BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Seattle Voters Have Say on Stadium

A sales-tax increase to help build a $325 million stadium, pitched as probably the last chance to keep the Mariners in Seattle, gained a razor-thin lead in voting returns late Tuesday night.

With votes counted in 2,296 of 2,650 precincts, the measure was leading 198,366 to 197,012, a favorable vote of 50.2 percent.

“The vote sounds like our team, a come-from-behind kind of thing,” Mariner Manager Lou Piniella said. “It says a lot about the people to get out and support the team by voting on an issue like this.”

The measure would raise the sales tax in King County, which includes Seattle, by one-tenth of 1 percent, even though a final design, site or lease agreement for the retractable-roof stadium have not been chosen.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better climate for this election,” said Bob Gogerty, a political consultant and spokesman for the stadium booster group Home Town Fans. “The team is in a pennant race. They are playing their heart out and the owners have done everything they could to get the word out.”

The Mariners play in the concrete-roofed Kingdome, which the team was forced to vacate for the remainder of the season in July 1994 after falling ceiling tiles required millions of dollars of repairs.

Team owners say a new stadium would boost attendance and revenue, and they have made it clear they intend to sell the team if voters don’t back the new ballpark.

The owners expect to lose $30 million this season, bringing the losses sustained by majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo, to $67 million in the 3 1/2 years he has owned the club.

In addition, the measure would finance a Kingdome overhaul demanded by owners of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, who also said they might leave if the plan were thrown for a loss.

*

The Milwaukee Brewers hired 11 lobbyists, including the stepson of Gov. Tommy G. Thompson’s top aide, to boost support for a funding plan for a new $250-million ballpark, published reports said. The team hired seven of the lobbyists in mid-August, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The lobbyists include Brewer president and acting Commissioner Bud Selig and D.J. Klauser, stepson of Administration Secretary James Klauser.