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DuPuy hopes baseball will announce new Nationals owner by Labor Day

By RONALD BLUM,
AP Sports Writer
August 23, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball hopes to select a new owner for the Washington Nationals by Labor Day and transfer control of the team by Oct. 1.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said the sport wants a lease for the team's new ballpark signed before the selection of an owner is announced. Eight groups have bid for the franchise, which was purchased by the other 29 teams before the 2002 season and was the Montreal Expos before moving to the U.S. capital last winter.

``We've continued to meet and talk, probably on a daily basis, with the commissioner and with members of the committee,'' DuPuy said Tuesday following a marketing news conference. ``Several of the candidates have come in over the last couple of weeks and have gone down to mlb.com and have spent some time down there continuing their due diligence. Again, I see no reason why we can't make an announcement by Labor Day.''

Baseball bought the Expos for $120 million, and the sale price has been estimated at $300 million to $450 million.

``No candidates have been eliminated,'' DuPuy said. ``We continue to talk all of the candidates. We know basically what the candidates are willing to pay for the team, and I think it's a matter of making a decision, that's all. ... I don't think they will be eliminated one by one. I think we'll reach a consensus as to who will own the team.''

DuPuy said baseball already has done its investigation of the bidders and he anticipated a speedy approval of the winner. He wants new ownership in place before the start of the offseason so it can make decisions that will affect the 2006 roster and marketing plans.

``You don't want them to be handicapped,'' he said. ``We want them to run this team next year.''

In their first season in Washington, the Nationals began Tuesday just 1 1/2 games behind Houston, the NL wild-card leader.

``As long as it's done in the next three weeks, even month, you'll be fine,'' Nationals general manager Jim Bowden said. ``If it were to drag on, and now you lose this offseason, then it would be an issue. But baseball's aware of that. They're not going to let that happen.''

Teams can start signing free agents on the 16th day following the end of the World Series. Bowden said there also are staffing issues.

``It affects your plans because, No. 1, you're not going to hire good people away from good organizations if they don't know who the GM is. And they're not going to commit long-term until they know the owner, the president, the GM and those type of issues. But I think that Major League Baseball is well aware of that issue.''

The Nationals are playing at RFK Stadium, home of the former Washington Senators, until a new ballpark is built.

``The lease has not yet been signed, and we want the lease signed before we announce,'' DuPuy said. ``Jerry Reinsdorf and our lawyers and others have been working, again daily, on the lease to get the lease done,'' he added, referring to the Chicago White Sox owner.

Former Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten and former Seattle Mariners owner Jeffrey Smulyan are believed to be among the bidders. Other groups are thought to include businessman William Collins and Albert Lord, chairman of Sallie Mae; the Washington Baseball Club, led by former Texas Rangers partner Fred Malek and Jeffrey Zients; former Washington Capitals part-owner Jonathan Ledecky; Maryland real estate businessman Theodore Lerner; Tennessee developer Franklin Haney; and Yusef Jackson (the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson) and Ronald Burkle.

Malek's group includes former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vernon Jordan, a confidant of President Clinton's; the Collins-Lord group has Peter Fitzgerald, a former Republican senator from Illinois; and Ledecky's group includes financier George Soros, who spent millions trying to defeat President Bush in 2004.

AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich in Washington contributed to this report.