The Toronto Blue Jays may be an endangered species, heading for extinction next season along with the Montreal Expos, according to a senior columnist with USA Today.

Bob Nightengale, who writes a baseball column for the national newspaper, says the Toronto major-league franchise "is being looked at as a potential partner with the Montreal Expos for contraction at the season's conclusion." He cites "high-ranking baseball sources."

Nightengale quotes Blue Jays president and CEO Paul Godfrey as saying, "We have problems, "but I think anybody who thinks an option is to contract this franchise would be advised to take a look at other cities."

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig told Nightengale the Blue Jays haven't volunteered for contraction, "but he concedes they are one of baseball's most troubled franchises.

"The Blue Jays lost a major league-leading $53 million last season, according to Godfrey, and are projected to lose perhaps as much as $60 million this year," Nightengale says in his column. "They are averaging only 17,995 fans a game, the fifth-lowest attendance in baseball."

Selig told Nightengale, "There's no question they have a very tough situation. They've got their hands full. They had a staggering loss last year. It starts with a significant negative with the exchange rate, and their attendance has dropped.

"We are moving ahead with contraction. I don't want to get into specifics, but in the past, there were a lot of franchises that were interested in contraction or believed they should be the one. But I've never heard one scintilla of suggestions from the Blue Jays that they have interest in it.

"No matter what was said in the past, you've got to want to be contracted, and Toronto has expressed no interest."

So the $200 million contraction question remains: Which team gets to share the electric chair with the Expos? The Minnesota Twins, who volunteered for contraction last November, received a guarantee that they will be kept alive for another season. The beleaguered Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Florida Marlins are safe at least through 2003, high-ranking MLB sources say. So, is it the Kansas City Royals? The Oakland A's? Or is it really the Blue Jays, with baseball executives privately wondering how long they can continue to absorb losses bigger than the economy of small countries? Ted Rodgers, chief executive of Rogers Communications Inc., which owns the franchise, continues to say his company is not ready to surrender. The media conglomerate has owned the team only two years, and no one promised that they'd become the Yankees overnight. Yet, no one envisioned they'd be the Devil Rays, either. The Blue Jays are in the right hands with rookie general manager J.P. Ricciardi, an astute talent evaluator, but he has inherited a mess, a franchise that eroded quicker than Enron. The Blue Jays, who haven't finished higher than third place in nine years, have been a calamity ever since Joe Carter's game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series. The Blue Jays, who won five division championships and two World Series from 1985 to 1993, had a rotten start in '94 and were 55-60 at the time of the strike. The players never came back that year. The fans haven't come back since. The $500 million SkyDome no longer was a novelty. The back-to-back World Series championships spoiled the fans. Baseball fans turned their attention back to hockey and to the new NBA team. Ticket prices, which now cost $29 for the cheapest field-level seats to $180 for the prime seats in between the dugouts, became outrageous. The team got expensive and old. "It's still a good baseball town, but they're not enamored with the team," says former Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi, who led the club to a winning record during his two seasons in 1999 and 2000. "And once you lose that fan base, it's difficult to get back." The Blue Jays drew a staggering 4 million fans in three consecutive seasons from 1991-93, but after the strike, it's never been the same. The Blue Jays have yet to draw even 3 million fans, and in the last two years, have drawn just 1.8 million fans. They're on pace this season to finish with an attendance of about 1.5 million ? their lowest total since 1982. "The best marketing tool is a winning ballclub, and we haven't had that since '93," Godfrey says. "I don't mean necessarily a team that's going to win the World Series, but a contender for one of the playoff spots. "Even given that, I don't think we can ever draw 4 million (fans) again. I think we can get to 3 million, but even that is tough. We're in a bit of unfortunate circumstances here." The biggest obstacle facing the Blue Jays is that the Canadian dollar is so greatly devalued. The exchange rate today is about $1.55 on the U.S. dollar, compared to about $1.15 when the Blue Jays won the World Series. So when you consider that the Blue Jays are paying 80 percent of their expenses in U.S. currency, and about 70 percent of their revenue is in Canadian currency, you begin to understand the problem. Just like that, factoring in the exchange rate, the Blue Jays' $70 million payroll is bloated to about $105 million. We won't even begin to bore you with all of the problems involving the stadium lease. The Blue Jays control only 65 percent of the ticket revenue, and the SkyDome ownership controls the other 35 percent, including luxury boxes. The arrangement is so bad that it makes it impossible for either ownership group to turn a profit, Godfrey says. Toronto, indeed, may be a major market, but baseball recognizes the Blue Jays' woes. The Blue Jays received $9.8 million in revenue sharing last season, and they are scheduled to soon receive a $5 million lump payment from the MLB Central Fund. Still, when you're losing more money than the Twins and Marlins combined, you've got problems. "The biggest problem not only facing us, but all sports in Canada, is the Canadian dollar," Godfrey says. "I don't think people understand the great difficulty it is to field a team in Canada to compete with the other North American teams. The chance of the dollar ever becoming a true dollar here again is minimal." The Blue Jays' only recourse, if they decide to stay in business, is to completely overhaul the organization. This is why it made no sense for the Blue Jays to have a $78 million payroll a year ago, which would have escalated to $88 million if the team was kept intact. Heaping more money on their problems was like redecorating the living room while the rest of the house is collapsing. So the Blue Jays brought in Ricciardi, who must tear up the foundation and give it an overhaul. He has informed every GM that just about anyone on the roster is available, the only exceptions being third baseman Eric Hinske, pitcher Roy Halladay, shortstop Felipe Lopez and outfielder Vernon Wells. Ricciardi already has done an admirable job by acquiring Rookie of the Year candidate Hinske and starter Justin Miller for closer Billy Koch. He picked up pitchers Pete Walker and Cliff Politte. He shed $36.5 million by trading shortstop Alex Gonzalez, first baseman Brad Fullmer and relievers Paul Quantrill, Koch, Dan Plesac and Pedro Borbon. Now, if he can only find someone to take outfielder Raul Mondesi ($24 million remaining through 2003) and first baseman Carlos Delgado ($57 million through 2004) off his hands. He promises not to be greedy if anyone wants pitchers Esteban Loaiza ($5.8 million), Mike Sirotka ($3.8 million), Chris Carpenter ($3.45 million) or Steve Parris ($3.4 million); catcher Darrin Fletcher ($3.6 million); or outfielders Shannon Stewart ($4.25 million) and Jose Cruz ($3.7 million). Please, just pick up the phone. The Blue Jays ultimately would like to lower their payroll to $45 million, build a contender like the Minnesota Twins and take their chances again. "We have to do it by taking baby steps," says Ricciardi, who fired manager Buck Martinez last week and replaced him with third base coach Carlos Tosca. "There's no pixie dust here to magically save us. It's going to take time. "You just can't keep spending money and think that we're just a player away. To think we're a player or two short is unrealistic. We're several players away. "But we can do this. I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't think we could turn this around. "And we will."