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ARLINGTON, Va. -- Arlington County supervisors have told Virginia baseball officials they will not allow a professional baseball stadium to be built on county land, dealing a serious blow to northern Virginia's efforts to land a Major League Baseball franchise.

 

 

The county's Board of Supervisors met Thursday night in executive session and drafted a letter to Michael Frey, chairman of the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority, saying that they will oppose any rezoning request sought to build a stadium.

 

 

"If there was a general consensus that a Baseball Stadium was desired by Arlington residents, it might be possible to overlook the economic advantages of competing development opportunities," board chairman wrote Paul Ferguson wrote to Frey in the letter, which is dated Friday. "It is the judgment of the County Board that although there are numerous supporters of the baseball stadium concept, there are at least as many opposed with little hope of reaching consensus with the opposition."

 

 

Northern Virginia is competing with Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore., to be the new home for the Montreal Expos, which are owned by Major League Baseball. The team played a portion of its home games this year in Puerto Rico while the league attempts to find a permanent home for the team.

 

 

Baseball officials had initially planned to recommend a new location by mid-July, but said this week that they are not ready to do so and that they have no firm deadline in place to make a decision.

 

 

Ferguson had said in an earlier interview that Major League Baseball's indecision on recommending a location was hurting the chances of finding a suitable site in Arlington.

 

 

"It's a very divisive issue ... and the divisiveness is increasing," he said. "It becomes more difficult for the county to let the divisiveness in the community to continue. There's no guarantee that there will ever be a decision" from baseball.

 

 

The stadium authority, a state agency charged with bringing a team to northern Virginia, has identified five potential ballpark sites in Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties. But three of the prime sites were located in Arlington -- two near Pentagon City and one near Rosslyn. The Fairfax Board of Supervisors had already stated its opposition to a site in Springfield, near Fort Belvoir's former Engineer Proving Ground, leaving only the Loudoun County site (near Dulles Airport), which is generally considered to be the worst option of the five.

 

 

The stadium authority, as a state agency, can override any local vote, but such a move would carry significant political risks, said Del. Vincent Callahan, R-Fairfax, a stadium supporter.

 

 

The Arlington board's action, Callahan said, "is unsettling, to say the least. It's very shortsighted on the part of Arlington. It could put them on the map. Instead of being just a bedroom community for Washington, D.C., they could be home of a major league team."

 

 

Tony Bullock, spokesman for D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, said the Arlington board's action could be a boon for the District. "The problem in Northern Virginia greatly enhances the District's position," Bullock said. "We have several viable sites."

 

 

Frey, with the Virginia authority, said that the board's decision "certainly doesn't help" Virginia's quest for big-time baseball, "but there are still other sites that we can consider. We still have other options, and we'll have to sit down now and figure out what they are."

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0718/1582489.html

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