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Unbelievable but true
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Forum:
Sports
Category:
Baseball
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
00706167
Message ID:
00706605
Views:
25
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>I suppose that the prospect of major league baseball coming to Washington depends on one of you failing (or being perceived to fail) and moving.

The lawsuit the former minority owners have against Loria and MLB could make it a bit tougher to move the Expos in the short term. The former owners claim collusion and fraud among other things - they say MLB forced them to add an equity formula to the deal with Loria (by which Loria could grab extra equity in the team if the minority owners refused to come up with extra cash when Loria asked for more). It was reported here that there's a claim that Expos front office was asked to make it appear to the minority owners that the team's lines of credit were maxed out when they really weren't. Sounds like serious stuff to look into, but you never know, a judge might just toss it out if they're not interested. The thinking here is that if the suit proceeds, MLB will do anything to not have their books looked at in public so they'll likely settle out of court. If the former minority owners get a settlement, I wouldn't rule out a move.
But - you also have to keep in mind that the new collective agreement makes it even tougher than before for small market teams - they'll all get less cash than before from MLB. I think MLB is aiming for contraction rather than anything else - they just agreed to put it off for a couple of years while they find a better way to go about it.
Rod Poujade
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