ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HERNDON
SOURCE: Associated Press
After a disappointing first attempt, the effort to find a site for a Northern Virginia baseball stadium is moving quickly, baseball backers said Wednesday.
The Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority should have three or four choice sites to consider by September, authority members said. That would be a vast improvement from last month, when a list of at least 13 possible locations dwindled to zero.
The authority agreed Wednesday to accept nominations through July 22 for sites that meet the basic criteria for a major league park. Possible sites must have at least 25 acres for the stadium, plus space to park at least 15,000 cars.
The state-chartered stadium group has been talking to private developers and landowners as well as seeking sites on its own.
``It's a little different this time around because we're doing it on our own. But in the long run, it will result in a number of good potential sites,'' said authority member Michael Frey.
At least a half-dozen landowners and developers already have pitched their property for a ballpark in Northern Virginia after four local governments declined to propose sites.
Frey said the list includes sites in eastern Loudoun, western Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford and Arlington counties and includes some locations not considered during the first search.
A first round of the site selection process failed last month, when no local government nominated a site for the $300 million stadium.
That delay and others dashed hopes for choosing a final stadium site by Aug. 15.
Under a plan approved this month by a legislative study committee, the state would pay for about two-thirds, or $200 million, of the cost of building the complex.
The remaining $100 million would come from the team, which would either pay $9 million a year in rent for 30 years to cover principal and interest costs or make an up-front cash contribution.
The package will be presented to the General Assembly in January if the investor group led by telecommunications executive William L. Collins III can buy a franchise and move it to Northern Virginia.
Meanwhile, Collins chatted up major league owners and officials at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Collins must get the blessing of baseball officials who last year ended his $160 million deal to buy the Houston Astros.
The Astros are Collins' best prospect for this year, he has said.
Collins hoped to use the gathering of owners and players to lay groundwork for next month, when Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. says he will announce whether to leave Houston.
Collins wants to bring a team to Washington's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in time for the 1997 season. The new team would move to a permanent home in Northern Virginia by 2000.
Owners gathered for the game made Collins no promises, although several said admiring things about his investor group and the strength of the Washington-area market, said Michael Scanlon, a spokesman for Collins' Virginia Baseball Club.
The Washington area has been without a major league team since 1972, when the Washington Senators left to become the Texas Rangers.
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