for Marion Barry, Vincent Gray and Kwame Brown on the council."
Since it's extremely unlikely baseball owners would make any decisions on the Expos' fate during the playoffs - and since D.C. officials have been adamant that they won't introduce a stadium bill until MLB awards them the team - that effectively leaves until the end of the regular season for Bud Selig & Co. to make their decision. Can 29 baseball owners agree on a course of action - including how to placate Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, how to deal with the possibility of a RICO arbitration loss, and how much stadium baksheesh to demand from the D.C. council - in the next sixteen days? Stranger things have happened.
THIS JUST IN: Canadian news outlets are reporting that Olympic Stadium concessionaires have been told that the Expos will be officially relocated November 30, and all team front-office personnel laid off on that date; Expos management denies the story. Read into this what you will.
