Every win that the Expos put on the board, every step closer they come to contention, is an embarassment for Bud and a repudiation of his self-interested mantra that small market teams can't compete without massive wealth transfers from rich teams.

In 2002, the Expos fought back in the face of a pretty severe budget cutback and were in contention much of the year. This year Bud made it even harder for them - shifting a bunch of their 'home' games into de facto away games, and continuing to strain their salary caps. They've fought back again, and contended again for much of this year.

Who believes that Bud won't try even harder to scuttle them in 2004?

This is a disgrace.

Peter Gammons weighs in on the same issue in his latest for ESPN.

The players don't want to agree, but they were told that if they do, there will be more revenue and they have a better chance to keep the club together. That, of course, is a threat: Vote against it, and the owners will torch the roster.

Javier Vazquez has had enough.

"It's been six years of ownership, the (Jeffrey) Loria thing, contraction, baseball owning us with no one in Montreal knowing what was happening, now this business of playing in two cities," Vazquez said. "We'd just like some stability, and some respect."

Respect? They weren't even allowed to make September callups, and now they are being warned -- the beatings will escalate until morale improves.

Bud Selig is stuck. He desperately wants to move the Expos out of Montreal, since he has staked his credibility on his (false) assertion that Montreal cannot support a baseball team.

If the Expos leave Montreal, it'll be more fuel for the Expos' minority owners' RICO lawsuit.

If the Expos try to move to Washington, Peter Angelos will slap him with a lawsuit.

The Expos can't move to Latin America: either it's not financially viable, or it's not logistically viable, or both. (I'm not that knowledgeable about Mexico, but I suspect that visiting millionaire ballplayers would be putting their personal safety at risk to visit.)

And I can't think of any other city in North America that is large enough to support a baseball team - especially given that MLB insists on a large, state-of-the-art, taxpayer-funded stadium for the team.

Unfortunately, I can see the Expos situation continuing for years to come.

"I suspect that visiting millionaire ballplayers would be putting their personal safety at risk to visit."

You're right, you aren't that knowledgeable about Mexico.

Cristian, I don't think it's a stretch at all.

From the U.S. State Department's Consular Information Sheet for Mexico:

Crime in Mexico continues at high levels, and it is often violent, especially in Mexico City, Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo. Low apprehension and conviction rates of criminals contribute to the high crime rate. Other metropolitan areas have lower, but still serious, levels of crime. Travelers should leave valuables and irreplaceable items in a safe place, or not bring them. All visitors are encouraged to make use of hotel safes when available, avoid wearing obviously expensive jewelry or designer clothing, and carry only the cash or credit cards that will be needed on each outing. Travelers are discouraged from bringing very large amounts of cash into Mexico, because officials may suspect money laundering or other criminal activity. All U.S. citizen victims of crime in Mexico are encouraged to report the incident to the nearest police headquarters and to the nearest U.S. consular office.

Visitors should be aware of their surroundings at all times, even when in areas generally considered to be safe. Armed street crime is a serious problem in all of the major cities. In February 2001, a U.S. citizen tourist was murdered in a bungled robbery attempt in daylight near Mexico City's upscale San Angel handicraft market.

U.S. citizens should be aware that some bars and nightclubs, especially in resort cities such as Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Acapulco, can be havens for drug dealers and petty criminals. Some establishments may contaminate or drug the drinks to gain control over the patron. Victims, who are almost always unaccompanied, have been raped, robbed of personal property, or abducted and then held while their credit cards were used at various businesses and Automatic Teller Machines (ATM).

U.S. citizens should be very cautious in using ATMs in general in Mexico. If an ATM must be used, it should be accessed only during the business day at large protected facilities (preferably inside commercial establishments, rather than at a glass-enclosed, highly visible ATM on streets where criminals can observe financial transactions). Recently, there have been cases in which U.S. and Mexican citizens have been accosted on the street and forced to withdraw money from their accounts using their ATM cards.

Kidnapping, including the kidnapping of non-Mexicans, continues at alarming rates. So-called "express" kidnappings, an attempt to get quick cash in exchange for the release of an individual, have occurred in almost all the large cities in Mexico and appear to target not only the wealthy, but also middle class persons. U.S. businesses with offices in Mexico or concerned U.S. citizens may contact the U.S. Embassy or any U.S. consulate to discuss precautions that they should take. Four Americans were kidnapped in separate incidents in Nuevo Laredo during the Spring and Summer of 2002.

Criminal assaults occur on highways throughout Mexico. Therefore, travelers should exercise caution when traveling on all highways in Mexico and use "toll" ("cuota") roads, rather than the less secure "free" ("libre") highways, whenever possible...

All bus travel should be during daylight hours and on first-class conveyances... Armed robberies of entire busloads of passengers have recently been reported to the Embassy.

Tourists should be wary of persons representing themselves as Mexican police or other local officials. In some instances, Americans have become victims of harassment, mistreatment and extortion by Mexican law enforcement and other officials. Mexican authorities are concerned about these incidents and have cooperated in investigating such cases. However, one must have the officer's name, badge number, and patrol car number to pursue a complaint. Please make a note of this information if you are ever involved with police or other officials.

You know, it all depends where you read it...the U.S. State Department would certainly not risk under-"informing" its citizens... much like the ubiquitous "child must not be left unattended in stroller/highchair/walker" stickers, the warnings are self-protective.

We recently checked out the Lonely Planet Guide for the Oaxaca area, and found it replete with cautions about hepatitis and bandits. A friend, who runs a hotel in Puerto Escondido pointed out to us that Lonely Planet feels obligated to protect barefoot backpackers who sleep in haystacks, and if we wanted to chill we should check Fodor's.

Anyway, a deeply felt column from Griffin. Selig is unspeakable.

Oh common, Craig. The US constantly exagerates things like this...Closely related is the fact that they still have a trade embargo with Cuba. And lets face it, that's doing way more harm to the people of Cuba than Castro. Not to mention that they won't let you fly there from an American airport. If I were to visit the city I would take those statements into consideration, however, they would most definately not stop my from going.

As per a possible solution to this "problem"...
I wouldn't by any means agree with the measure of gating communities to keep the socially down-trodden out of affluent areas but they have found ways of securing certain people or groups of people in that country and I would venture a guess that the MLB could afford that relatively small cost. Especially seeing that they'll be paying almost nothing in overhead due to the lack of a significant minimum wage and the production method of in-game food (which is sure to sell at the highest imagineable price).

I'm guessing the U.S. State Department website is where Kevin Millar was informed that he would be in danger of a terrorist attack if he were to play baseball in Japan.

Heh. OK.

Canadian government's Travel Report for Mexico.

Giuliani targets Mexico crime wave.

TAMING MEXICO CITY.

Mexico Pays Dearly For Crime.

Australian government's Travel Advice for Mexico.

If you're an Economist reader, there's a good article there... Crime in Mexico.

I think going to Mexico represents an increased risk, yes. I don't think it's necessarily going to result in crime.

As A points out, MLB would almost certainly need to take security precautions (easily available through one of the larger security firms; Kroll for example) if a large portion of the schedule were to be played in Mexico... though Monterrey apparently is pretty decent security-wise.

I think going to Mexico represents an increased risk, yes. I don't think it's necessarily going to result in crime.

It's amazing MLB teams are careless enough to even send *scouts* to Mexico, could you imagine if they looked at prospects in urban North American centers? Whoa, that could be considered negligent. The crime rates there are astronomically higher than in the middle of Cheesetown, Wisconsin!

Sorry for the sarcasm but the logic is missing...these places tend to be crime ridden due to a distrubingly high rate of poverty, to continue to starve them by not injecting money into their economy is setting them up for failure. Whether the Mexican government uses the potential influx of money wisely is to be determined but we've screwed these people 7 ways of Sunday and its time to give them a chance to rebuild a culture that didn't used to have these problems that we now commonly associate with that Latin American region.

Without hesitation, I'd prefer to see the Expos playing in Mexico rather than Virginia. That said, Montreal is easily my first choice.

"to continue to starve them by not injecting money into their economy is setting them up for failure"

Careful A. You're dangerously close to falling into Bud Selig's trap by believing that baseball teams help the local economy.

Ahahaha, no way, not in the long term (will it help an economy) but simple economics will tell you that the amount it would bring in during a short stint with a make-shift stadium and very little overhead cost is far greater than any team will bring in if there was a franchise placed there perminantly. Lets face it, these games have a certain value to them solely because there is a limited number of MLB games that would ever be played there (Mexico isn't realistic to Selig, we all know that). The only question is are there enough people able to afford tickets AND who have any desire to watch an MLB game. The answer to that question needs to be determined before they make a decision on where the Expos will play a significant portion of their home games, if it comes out in favour of Le Mexique then throw them down there during a road trip that includes the south West.

...I think I have to do a case study at some point this year and this presents itself as an awfully interesting economic debate, maybe even worth adding to your list of topics Mike(?)

http://economics.about.com
I think I have to do a case study at some point this year and this presents itself as an awfully interesting economic debate, maybe even worth adding to your list of topics Mike(?)

I've got a few things on the issue.

The subject page Stadium Subsidies has links to a bunch of websites on the issue.

David Marasco of "The Diamond Angle" contributed an article to my site called Leaky Stadiums about Milwaukee's new stadium.

Stadium subsidies is also one of the issues I cover in my Five Term Paper Suggestions. It has links to a few policy papers and a few journal articles.

Generally speaking most of the research has found that teams do contribute slightly to the town's economy, but not nearly enough to warrant public funding of stadium projects.

Cheers,

Mike

Montreal just ain't a baseball city, but then again, do you blame them for not showing up? I mean would you be interested in paying for a ticket to go see the expos play at the Big O? That stadium is horrible at best, but, I guess it beats playing in Puerto Rico. Here's one for ya', in 1994 the expos had the best record in baseball, they may have possibly won the world series and baseball went on strike, not to add the fact that the fans have trouble relating to players salaries these days, which are through the roof! Oh, and my favourite one, they don't have a freggin' tv deal, fans will never be that interested in the expos unless the expos get more exposure in the city. For the last 2, 3, 4 years, the fans have heard time and time again that this may be the final season for the expos. I say either get rid of the expos ASAP or give the fans a reason to believe this franchise will never leave Montreal, it's not healthy to think the expos franchise has been sitting on the fence for the last few years just waiting to fall. Kicking someone while they're down is just wrong, MLB should be ashamed of themselves.