At a news conference in Chicago, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that owners had "overwhelmingly" voted to eliminate two teams, although he wouldn't say which ones are facing the chopping block.
"There are more than two candidates at this time," Selig emphasized.
"We haven't picked the final two teams," he added. "There's a lot of negotiation left to be done ...There are a lot of lives at stake, a lot of careers at stake."
At a news conference on Tuesday, Bud Selig told reporters that baseball's owners have "overwhelmingly" voted to contract from 30 to 28 teams.(CP PHOTO)
Some of those negotiations will come with baseball's player association, which insists the league cannot fold teams -- and eliminate jobs -- without its permission.
The MLBPA sees talk of contraction as a threat being held over the players' heads as they enter into negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Many players and some owners feel the current CBA should simply be extended for a year to avoid an unseemly squabble over multi-million-dollar salaries while North America is still in shock over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Selig insisted contraction was not a bargaining ploy.
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"The teams to be contracted have a long record of failing to generate enough revenues to operate a viable major league franchise," Selig said.
No firm timetable hasn't been set to decide which teams will go, but Selig says he wants a decision before the start of the 2002 baseball season.
Despite the lack of official confirmation, it is widely expected the Expos will be one of the teams that will vanish. The other is believed to be the Minnesota Twins.
Selig needed approval of 23 of the 30 teams to bring about contraction. The most talked-about plan has the ownership in Minnesota and Montreal receiving $250 million US to fold the franchises.
According to Selig, a two-team contraction plan wasn't the only option considered by owners.
"There is a lot of people in the game who were hopeful of a four-team contraction." But Selig said "I didn't think the time was right."
That statement raises the possibility other teams could be folded. The Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays have also been mentioned as contraction candidates.
Major League Baseball's first team based outside the U.S., the Expos came into existence in 1969 -- two years after their namesake, the Expo '67 Worlds Fair, was held in Montreal.
The 32-year-old team's popularity peaked in the early 1980s.
In 1981, led by stars like Steve Rogers, Gary Carter and Andre Dawson, the Expos were one out away from earning a spot in the World Series against the New York Yankees.
But in the top of the ninth, Los Angeles Dodgers' outfielder Rick Monday belted a two-out home run off Rogers, a starter used on short rest in relief by manager Jim Fannning. The blast ended Montreal's playoff hopes.
Buoyed by the playoff success the Expos did well at the gate the following two years. In 1982 and 1983, the club was among the National League's most watched teams, boasting attendance numbers exceeding 2 million fans.
"People forget what a wonderful baseball town this has been," Michael Farber, a writer for Sports Illustrated magazine and former columnist for The Montreal Gazette told CBC two summers ago.
"Back in the early 80s, this place was jumping, it was the place to be. People knew all the Expos by faces and batting stances, around town people knew them."
In 1994, the Expos appeared headed for their greatest success as a franchise.
Coasting with major league-leading 74-40 record, the Expos were considered favourites to win their first World Series championship, when baseball's owners locked out the players.
The work stoppage forced the unprecedented cancellation of the World Series and alienated fans.
Tellingly, no fans were more disappointed -- and resentful -- than those in Montreal.
Exacerbating that let-down, during the 1990s Expos fans were forced to watch seemingly annual fire sales. The cash-strapped team sent stars like Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland and Moises Alou out of town, getting low-priced prospects in return.
"That really did it for me," said Diane Emery, 46, who used to attend 20 games or more a season.
"Montreal has really become sort of a farm-team with time. They develop new talents, they become good players producing exciting baseball and suddenly we don't have the money to keep them and they have to be dealt away."
In 1999, then-owner Claude Brochu sold controlling interest in the team to Jeffery Loria, a New York city art dealer.
Loria initially tried to foster a sense of optimism, doubling the team's payroll for the 2000 season and making a strong pitch to build a new ballpark in downtown Montreal to replace the much-maligned Olympic Stadium.
But in hindsight, the effort was in vain. Apathetic fans didn't come. The Expos averaged a league-low 12,000 fans a game in Loria's first year.
This season, the Expos drew only 7,648 fans per game to the domed stadium -- their fourth 90-loss campaign in a row -- and have come to be called an embarrassment in baseball circles.
In an interview with the Gazette last month, Loria said he expects to incur $20 million in losses this season. In large part, he blames the Expos' lack of a local TV contract for the team's current financial woes.
"Most teams have what we don't have, which is local television revenue," Loria told the newspaper. "Ours is nil, practically nil. It doesn't work. How do you run a team?"
Forbes magazine estimated in March that the Expos franchise was worth $92 million US, last in the majors. The New York Yankees are worth an estimated $635 million.
While many are expecting the Expos to fold, the deletion of the Twins would be a more shocking. The Twins once drew large crowds to the Metrodome and won two World Series in the past 14 years.
