Baseball, mayors to meet on future of Expos

NEW YORK -- Baseball's committee on the future of the Montreal Expos will meet Tuesday with the mayors of the District of Columbia and Portland, Ore., and a day later with officials from Northern Virginia to discuss a new site selection for the team.\nDistrict of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams will head his delegation, which also includes District Council chairman Linda Cropp, Deputy Mayor Eric Price and representatives of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission.\n"This is going to be one of the highest priorities for our city, if not the highest priority," Williams said Wednesday, calling it a "pre-presentation meeting."\n"Officials of major league baseball want to give us an opportunity to learn in greater detail what they will expect of us when we make our full presentation to them later down the road," he said. "This is an informal, preliminary meeting. No decisions have been made with regard to site selection. We will not be submitting any financing plan at this meeting."\nThe Portland contingent will include Mayor Vera Katz and former Indiana Pacers general manager David Kahn, part of the Oregon Stadium Campaign.\nNorthern Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority chairman Michael Frey, who also is a Fairfax County supervisor, and authority director Gabe Paul Jr. will head their group.\nThe committee told each delegation to bring along up to six people for their meeting.\nThe Northern Virginia group said Wednesday it has hired the advertising and marketing firm White & Baldacci to help prepare its presentation.\nBaseball officials said they hope to have a decision by midsummer on where the Expos will play in 2004, but commissioner Bud Selig last week refused to give a timetable.\nIn North Carolina, Charlotte City Councilor Lynn Wheeler, who chairs the council's economic development committee and was key in bringing the NBA back to Charlotte, said she doesn't think her city government has gotten involved in talks.\n"To my knowledge there's been no request for someone from the city and there is certainly not any commitment by the city to look at it," Wheeler said.\nThe recent deal under which the city agreed to build a new downtown arena for the NBA expansion team that is to begin playing in 2004-05 has exhausted the city's ability to finance sports projects, Wheeler said. "We have no funds," she said. "We are tapped out."\nThe New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority said it had not been invited to any meetings.\nSteven Schauer, spokesman for San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza, said to his knowledge the city has had no contact with the commissioner's office about moving the Expos.