Angelos: D.C. Team Could Cost O's $40 Million a Year

WASHINGTON (AP) - Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos estimates a baseball team in Washington would cost the Oriole's $40 million dollars a season.

Angelos told WBAL's Sportsline another team in Washington or Northern Virginia would hurt the team. He says "There are no real baseball fans in D.C." Angelos says the fans are mainly in the Maryland suburbs, and those pushing for a D.C. or Northern Virginia team are trying to steal Orioles' fans.

A story on Major League Baseball's Web site says officials of the players' union met with representatives of the Montreal Expos' players on Wednesday, when the team was at Shea Stadium in New York. The story quotes the union's Gene Orza as saying he told them it was "unlikely" the team would play in Montreal next season.

Orza is quoted as saying D.C. and Northern Virginia are the "top candidates" -- though Las Vegas and Norfolk, Virginia have what he calls "an outside shot at it."

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)