January 18, 2004
Expos bidding stuck in neutral
Portland, Oregon, the only city with anything like a firm financing plan for a new stadium to lure the Montreal Expos, has downgraded its projections, saying a tax on player salaries is now expected to bring in only $100 million, not $150 million as previously planned. (Someone in Portland finally noticed that the increase in baseball player salaries has slowed dramatically.) One source of revenue that apparently won't be considered: a check from the team owner. "In order for us to make a deal that makes sense for baseball," Oregon Stadium Campaign leader David Kahn told The Oregonian, "that equity share needs to be at or near zero."
Meanwhile, rumors continue to fly around where the Expos might land, with the casino company Caesars revealing it's held "very, very preliminary discussions" on bringing an MLB team to Las Vegas, while tea-leaf readers are hard at work trying to divine what Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos' appointment to baseball Executive Council will mean for bids from the D.C. area.
