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County judge looking at S.A.-Austin double play for Expos

By W. Scott Bailey
The San Antonio Business Journal

San Antonio and the Austin area could team up to make a play for the troubled Montreal Expos franchise.

That's if Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff -- who has been involved in discussions with Major League Baseball about the Alamo City's ability to accommodate and support a big league team -- has his way.

Wolff, who has played and published a book about the game of baseball, first began dialogue with a Major League Baseball representative last January concerning San Antonio's possibility as a big league market. Since then, he says he has talked with parties interested in possible ownership of the Expos that could move South and play half of its games in San Antonio and the other half in Mexico.

"I've gotten calls from people with an interest in getting into ownership and we started to talk about Monterrey and San Antonio and a possible split schedule," explains Wolff. "But it doesn't have to be Monterrey, it could be Austin."

Texas' Capital City is not a location Wolff spontaneously pulled from his hat. The county judge says he has talked about professional baseball with officials in that market recently -- most notably with Nolan Ryan.

"I had a good talk with Nolan Ryan about baseball not long ago," says Wolff. "We talked about what he is doing in Austin and what we're doing here."

Ryan, a former Houston Astros and Texas Rangers pitching great, was instrumental in bringing professional baseball to the Austin area when he led a group who bought the rights to a Texas League franchise and placed the Round Rock Express in the much heralded Dell Diamond a few years ago. Ryan's group has already begun the process of working to expand the seating capacity at Dell so that Round Rock can attract a AAA franchise -- a step up from the AA Texas League where the Express currently compete.

Ryan and his family have taken an interest in partnering with San Antonio officials in the area of professional sports before. The Ryans had considered acquiring an interest in the San Antonio Iguanas and moving the team into the Alamodome before the Central Hockey League franchise eventually ceased operations upon the arrival of the Spurs-owned Rampage, which currently compete in the American Hockey League.

Wolff says Nolan Ryan has also contemplated moving to the Alamo City in the past.

Nolan Ryan and his sons Reid and Reese, who are President/CEO and chief financial officer for the Express, respectively, were not available for comment. But Round Rock City Manager James Nuse says the possibility of a San Antonio-Round Rock franchise is exciting.

"This concept of splitting time and resources has some real merit. I mean, golly, it sure seems to make a lot of sense," says Nuse. "At a minimum, this idea is certainly intriguing."

Nuse, who says Round Rock officials will touch base with Wolff and explore the possibility further, says naysayers of such a plan should not be quick to write off the idea.

"I think our markets are better than the Expos' market," he contends.

Making a play

Wolff says a San Antonio-Austin area Major League Baseball franchise is doable and that he intends to delve deeper into the possibility. That Wolff would be the one to spearhead such an effort is no surprise, as it was then Mayor Wolff who was most responsible for keeping the Texas League San Antonio Missions from departing by getting a new stadium built.

Although Wolff told Major League Baseball officials nearly a year ago that he believed San Antonio was not ready to support a franchise, the man for whom the Missions stadium is now named says things have since changed.

Two of the things Wolff said in January of this year that needed to happen for San Antonio to be ready for big league baseball were successfully securing a Toyota manufacturing plant and getting the PGA Village development approved and under construction. The first hurdle has been cleared, as Toyota is scheduled to open an $800 million Tundra assembly plant in San Antonio in 2006. And developers of the planned PGA Village have told the Business Journal that they are closer to making that project a reality, as well.

"I told (the Major League Baseball representative) that if those things happened, San Antonio will be poised," Wolff said in January.

Some league observers may be paying attention and taking renewed interest in San Antonio. A New Jersey newspaper reported in recent days that Major League Baseball could be taking a closer look at the Alamo City as a potential new home for the Expos. That report cited an unnamed "baseball official familiar with (the league's) plans for the franchise" who had indicated that San Antonio and Las Vegas have emerged as potential relocation candidates for the Expos.

Nothing ventured...

Wolff says landing the Expos remains a long shot, at least for now. But he also believes that it is a challenge worthy of further investigation.

"The question is would Major League Baseball be willing to do something like that?" Wolff says, referring to a San Antonio-Austin area franchise playing a split schedule. "I know the NFL did it with the Green Bay Packers."

Indeed, the Packers used to play a portion of their games in Milwaukee each year. Other leagues have also had franchises split their schedules between two markets.

One example is the NBA's Sacramento Kings, who used to split their schedule between Kansas City and Omaha. Then there were the Houston Rockets, who for a couple of years in the 1970s before the Spurs arrived, played several of their games in San Antonio.

There are other obstacles to overcome. Foremost is stadium capacity.

Wolff Stadium was named by BaseballParks.com as one of the nation's best AA facilities in September. But with a current capacity of roughly 7,000 seats, it is not nearly large enough to accommodate the Expos.

The county judge says the capacity at Wolff Stadium can be brought up to 20,000-25,000 in the short term. He feels that would be sufficient for the immediate future and believes that once SBC Center bonds are paid off, there could be money available for any additional expansion.

Round Rock's Dell Diamond will soon accommodate roughly 13,000 fans and reportedly could easily be expanded into the 20,000- to 25,000-seat range. It also has a number of MLB-quality amenities that make it attractive, as well as plenty of nearby vacant land.

"All of this will depend on the attitude of Major League Baseball," says Wolff. "But it would certainly be an improvement over the (Expos') current situation."

Wolff adds, "I certainly think it's worth us looking at. If you don't poke your head around, things don't happen. Remember, no one thought we'd get Toyota. But we did."

Nuse says you don't pass on big opportunities just because they may seem far-fetched on the surface. "How many things these days are a slam dunk?"

Or, in this case, a home run.

"PLAY BALL!"