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Getting on baseball's short list
Portland's plan for the Expos heads for New York, but the trick will be getting the owners' attention
By JOHN HUNT
The Oregonian
Sunday, May 16, 2004

When major league baseball owners meet Wednesday and Thursday in New York, the relocation of the Montreal Expos will be prominent on the agenda. Before them will be a revised stadium finance plan from Portland.

It could be titled, "Don't take us out of the ballgame."

The plan accounts for $340 million, $10 million short of the estimated project cost. It has a $0 team equity contribution -- the check that an owner would write to make the deal work -- that will be well-received by the owners. It has some components, such as the charter seat license fees and merchandise taxes, that amount to an indirect contribution by the owner.

But for Portland, what's important is that the revised plan is on its way to New York, a bound version that serves as proof that Portland is still working toward a viable relocation plan.

"We've been methodically moving," Oregon Stadium Campaign leader David Kahn said. "That seems to be, right or wrong, the nature of Portland. We're seeking to capture only baseball-related revenues -- that is challenging."

The real challenge has been to avoid the relocation ax. Publicly, Portland has not been eliminated from consideration for the Expos -- certainly not as a long-term relocation candidate. But privately, Portland has been out of sight, out of mind.

"The real key right now is getting enough of baseball's attention to keep us on the short list," Portland Baseball Group president Steve Kanter said.

That the packet is more than what other cities have offered weighs in Portland's favor.

Portland trailed Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas in the eyes of the relocation committee last week, because those two cities are capable of hosting the Expos in 2005.

But Portland has shown that it could -- conceivably -- get its act together in time for the 2005 season. And it has a lead of about $124 million (the current projected revenue from Senate Bill 5, the stadium bill) in actual, enacted legislation.

Anthony Williams, the mayor of Washington, D.C., has promised Major League Baseball a stadium fully financed by public money. Las Vegas, where the Legislature doesn't meet until 2005, reportedly has promised a stadium built by 100 percent private money.

Portland has a mix.

"This is certainly not the final plan yet, but it's a good plan," Kanter said. "If the clock doesn't run out on us, we're going to end up having the strongest proposal."

It is not known whether any of the possible relocation cities will be eliminated this week.

"Nobody quite knows what the rules of the game are, and maybe what the game is called, and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense," Kahn said.

But if Portland comes out of New York alive, then it must flesh out the finance plan -- and it would have regained a little of the momentum it squandered after August's passing of Senate Bill 5.

Kahn's deadline for the final plan is June 21, but that might be optimistic at this point. July would seem more realistic.

There also is the matter of site selection. Without it, there's no deal, no area businesses from which to capture revenue, no idea of urban renewal money, etc.

The public phase of site selection won't happen until after a Memorandum of Understanding is reached.

But there has been considerable work done on site selection, including some positive movement on the favorite site of some baseball backers, the U.S. Post Office site.

There have been "really good" discussions with the United States Postal Service, Kanter said.

But does the City Council need to sign off on the deal first?

"It's possible it may be better to have a team evince an interest and then have council support," Kahn said. "It may not be a fatal blow that the council may not do this before the All-Star Game. Ultimately, the council has to vote for it, and whether that vote comes before a team relocates or after a team evinces an interest in relocating, that will play itself out."

In a letter sent Friday to the relocation committee, Portland Mayor Vera Katz outlined the status of the city's financing and asked for some cooperation from the committee.

"Because we are nearing the finish line, and in the interest of fairness, I think it is important that members of the committee meet with us as soon as possible in Portland to discuss how we might be awarded the Expos and, if not, how the relocation process will continue to unfold with respect to other franchises," Katz wrote.

Meanwhile, HOK Sport and Turner Construction are working on a new round of cost estimates for a stadium in Portland, with that report expected by mid-June.

The report could say that $340 million is enough. If the relocation committee isn't sufficiently impressed by the revised finance plan at the owners meetings, then Portland must adopt a long-range plan to win back Major League Baseball's favor.

"We could still pull it out of the fire," Kanter said. "We need a miracle. It's not as big as the legislative miracle -- even now."

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