BaseBall talk — Page 8

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Washington Making New Bid for Baseball Team
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington will make a fresh bid for a baseball team when major league officials visit the capital on Thursday to hear revised plans for a new, publicly financed stadium.

The nation's capital -- which lost two successive baseball teams, each named the Washington Senators, in 1960 and 1971 -- has dreamed for years of bringing the beloved game back, not least to help fuel ambitious economic development plans.

Washington is seeking to attract the attendance-starved Montreal Expos (news), now owned by Major League Baseball.

A spokesman for Mayor Anthony Williams told Reuters on Wednesday the city would present plans for stadiums at three or four alternative locations -- none of which would require funds from the private consortium that would buy the team.

A source close to the negotiations, however, said that only one blueprint, envisioning a new stadium near the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium on land the city already owns, was cheap enough to be fully publicly financed.

The city is keeping the total cost of each proposal under wraps until after Thursday's presentation, its second in two years as it vies with neighboring Northern Virginia and with other cities as far away as Monterrey, Mexico, for the ailing Expos.

Last year the city said it would contribute $338 million toward the projected $463 million cost of a new baseball stadium if Major League Baseball agreed to relocate the Expos to Washington.

Officials say that a stadium fully financed with public funds would have a distinct edge.

"We're pretty confident that our proposal is superior to any other proposal that is currently under consideration by MLB," said Williams' spokesman Tony Bullock.

The source close to the talks said Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, were among the other new locations baseball was considering for the Expos.

Tax-exempt revenue bonds backed by sales taxes on tickets, merchandise, parking and other ballpark-associated items were a major part of last year's plan and would provide the public funding for the current proposals as well, Bullock said.

"It's not general fund dollars going to this," he stressed.

He said Major League Baseball had indicated it would decide on a new location for the Expos around the time of the July 13 All Star game in Houston.

Bullock said the RFK Stadium-area plan was the least attractive from the city's point of view precisely because there was less opportunity there than at other sites to benefit the surrounding neighborhood economically.

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