Portland a contender for Expos team

By kgw.com and AP Staff

The Montreal Expos will play 22 of their 81 home games in Puerto Rico next year, but the Expos could have a possible permanent home in Portland the following season.

Expos president Tony Tavares said Wednesday that with the guaranteed income from the games in San Juan, his team will not have to conduct a "fire sale" of players such as Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon. Still, he did not reveal the Expos' planned payroll.

As baseball owners ended their meeting in Irving, Texas Wednesday, commissioner Bud Selig also formed a committee to determine the long-term fate of the Expos, who were purchased from Jeffrey Loria earlier this year, and formed a marketing task force to examine how baseball attracts fans.

Baseball officials hope to have a permanent solution for 2004, and probably will hold a bidding process. Portland, along with Charlotte, N.C. and Washington, D.C., is among the contenders.

Baseball announced that the Expos would play three homestands at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan without identifying specific opponents, but the hoped-for schedule was revealed by several baseball officials spoke who on the condition of anonymity.

Subject to negotiations with the players' association, the Expos would play a 10-game homestand in San Juan in April, with games against the New York Mets (April 11-14), Atlanta (April 15-17) and Cincinnati (April 18-20).

The second homestand would include the World Series champion Anaheim Angels (June 3-5) and Texas (June 6-8), and the last would have Florida (Sept. 5-7) and the Chicago Cubs (Sept. 9-11).

"It doesn't affect me where we play," Expos manager Frank Robinson said Tuesday after agreeing to come back for a second season in Montreal. "It will be great to play in front of the people down there. They're great fans. I spent nine years down there managing in winter ball."

San Juan was the host for its first regular-season game in 2001, the season opener between Texas and Toronto.

The Expos have been at or near the bottom in attendance in recent years at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and the commissioner's office wants to cut losses.

Montreal drew just 812,000 fans to its home games this year, and baseball isn't ready to decide on a permanent move. The games in San Juan are seen as a method to increase revenue.

"Puerto Rico will help a lot because you are collecting U.S. dollars and certain dollars, if you will, because there are guarantees involved," Tavares said.

Baseball has asked Puerto Rican organizers to guarantee revenue from the games on the Caribbean island.