Expos co-Chair Jacques Menard was named '99 Baseball
Man of the Year yesterday by the Canadian chapter of the
Baseball Writers' Association, according to Stephanie Myles
of the Montreal GAZETTE. Menard, on trying to "line up" the
local investment team that will make up two-thirds of the
team ownership: "The local equity investors' process is
continuing to go well. ... We identified and confirmed two
new ones this week, one on Monday and one on Wednesday.
We're still a few dollars short, but I'm not concerned. I
certainly would expect that by the end of March or April,
our Canadian side of the equity will match Mr. [Expos Owner
Jeffrey] Loria's American side" (GAZETTE, 2/18).
HURCULEAN EFFORT: Also in Montreal, Jack Todd writes
that Loria and Expos Exec VP David Samson "are putting in
Herculean, 120-hour weeks in their effort to turn this
franchise around, attending to every detail, trying to
accomplish a decade's work in the space of a single winter."
Loria is "clearly frustrated with the slow pace" of both
radio and TV broadcast negotiations. Loria said that while
he believes deals "are in the works" for both English- and
French-language radio broadcasts, TV deals are "proving more
difficult." Still, Loria believes that he has put the Expos
"on sound financial footing now." Loria: "We're 30th out of
30 teams in broadcasting revenue, but we're so far back we
might as well be 80th. I'm doing this for the fans. We
have to make this team viable." Loria, when asked "why it
wouldn't pay" to do one-year deals now and renegotiate after
the team begins "to come back on the field and at the box
office": "If you do that, then you're always working in
increments from the first contract. That means that a
couple of years from now, when we're ready to move into the
new stadium, we're still nowhere in terms of broadcast
revenue." Todd adds that "the same thing applies" to
negotiations with Labatt for naming rights to the new
downtown ballpark, where Loria "believes" that the deal
former Expos Managing Partner Claude Brochu signed was
"completely in Labatt's favour." The Expos are still
waiting for a counter-proposal from Labatt (GAZETTE, 2/18).
