BIG O LEASE EXPOS-ED: TEAM STAYING IN MONTREAL THROUGH 2000?

          The Expos "have quietly signed a lease" with the
     Olympic Installations Board that would have the team play
     the 2000 season at Olympic Stadium, according to Jeff Blair
     of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL.  Expos Limited Partner Mark
     Routtenberg said that the team had until December 31 to
     "signal their intention to renew the lease, and the deal was
     done" last week.  But he "confirmed" that the lease contains
     an escape clause "levying a penalty" against the Expos
     should they break it.  Also, Expos Chair Jacques Menard has
     been negotiating with team President Claude Brochu "on a
     purchase price to buy out Brochu's shares" in the team.  But
     Brochu said, "We don't have anything worked out."  Blair 
     writes that a "potential" majority investor in the team
     could be N.Y. art dealer Jeffrey Loria, who once bid for the
     Orioles in '93.  But he said that he hasn't "spoken to
     anybody with or about the Expos" (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/12).