Nationals sales executive Cope out after one year

David Cope, Washington Nationals vice president of sales and marketing, was fired last week after a one-year stay with the club.

Cope, 41, played a lead role in the frenetic sales and sponsorship effort that followed Major League Baseball’s decision to move the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. The ticket sales effort paid off with a final attendance figure of 2.73 million, despite limited distribution of the team’s games on local TV and often-troubled operations at RFK Stadium.

He took the job as a short-term break from his Maryland-based company, Gilco Sports & Entertainment Marketing. But as the season evolved, he grew more entrenched and now may seek to regain his job once MLB sells the Nationals.

Cope declined comment. Industry sources, however, said the move came as a surprise, despite a sometimes chilly relationship between he and team president Tony Tavares.