ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240133
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Northern Virginia's municipal apathy about major-league baseball is dismaying, but to fans in this part of the state it might not matter if the Houston Astros ever become the Beltway Bashers.
There could be a major-league club closer to Southwest Virginia than RFK Stadium or wherever a National League team might eventually play in the commonwealth. The defeat last week of a bond issue for a $250 million replacement for County Stadium might leave the Milwaukee Brewers no choice but to move.
The Charlotte Cheeseheads?
It's no secret Bud Selig, the Brewers' owner and baseball's acting commissioner, has explored Charlotte, N.C., as a potential home for his team. The Brewers won't stay in Milwaukee without a new ballpark, and the major-league owners like Charlotte, where the NBA has succeeded and the NFL is going to fill a glamorous stadium.
The owners like Northern Virginia better, and for more reasons than they want to cozy up in private boxes with politicos who haven't had a home team since the Senators moved to Texas in 1972.
The question being asked over and over is whether Charlotte can support a major-league team, having recently stretched its sports marketing profile with the Panthers joining the Hornets. There could be a problem with neighbors, too.
North Carolina officials have gotten behind the Triad area as a potential site for a major-league expansion franchise in the Tar Heel state. NationsBank chief Hugh McColl, whose backing of the Hornets and Panthers helped sell the NBA and NFL on Charlotte, has said the banking giant will support what Greensboro/Winston-Salem is selling.
However, if baseball's boss wants to move his team to Charlotte, can North Carolina really afford to say it doesn't want a team there? No. And if Charlotte gets the Brewers, Greensboro can forget it.
Charlotte's advantage is that 10,000-seat Knights Castle, home of Charlotte's Class AAA club in nearby Fort Mill, S.C., easily can be expanded to about 40,000 seats as a temporary home for a major-league team. A decade ago, a doubter from one established NBA outpost scoffed that the only franchise Charlotte would support was one with golden arches.
The Hornets disproved that theory. The epicenter of the explosion in NASCAR is Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Panthers will only make Charlotte more attractive as a major sports player. Besides, Charlotte already is a larger TV market than Milwaukee, and just as in the NBA and NFL, Charlotte would fill a geographical void in the majors.
If the Brewers move, it's not going to be to Washington, because there's no way some American League bigwigs - despite their disdain for Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos - will approve the transfer of another club into the Camden Yards neighborhood.
If the Brewers' move is approved, it stands to reason the desired purchase of the Astros by a Northern Virginia group would be an easier sell to owners, because each league would be transplanting a club. However, if the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority doesn't come up with a site for a new ballpark - and soon - prospective owner William Collins might be phoning Astros owner Drayton McLane and saying, ``Houston, we've got a problem.''
If either Charlotte or Northern Virginia gets a major-league team, it will be welcome news in these parts. Perennially, one of the most-frequent summertime phone calls to our sports department begins like this: ``Could you give me the ticket [phone] number for the ... ?''
You can fill in the team. Most often, it's the Braves, Orioles, Reds or Pirates. Maybe an improved local minor-league franchise with a spacious, new stadium can't fill half of its seats on a regular basis, but fans here still want to go to the ballpark and see the bigs, despite everything they've fouled off in recent years.
A prediction: Either Northern Virginia or Charlotte will have a major-league team before Arizona and Tampa Bay begin playing in 1998. The other will get a team by 2000.
Then we'll be able to call it the regional pastime.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB