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The mayor of Washington raised the stakes in the Expos sweepstakes considerably yesterday when he asked for approval of a $338 million stadium bill package. This figure would include a small portion for upgrading RFK Stadium so that it will be more spiffy for the interim period in which the new ballpark would be under construction.

Of the three locales vying for right to bring in the Expos (Portland, Oregon and Northern Virginia being the others), Washington, DC has now promised the most amount of money toward the new stadium Major League Baseball requires any new owner of the Expos to build. Craig Timberg of the Washington Post reports the other two locales are promising stadium appropriations of under $300 million. Timberg reports that any new ownership group would still be responsible for another $100 million or so of construction costs, but Washington's willingness to pour out some big bucks moves it -- at least until someone calls their offer -- into the lead in the Expos sweepstakes. The folks at MLB are sure to be impressed by the bigger civic outlay, but, on a more practical level, the temporary digs have to be considered as well.

In that regard, Washington has the upper hand with RFK Stadium. It is important that the Expos not spend two or three years warehoused in a truly substandard facility. Part of the $338 package will be apportioned to bringing RFK into the modern world. Portland has PGE Park which recently underwent a very thorough $38.5 million renovation but seats under 20,000. Does Northern Virginia have a facility that could match these two, or would they expect to use RFK as an interim home as well?

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