Portland, watch Montreal Expos' relocation closely

By Maury Brown
Special to the Oregonian
Page D2
Nov. 15, 2004

The only certainty in baseball and politics is uncertainty. If you don't believe me, look no further than the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series, and the drama unfolding in our Nation's Capitol regarding the relocation of the Montreal Expos.

For 2 plus years, Washington, DC, as well as Portland and a host of other locales, worked toward funding proposals for a new stadium that would serve as a new home for the languishing Expos.

Well, that's only partially true.

You see, DC actually didn't work on getting funding passed. While Portland worked on passing legislation in Salem, DC sat on the sidelines knowing that the large market size was going to be too tempting for Major League Baseball to pass on. Jack Evans, the Chairman of the Finance committee in the DC Council stuck firm to the position that without the team in hand, the District would not move forward on one bit of funding. Given the team, "I guarantee passage of the funding," Evans said, regardless of the fact that the public had never been briefed on the details. The less known, it seemed, the less critiquing of the Plan.

It worked.

In mid-September, Major League Baseball awarded the Montreal Expos to the District on a number of conditions, and the ensuing party lasted roughly 24 hours when the community got wind of the proposal. From that point forward it's been a state of acrimony over the deal.

Nearly immediately, vocal opposition to the plan started inside and outside the Council. None spoke louder than D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty.

Fenty believes it would be wrong to support baseball when the District has "avoided taxes over the past couple of years for needed priorities."

"Schools, libraries, you name it. We haven't raised taxes. In some cases, we've lowered taxes," Fenty said. "So for the council and the mayor to come forward and say we're going to raise taxes for baseball sends the complete wrong signal to the citizens of the District of Columbia."

The problem that the District got themselves into was the same thing that got them the team.

When MLB awarded the team on conditions that the District follow through on the funding, it placed all the pressure on them to make good on the lofty promises when they were wooing the team. Now stuck with a mounting deadline and steep agreement in which the District offered to saddle almost all the burden, statements like, "Honoring our word," came to the forefront as the Mayor and key Council members pushed through the funding proposal.

Standing on the sidelines stood the Districts business community.

Unlike the Portland plan, which looks currently looks at $75 million via a business tax over 30 years, the District's model has the business community paying for over 1/3 the $440 million, and growing total cost. This had a number of key business leaders supportive, but teetering on outward uneasiness. When the District's chief financial officer said that the total price was projected to be $91 million higher than advertised, and to make up the difference, larger businesses would pay nearly double in taxes, the business community cracked in their support proposing only paying the tax for 4-years, as opposed to the Plans 30 year life. As Barbara Lang, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce President said, "We realize there are some economic benefits and civic pride to having a baseball team. But we want to make sure our businesses are being treated fairly."

All of this pales to the events of last week, when Chairwoman Linda Cropp withdrew from the Mayor's proposal and offered up her own plan to build more inexpensively at a different site location near RFK Stadium. Dropping this news the Friday before the key vote the following Tuesday sent the Mayor and proponents scrambling. Major League Baseball is not pleased, and has threatened to pull the plug on the deal. Mayor Williams said plainly, "It could blow the deal up."

Cropp's intentions are well meaning and well founded. In DC's race to get MLB after a 33-year absence, there have been no safeguards within the ballpark proposal. There is no cap on spending to speak of. When the time for a vote on the proposal arrived Tuesday morning, Councilwoman Cropp exercised her rights and is tabling the bill for 2 weeks to try and get a more well balanced bill that will allow for MLB to return to the District, yet not create a boondoggle.

Portland should be watching these proceedings closely.

Wisely, there were amendments and safeguards placed in the state-funding portion of Portland's plan that cap the total amount of ballplayer income taxes earmarked. Creatively, using the multi-million dollar players' income taxes to pay for the ballpark covers nearly 1/3 the cost.

The business community should look to DC as well. There are economic benefits that businesses can see from stadium development. It is weighing the investment against the return that is critical.

Portland would do well to watch how the relocation of the Montreal Expos turns out, even if Portland did not land the team, we can learn what can be, and what was done correctly in the pursuit.

Maury Brown lives in Southwest Portland and is co-chairman of the business of baseball committee for the Society for American Baseball Research.