Owners Set to Vote on Giants’ Move Today : Baseball: Club probably will remain in San Francisco, which will mean a round of lawsuits from St. Petersburg, Fla.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Major league owners will finally vote today whether to allow the San Francisco Giants to move to the Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg, Fla.
J. Rex Farrior, a member of the Tampa-St. Petersburg group that reached a $115-million agreement of sale with Giants’ owner Bob Lurie on Aug. 7, expressed a measure of exasperation Monday and said it was certain there would be lawsuits if his group is rejected, which appears likely.
“It’s been like waiting for a jury,†Farrior said. “It’s been four months of frustration. There’s been more expense and inconvenience than anyone could have expected. If I had known it was going to be this drawn out, I probably wouldn’t be here today.â€
Farrior and associates were still on the outside looking in as the executive council met for three hours and chose not to make a recommendation after hearing a final pitch from Lurie on behalf of the Florida offer and an ownership committee report that approved the financial qualifications of both Florida and San Francisco groups.
The report will be presented to the full ownership this morning, after which the National League will vote on the Tampa Bay move.
If rejected, Lurie will then have the option of accepting the $100-million offer from a San Francisco group headed by Peter Magowan, president of the Safeway supermarket chain, or removing his for-sale sign. A rejection is almost certain to generate several lawsuits from the St. Petersburg area.
“We didn’t want to muddy the water and have tried to delay all of that in the hope that the right and fair thing would be done here, but ultimately the lawsuits are something we can’t control,†Farrior said, referring to his group. “The city (St. Petersburg) has already indicated it will sue, and there are likely to be class-action suits from citizen groups.â€
The legal ramifications are unlikely to alter today’s vote. The Florida move requires 10 of 13 National League votes, with Lurie prevented from voting.
Dodger President Peter O’Malley, a leader of the attempt to keep the team in San Francisco, said Monday that he stood behind his remarks Sunday, when he insisted there were enough votes to block the move.
O’Malley hopes to retain the Dodgers’ longest and strongest rivalry and the core of a West Coast division if the leagues are ultimately realigned into three divisions each.
Several other owners talked privately of their continuing belief that Lurie lacked approval to make a transfer agreement and talked publicly of the need to maintain franchise stability.
“I hate to see franchises move willy-nilly if a legitimate buyer surfaces,†said co-owner George W. Bush of the Texas Rangers.
Jackie Autry, wife of Angel owner Gene Autry and a member of the executive council, said it was the responsibility of the full ownership to keep franchises where they are if there is a viable offer to do so. She compared the Giants’ situation to that of Montreal and Seattle when local ownership was found to keep those clubs from moving.
Does she have any empathy for Tampa-St. Petersburg, which has been close so often?
Autry shook her head and said:
“The area was told repeatedly by baseball and Peter Ueberroth, when he was commissioner, not to build a stadium if they didn’t have a franchise. Yet they built a stadium and have cried foul ever since. I mean, they had as good a chance as Miami to get an expansion franchise, but didn’t have the financial horses and cried foul again.â€
They now have the horses, their bid being $15 million better than that of the Magowan group’s, but the stable seems likely to run out of the money again.
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