Baseball won't consider change in site for Nats' new ballpark

Dec. 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Baseball's chief negotiator on the lease for a new Nationals' ballpark said Thursday that the sport won't consider changing the site unless Washington's mayor asks for it.
Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf met with members of the District of Columbia Council, several of whom oppose Washington's agreement with baseball last year to move the Montreal Expos to the nation's capital.
Reinsdorf said Mayor Anthony Williams has assured him that no change in site will be requested.
Building the stadium at the location south of the Capitol as stipulated in the 2004 agreement could cost $589 million, according to council estimates. Improvements to nearby infrastructure could add another $100 million.
Councilmen Jim Graham and David A. Catania said after the session that Reinsdorf agreed to discuss a different site. Several members want the proposed ballpark built next to 44-year-old RFK Stadium, where the team played last season.
"The city, the mayor, the people we're dealing with, they have not made a proposal to move it to RFK, and they have told us they will not make a proposal," Reinsdorf said in a telephone interview.
Catania said baseball never categorically refused to go to the RFK site and instead was offered the Anacostia site as the preferred option.
"He seemed very open to the notion (of a new site) if it meant closing this deal, and I think we're going to need to find some way of closing this deal," Catania said.
Reinsdorf said the only people backing an RFK site are "a couple of the council members, who really have no standing."
Williams spokesman Vince Morris said the meeting was "being mischaracterized by people who oppose this project."

Source: http://cbs.sportsline.com/