Northern Virginia soon may be entering the big leagues. The relocation of the Montreal Expos franchise to the region, is a "near certainty," according to Brian Hannigan, communications director for the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority.
Portland, Ore. and Washington, D.C. also are vying to become the new home of the financially strapped team, which has drawn notoriously low turnout while in Montreal. The league hopes to relocate the team, which is playing 22 of its 81 home games in Puerto Rico, before the 2004 season.
Hannigan said the league's relocation committee, appointed in December, should reach a decision in mid-July.
At a news conference Saturday, the Stadium Authority unveiled the proposals it presented at a March 20 Phoenix meeting with league officials, which included five possible sites for the new stadium, scattered throughout Northern Virginia. The two most preferred sites are both in Arlington County and would provide fans with views of the D.C. cityscape.
The sites' easy accessibility by Metro and more mass transit projects in the area will prevent "it from being the Fourth of July 81 times a year" on Northern Virginia roads, Hannigan said.
While Hannigan and other supporters see the stadium as a potential economic boost for the region, concerned citizen groups have characterized the team as a Trojan horse that will lead to more congested roads and a financial albatross around the county's neck.
Sarah Summerville, president of the No Arlington Stadium Coalition, said the area is not equipped to accommodate the immense volumes of traffic coming to and leaving the stadium.
"They are talking about 40,000 extra people in this little congested area right across the street from the Pentagon," Summerville said. "The infrastructure cannot accommodate these people."
Authority plans also unfairly saddle taxpayers with bearing 75 percent, or $285 million, of construction costs, a practice which Summerville said amounts to "subsidizing millionaires."
Summerville also contests the Stadium Authority's $400 million cost projection, saying the number does not include the cost of the land and the loss of revenue from businesses presently at one of the sites, which would be forced to move if the stadium was built.
"This project could very well be double" the amount of the Stadium Authority's projection, Summerville said.
In a March 19 letter to Gov. Mark R. Warner, Arlington County Board Chair Paul Ferguson expressed the community's indecision.
"At this time, the Arlington County Board has no official position on baseball in Arlington," Ferguson said.
Ferguson also cautioned the Governor that the location of a team in the county would require "an extensive community process" to ensure the construction of a stadium would be "consistent with our land use policies and other master plans."
A second team in the D.C. Metro-area would be detrimental to the Baltimore Orioles' fan base, Orioles officials have warned.
An Authority report issued in May 2001, however, found that the franchise would lose only 932 fans on average, or 2.29 percent of the 2000 season's attendance at home games, if a team were located in Northern Virginia.
Orioles officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Junior Kyle Wertman, a catcher with the University baseball team, was supportive of a possible Major League team in the Commonwealth.
"I think it'd be great. We're really baseball oriented in Northern Virginia," Wertman said. "It's better than going to Baltimore."
The region twice was home to Washington Senators teams, but has been without a Major League franchise since 1971, when the second Washington Senators moved to Texas.
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