ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It's April 1999. Former Ferrum College phenom Billy Wagner gets the Opening Day assignment to pitch the first major-league baseball game in his home state, as the Virginia Whatevers meet the Pittsburgh Pirates. Commissioner Bob Costas is there to throw out the first pitch before a capacity crowd of 48,000 at a glorious new ballpark somewhere south of the Potomac River.
Then, that's putting the cart before the horsehide.
Virginia is the most populous state without a big-league franchise in any sport. It doesn't have to be that way. The Virginia Baseball Club got to the bottom of the ninth in its bid to purchase the Houston Astros five months ago.
The major-league club owners told the Astros they had to try and score in Houston in 1996. They won't. Astros owner Drayton McLane wants the team to sell 20,000 season tickets or draw 2.5 million fans to the Astrodome. Houston, to date, has sold fewer than 4,000 season seats for 1996. The Astros never have attracted 2.3 million in a season
Wagner, expected to crack the Houston rotation this season, could be pitching his home dates temporarily at RFK Stadium in 1997, for the Virginia Somethings. The Virginia Baseball Club, led by telecommunications mogul William Collins, has satisfied major-league club ownership guidelines in every way but one.
``We don't have a stadium,'' said Roanoke's Brian Wishneff, a consultant to VBC on ballpark issues. ``There's a window of opportunity that's open now for major-league baseball in Virginia. The question is whether we can get through that window.''
And it's a good question. The Houston franchise should be available by the All-Star break. There is a Virginia Stadium Authority, but it has no operating funds. There are suggested sites for a ballpark, but site and design aren't the issue. A funding plan for such a ballpark - it probably would look at lot like Baltimore's Camden Yards or Denver's Coors Field - is what's needed.
And on this matter, Virginia still seems to be trying to find a leadoff hitter. The VBC and Wishneff have asked the General Assembly to create a study commission on how to fund a ballpark. Meanwhile, the stadium issue isn't even a Hot Stove subject on the floor of the State Capitol, and the study commission hasn't been named, and may not be before Opening Day.
That study commission would need to have a plan recommended and approved by July 1 for VBC to have a shot at the Astros.
``The simple fact is that you can do whatever you want, but unless you have a financing plan for a stadium in place, you're not going to get a team,'' Wishneff said. ``The Virginia Baseball Club thinks a team will be available, if not the Astros, then maybe Montreal or someone else. You don't even need to talk about a site unless there's a financing plan.''
The VBC's first idea was to ask the state to create several new lottery games to fund a ballpark, similar to the plan the Maryland Stadium Authority used to create Camden Yards. Gov. George Allen proposed Keno and Powerball games in his budget, unbeknownst to Collins and Co.
Those were scratched off, and some Virginia residents were left with the impression the baseball was tied to those Allen proposals. Now, a one-quarter-cent sales tax imposed regionally in Northern Virginia's 10 jurisdictions is a formula that could work, Wishneff said. It also could be used in other state localities for other projects, like the NBA/NHL-sized arena that Norfolk and neighbors are trumpeting.
Allen's new games didn't include baseball. In fact, Allen has been conspicuously silent on the oh-so-close possibility of major-league baseball in Northern Virginia. Perhaps it's because he's a football guy, having once thrown five interceptions in one game as Virginia's quarterback. Perhaps it's because he recalls the heat his predecessor, Douglas Wilder, took in trying to make a deal with Jack Kent Cooke to get a stadium for the Redskins in Alexandria.
Several ballpark sites are being discussed, in the Dulles Airport vicinity or in Arlington, near National Airport. If Collins' group gets the first major-league team to move since the Washington Senators turned into Texas Rangers 25 years ago, it could play two seasons at RFK Stadium, at a considerable loss.
That's not going to matter unless Virginia begins warming up on this baseball issue, and soon.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB