Las Vegas making serious play for Expos

Maybe they can be named the Las Vegas Gamblers.

 

If the Montreal Expos move to the casino capital, I can't think of a better name. Commissioner Bud Selig, of course, won't agree.

 

But according to Selig and his top aide, Bob DuPuy, Las Vegas is a serious contender to be the new home for the vagabond Expos, who completed the first of three "homestands" in Puerto Rico on Thursday.

 

Baseball's relocation committee, determined to find a suitable home for the Expos before the 2005 season, discussed the six leading cities vying for the team during a two-hour conference call Thursday.

 

If you had to handicap the cities, the Washington, D.C., area, which includes Northern Virginia, remains the favorite. Portland, Ore., Norfolk, Va., and Monterrey, Mexico, also are in contention.

 

"Las Vegas is a serious candidate," DuPuy says. "Very viable."

 

Selig says, "Years ago you wouldn't have thought about Las Vegas. I was raised in that era, but today gambling is legal everywhere. In Detroit, you can walk out of the ballpark and there's a legal casino."

 

Selig adds the promoters in Las Vegas "have been very aggressive, and it is one of the cities the relocation committee is considering."

 

The commissioner is determined to get the Expos monkey off his back this season.

 

"It will get done," he says.

 

DuPuy insists all six locations "are real candidates. There are pluses and minuses the relocation committee and the clubs will have to take into account for each of them. We are very impressed with the economics of the offers that have been made."

 

DuPuy says an update will be made to the full ownership when it meets in New York next month.

 

No city will be awarded the franchise, currently owned and operated by the other 29 owners, until financing for a new stadium is finalized.

 

The Washington, D.C., area has to be atop the list because of the population, economics and the fact it's twice had a major league team.

 

If MLB sidesteps Las Vegas, I'm convinced a team from one of the other professional sports leagues will eventually locate there. That team will reap a tremendous benefit.

 

For baseball, these issues remain: Is the Las Vegas area population large enough and is gambling sufficiently accepted nationwide that a professional team can be located there? Not to mention putting a team in that gambling oasis while Pete Rose remains banished from the game for betting on baseball.

 

Selig must decide how severely the Baltimore Orioles would be affected if the Expos are put in the Washington, D.C., area.

 

My guess is if it happens, the location will have to be in Northern Virginia rather than the nation's capital itself.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/co...15-bodley_x.htm

I still think Vegas is a bad idea......DC is the way to go!

If they choose Portland over DC I'll b***h and moan (as usual).

If they choose Norfolk or Northern Virginia over DC I will never go to an Orioles game ever again.

If they chose Las Vegas over DC I will not follow Major League Baseball or any league affiliated with them ever again.

Vegas makes the most sense.

Vegas is a bad idea because it's going to be another small market club. I'm sick of the whining those places make and with D.C. they cant complain of it being small market.

Vegas has one small problem. Their ballpark would have to be expanded until a new one is built and it won't be as big as RFK which used to be a MLB park.

yeah, vegas will have some REAL FANS. Real loyal fans there...put them in NY and be done with it.

2005 NL East

Atlanta Braves

Florida Marlins

New York Mets

Philadelphia Phillies

Washington Senators

subsitute washington with those fiesty pirates.

The Expos will goto Vegas.

 

Watch.

 

 

No other metro area is growing at the rate of Sin City.

 

 

 

All of the leagues are scared to enter Vegas. Comparing minor league attendance to major league attendance is not always a true indication. Many people have no desire to see 'minor league' baseball...but would love to see Major League baseball.

A move to Vegas just creates problems with league alignments besides other petty issues. My vote is with DC

A move to Vegas just creates problems with league alignments besides other petty issues. My vote is with DC

thats a fairly easy problem to solve.

 

 

 

the petty issues i assume you refer to are casinos and gambling right?

Im cool with Vegas ... you will actually be able to bet on the team and get away with it ... haha

 

think about it ... slot machines in the bathrooms ... Tom Jones singing the national anthem night after night.... STRIPPERS ... dood it'll be paradise on a baseball field haha :lol

they probably wouldnt allow vegas casinos to bet on expo games.

they probably wouldnt allow vegas casinos to bet on expo games.

why must you ruin my dream

the petty issues i assume you refer to are casinos and gambling right?

That doesn't really bother me. I see the potential crowd as fluxuating. Of course there are folks who live in Vegas but the local population I think would create a ballclub similiar to Anaheim, Seattle or Texas....Not super small market but not big market. I see DC as big market and one less club I have to hear about whining how they wont spend more than a tank of gas on players.

 

Of course, there's the stadium deal. DC has one ready and will build a new one to be billed to the city. Whereas Vegas has a venue not close to the dimensions of RFK.

There's so many reasons why Vegas should not be selected:

1. Image. As baseball is dealing with the steroid issue and the issue of cheating the game, what will it say that a team is placed in the grambling capital of the world?

Also the Las Vegas travel commission is not only promising to build a new stadium but wants to subsidize the team ten-million per year. Isn't it time that the Expos stop being subsidized? Does MLB really want a city paying a team to play in Las Vegas after the outrage from fans and citizens in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh who were given ballparks and saw those teams drop their payroll?

 

2. Population. Yes, it's the fastest growing city. But in the time span that you use to determine that is the period Las Vegas went from a small desert community to the grambling capital in the world. Even with the population shifts out west and to the south they'll never have the metropolitan area of DC (DC is growing too, and will continue until the Capitol moves). Maybe a Pittsburgh or some declining small market if Las Vegas continue their growth. Wasn't there a piece in the USA Today or Washington Post about Las Vegas possibly suffering a lack of drinking water if they can't find or divert new sources?

 

3. Demographics. The majority of people that do live in Las Vegas do not live and work on regular time. They work hours that MLB night games are played, and are sleeping when MLB day games are played. Their amateur and pro sports teams do not . Not even in the Tarkanian era did UNLV draw well. Their Arena League team does poorly. And minor league baseball hasn't been supported well. I agree that many people who want to go to a MLB game might not be tempted to go to a minor league game, but you can't fill the seats for 81 home games on visiting stars.

I don't think Vegas will get the team, because the D.C. group seems to have a stadium financing deal nearly in place. Vegas doesn't have anything like that yet.

if they moved the spos to vegas, how would the divisions work out? wed some some major shuffling if this ever happened

 

yeah id like to see wash dc happen cause RFK (though its a dump) has had baseball before and would be a good fit for 2 years while the new park is built (which has been in the planning stages for a while)

if they moved the spos to vegas, how would the divisions work out? wed some some major shuffling if this ever happened

 

yeah id like to see wash dc happen cause RFK (though its a dump) has had baseball before and would be a good fit for 2 years while the new park is built (which has been in the planning stages for a while)

Pittsburgh would just move over to the East and the Expos would move to the west.

if they moved the spos to vegas, how would the divisions work out? wed some some major shuffling if this ever happened

 

yeah id like to see wash dc happen cause RFK (though its a dump) has had baseball before and would be a good fit for 2 years while the new park is built (which has been in the planning stages for a while)

Pittsburgh would just move over to the East and the Expos would move to the west. And the Rockies to the central.

 

 

Moving the Rockies would really disturb the balance of ballparks. You'd have Petco, SBC and Dodger Stadium out west, and Coors, Wrigley, Enron/MM/Astros and Great American in the central.