Expansion or Relocation Is Coming : 12 Cities Or Regions Make Their Pitch for Baseball Teams

Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth said Friday major league expansion or relocation “could come as early as next year.”

Presentations by 12 cities or regions seeking big-league franchises were made Thursday and Friday.

Phoenix; Buffalo, N.Y.; New Orleans; Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg, Fla.; New Jersey, and Nashville, Tenn., made presentations Friday, following Thursday’s bids by Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Miami; Washington; Indianapolis, and Vancouver, Canada.

“One of the cities appeared to us to have backed off considerably from their interest,” Ueberroth said. “Some that we thought were way-down-the-line types of cities surprised us by their ability to be ready to consider expansion or relocation much quicker than we had thought.” He declined to name any of them.

He also said the relocation of existing teams doesn’t have to be completed before expansion franchises are awarded and that financially troubled teams could get first crack at the cities seeking ballclubs.

“If ownership decided that expansion won’t come until ‘X’ year, then obviously relocation would have first shot,” he said. “If they decided on a much quicker time frame for expansion, they (relocation and expansion) might be lumped together.

“It’s also possible that some cities might be better for relocation than expansion and vice versa. Obviously a city that has no facility now, a relocation is probably not possible. That city would be more of an expansion city than a relocation city. A city where we could play next week could have both possibilities.”

Denver, Vancouver and New Orleans have ballparks that could house major league teams immediately. Washington’s RFK Stadium, former home of the Senators, needs some restructuring of the seating. Every other community has either a minor league park needing major expansion or no existing stadium.

Buffalo and Phoenix pitched their weather in Friday’s sessions with the Long Range Planning Committee.

“One floor upstairs are baseball people making baseball decisions for the future of their sport,” Bob Rich Jr., president of the minor league Buffalo Bisons, said in a room on the 48th floor of a skyscraper housing the offices of Willie, Farr & Gallagher, a law firm that includes former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn as a member.

“The Buffalo jokes notwithstanding,” Rich said, “sure we have snow, but it comes in the winter, when it’s supposed to. We only had seven games snowed out--er, rained out--over the last three years, and no games snowed out.”

Buffalo’s image problem is the reverse of Phoenix’s. The average August temperature there is 104 degrees.

“There are rumors afoot that it’s warm in Phoenix in the summertime,” Mayor Terry Goddard said with a grin. “We consider that an advantage, but there are those who don’t, and we had to talk to the committee about that.

“There was concern that we wouldn’t be able to build a fan base during July and August, but we feel the fan enthusiasm is there, as is the new technology of stadium construction with translucent domes, retractable domes and evaporative cooling,” a form of outdoor air-conditioning.

New Orleans’ pitch was linked to the Louisiana Superdome, New Jersey’s to a projected first-year attendance of 2.6 million, Nashville’s to its claim as a major tourist center and the home of a highly successful minor league team and Tampa-St. Petersburg’s to the region’s growth potential and climate.

The 26 owners will meet a month from now in San Diego, where they will evaluate the committee’s report. Ed Durso, baseball’s executive vice president, secretary-treasurer and general counsel, reiterated that the committee “will not be making any announcements or commitments” and that their purpose was to gather information.

“We neither encouraged nor discouraged anyone,” Durso said.

But Rich said: “We came here as the dark horse and we’re going out as the eye-opener. We tried to bite our lip, but we’re encouraged.”