Expos Sent Back to Limbo

The Washington Nationals might never play a game as the Washington Nationals.

Major League Baseball ordered all but the most essential baseball operations suspended Wednesday and offered refunds for tickets purchased, a day after city legislators amended an earlier stadium-financing agreement.

“Yes, baseball is in jeopardy,” Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams said at an afternoon news conference. “We had a deal and now it’s broken. The dream of 33 years is close to dying.”

Bob DuPuy, president and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball and a member of its relocation committee, released a statement that implied the District of Columbia Council had 16 days to return to the original terms of a contract negotiated by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission and signed by Williams or risk losing the Nationals.

Baseball could rescind its placement of the former Montreal Expos and have the relocation committee revive explorations into alternative sites, including those in Northern Virginia and Las Vegas.

Too much has been done for the team to move back to Montreal for another season, but baseball has considered having the Nationals play the 2005 season at RFK Stadium before moving the team again.

Another temporary home, including one in a bidding city such as Monterrey, Mexico, or San Juan, Puerto Rico, is also a possibility.

One baseball official regarded the turn of events as “a disaster.”

DuPuy called the new legislation, requiring private financing for half the costs of a new ballpark, “inconsistent with our carefully negotiated agreement and is wholly unacceptable.”

“Because our stadium agreement provides for a December 31, 2004 deadline, we will not entertain offers for permanent relocation of the club until that deadline passes. In the meantime, the club’s baseball operations will proceed, but its business and promotional activities will cease until further notice.... Given the present uncertainty, any ticket purchaser who entrusted us with a deposit may request a refund through the club’s ticket office.”

Once considered a certainty, baseball’s intention to move the Expos to Washington was fouled in recent weeks when members of the District of Columbia Council questioned the economic viability of the plan.

Williams championed the move, in which the renamed Nationals would play in a renovated RFK Stadium until a new ballpark could be built along the Anacostia River, a mile from downtown.

About 16,000 season tickets were sold, according to the Washington Post, and merchandise moved quickly, even as a handful of legislators fussed over the details of relocation. The team named itself the Nationals, held rallies, signed free agents and introduced its new cap design, all in preparation for its April 14 home opener.

Team officials canceled a news conference scheduled for Wednesday that would have unveiled the Nationals’ uniforms.

Baseball bought and assumed operations of the foundering organization after the 2001 season. It chose Washington, despite two previous failures in the region, over sites in Northern Virginia; Norfolk, Va.; Monterrey; San Juan; Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas.

The relocated franchise was expected to be resold for about $350 million, and in the original plan the stadium would be paid off with taxes on Washington’s largest businesses, taxes on ballpark concessions and rent paid by the team.

While the District of Columbia Council voted to finance construction of the ballpark, it significantly altered the agreement baseball believed it had. According to construction estimates, at least $250 million would have to come through private financing.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman lobbied baseball’s winter meetings Saturday, when he arrived in a black stretch limousine, accompanied by two lanky, feathered showgirls and an Elvis impersonator.

Having apparently failed to lure the Expos, Goodman awaited the relocation of the next failing franchise.

“The world needs Vegas,” Goodman said. “We’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse.”

Goodman dismissed notions the gaming city would be a risk for Major League Baseball, which, like most professional leagues, has projected a stern distrust toward sports betting. Baseball officials appear to be growing more receptive to the idea, just as the NBA has investigated the possibility of putting one of its franchises in Las Vegas.

And, it is now legal to bet on Nevada Las Vegas games in the city’s many sports books.

“Las Vegas is the safest place to ensure against any kind of impropriety,” Goodman said. “We are the quintessential regulator.”