CHANTILLY, Va. -- An investment group hoping to bring a
major league baseball team to Northern Virginia has unveiled plans for
a stadium near Dulles International Airport.
The stadium would be part of a complex that would include
restaurants, hotels, condominiums and offices surrounding a
man-made lake, the group said. It hopes to make the projected
development a year-round attraction in order to defray some of the
construction costs.
"It's going to be a beautiful development," Jerry Burkot, a
spokesman for the group, told The Washington Post for Saturday
editions.
The proposal is the latest from the Virginia Baseball Stadium
Authority, which is hoping to bring a baseball team to Northern
Virginia. The site is not the only one the group has presented to
Major League Baseball, but it is the preferred one.
Baseball has been trying to relocate the Montreal Expos since
the struggling franchise was purchased by the 29 other teams before
the 2002 season. The Expos are splitting their schedule between
Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the second consecutive year
in order to ease the club's debt.
Las Vegas; Monterrey, Mexico; Washington; San Juan; Norfolk,
Va.; Portland, Ore.; and Northern Virginia are all possible
relocation candidates. The latest deadline for a decision is the
All-Star break in July, but league officials have repeatedly missed
similar deadlines in the past as they search for an acceptable
deal.