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Portland remains in hunt for Expos
None of the team's suitors has been eliminated, but baseball expects to make a decision on its future home by midsummer
By JOHN HUNT
The Oregonian
Thursday, May 20, 2004

NEW YORK -- Portland will not be eliminated from consideration for the Montreal Expos -- at least for the next couple of months.

Major League Baseball chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said Wednesday that the relocation committee has not eliminated any of the cities or regions -- Portland; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; Northern Virginia; Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Va.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Monterrey, Mexico -- competing to be the home of the Expos beginning in 2005.

After a 21/2-hour session Wednesday, DuPuy said the relocation committee will take its findings to commissioner Bud Selig "within the next month." DuPuy said he still expects baseball to decide on a new home for the Expos by midsummer.

"No community has been eliminated through the deliberation," DuPuy said.

Some proponents for major league baseball in Portland had feared the city would not make the cut if the committee adopted a shortlist of Expos suitors. But the list might not be shortened before the relocation is decided.

"Not necessarily," DuPuy said. "We will be guided by what the commissioner tells us to do."

Baseball's owners and the commissioner are scheduled to meet today in a session that could include setting a date for the relocation committee's report to the commissioner.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Mayor Vera Katz is scheduled to hold an informal update on Portland's pursuit of a major league team. She is expected to discuss progress in the business community and emphasize that Portland is interested in major league baseball in the long term -- not just in the Expos.

Reached Wednesday by telephone, Oregon Stadium Campaign leader David Kahn said he would reserve any comment until today's meeting.

DuPuy said he received the updated stadium finance plan from Portland on Monday, and that he and the rest of the committee "continue to be inundated with materials from a number of communities."

Portland sent a revised plan that accounted for $344 million of the estimated $350 million project cost. DuPuy said the Expos could be awarded to a city before its finance plan is completed and ratified, but the team would not be sold before all financing is in place.

"We will continue to review the materials that we have recently received to see if that modifies any of the analysis we did today," DuPuy said.

DuPuy, like all members of the relocation committee, would not comment on specific proposals and said the committee would not rank the communities in its report to Selig but will try to lay it out "apples to apples."

Washington, D.C., is widely considered the favorite to land the Expos, but DuPuy said the committee still has concerns about the effect placing a team in Washington would have on the franchise to the north, the Baltimore Orioles. According to DuPuy, the committee also has discussed the effect a team in Portland would have on the Seattle Mariners.

"The commissioner has stated from Day One that he has grave concerns about the impact locating a franchise in a particular community might have on other franchises in other communities," he said. "Obviously, putting a team in Northern Virginia or Washington would have an impact on the Baltimore franchise, and the committee is concerned about that."

The relocation committee, which includes Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Milwaukee Brewers owner Wendy Selig-Prieb, is not likely to continue after the Expos situation is resolved, mainly because baseball owns the Expos, DuPuy said. Other clubs, however, might petition the commissioner for the right to explore relocation.

John Hunt: 503-294-7643; johnhunt@news.oregonian.com