Bonds on Hold Until Ownership Is Settled : Giants: Lurie still controls team, and he won’t pay $43 million.

Barry Bonds sat in a corner of the media workroom Sunday night next to his father, Bobby. He was flanked by agent Dennis Gilbert and his cadre of assistants.

It was 7:30, and everything seemed in place at the winter baseball meetings for the official announcement of Bonds’ record signing with the San Francisco Giants for six years at an estimated $43 million.

Only one thing was missing: the new owners of the team they do not formally own yet.

Peter Magowan and associates never showed, sending word to Gilbert at about 8 o’clock that the news conference would have to be scrubbed because, as it became apparent later, they could not make a player deal without the approval of Bob Lurie, who is still the official owner.

It was not until 1 a.m. here that Gilbert returned to the workroom with Larry Baer, executive vice president of the Giants under the new owners, and said the deal was still in place, that an announcement would be made today.

“Legal issues arose,” Gilbert said, “but it will get done. I have no doubt. It’s just a delay.”

Baer said the new owners shared Gilbert’s optimism, that lawyers were at work on the problems and that an announcement would be made today.

It is believed that lawyers for the two sides are working on an agreement that would remove Lurie from the equation by committing Bonds to the new owners, pending approval by major league owners of their $100-million purchase of the club.

“You have to have control of the ballclub to sign a player, and they don’t have control,” Lurie said of the Magowan group. “If the deal (to sell the club) falls through, we don’t want Bonds as a member of the Giants at that price. We would not approve a contract of that size. They need our consent and don’t have it.”

There was speculation that Lurie was under pressure from fellow owners to hold the line on that because of their displeasure with the magnitude of the Bonds contract. Lurie, it is believed, was also annoyed that the new owners came up with a record deal for Bonds after insisting they could not match the $115 million that a group from Tampa-St. Petersburg had offered for the Giants.

Asked about that, Lurie said it was “a very good question” and suggested that reporters pose it to Magowan and the new owners, none of whom were available during Sunday night’s long delay.

It was also speculated that the size of the Bonds contract and the announcement Saturday night of its tentative consummation before the sale has been approved might have bothered owners to the extent that they will hold their approval.

The sale, originally expected to be voted on here Wednesday, will not be, and one owner, Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox, said he may withhold his approval because of the events of the last 48 hours. Reinsdorf, however, said the decision not to vote Wednesday stemmed strictly from procedural issues.

However, the magnitude of Bonds’ apparent signing affected all aspects of the meetings and could influence owner thinking today when they decide whether to reopen collective bargining with the players union or wait until the contract expires after next season.

“If some people were thinking they could wait another year to change the system, this should convince them otherwise,” said a National League owner who favors reopening the talks.

Pirate General Manager Ted Simmons, having supervised an ongoing roster upheaval because of his limited finances, said he had been prepared for the Bonds departure, but added that he was stunned by the amount.

“It’s somewhere beyond the black hole,” he said. “It’s taken the wind out of everything that’s happening here. People aren’t ready to talk about anything else.

“I mean, they see $43 million for Barry and say, ‘We were thinking about (Ruben) Sierra, we were thinking about (Mark) McGwire. Now we’ve got to think some more about this.’ ”

Montreal Expo owner Claude Brochu said his club would have to draw 700,000 more per year, or 4.2 million more over the life of the contract, to pay Bonds.

Said Fred Claire, executive vice president of the Dodgers: “We all pay in the long run.”