Louisiana Governor Again Trying to Lure Giants

Gov. Buddy Roemer says he has resumed talks with the owner of the San Francisco Giants about moving to New Orleans.

Voters in Santa Clara, Calif., recently rejected a bond issue to build a new home for the Giants. Team owner Bob Lurie has expressed a desire to leave San Francisco’s windy Candlestick Park.

“The owner would like to remain in the San Francisco area,” Roemer said during an impromptu news conference Thursday. “He’s still trying to do that. He and I have spoken, and if San Francisco doesn’t work out, he’s interested in New Orleans. He’s not yet ready to make a commitment.”

San Francisco and San Jose also have rejected moves to build a new home for the Giants.

Lurie has said the Giants will play the 1991 season in Candlestick Park, but he may have to look elsewhere for a new home after that.

In another baseball development, the head of one of the two groups seeking a baseball expansion franchise for the Washington, D.C., area dropped out of the bidding today, saying the national economic downturn had hurt his efforts to attract investors.

Mark Tracz said he told the National League’s expansion committee his Capital Region Baseball, Inc., was short of the $250 million needed to put a team in Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs.

The withdrawal leaves one group, led by Washington developer John Akridge, bidding for one of the two new franchises the National League will award to begin play in the 1993 season.

The National League is asking $95 million as an entry fee for the two new franchises and Tracz said putting together a baseball organization and building a stadium in Northern Virginia put the cost out of reach for his investment group.