EXPOS Puerto Rican group could be darkhorse in Montreal's future

The latest entry is competing against Washington and Northern Virginia.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
MIAMI -- Baseball is once again pushing back its announcement on the Montreal Expos future, until after the All-Star break, nearly three years after the commissioner's office took over the day-to-day operations of the club on a short-term basis while it searched for a new owner and location for the franchise.
Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, will meet Wednesday with commissioner Bud Selig in Milwaukee to brief him on the findings of the sport's relocation committee. Selig will then decide how the decision to select a location will unfold.
Mexico out
The future of a bid by Monterrey, Mexico, for the Expos is likely to be discussed at the meeting as well. Once considered the favorite among the half-dozen cities interested in acquiring the team, Monterrey is all but out of the competition now.
Concerns about the economic viability of the Mexican ownership group and the Monterrey market have raised serious doubts among baseball executives despite Selig's strong desire to expand into Latin America.
A Northern Virginia group, which recently announced plans to build a $442 million, 42,500-seat ballpark near Dulles International Airport, is among the front-runners, along with Washington, D.C. But both locations are strongly opposed by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who asked Selig to delay his announcement.
Angelos wants Selig to take time to study the merits of a darkhorse candidate, which didn't officially enter the competition until last month.
Recent proposal
Scott Shapiro of the Miami law firm Zumpano, Patricios & amp; Winker represents a group of deep-pocketed and politically influential Puerto Ricans that presented a proposal to Selig's office 10 days ago offering to move the team to San Juan.
Shapiro has been meeting with baseball executives to drum up support for his group's bid and is siding with Angelos in asking that Selig go slow to allow the San Juan proposal to be studied more fully.
The San Juan group is not associated with the promoter who has been staging Expos games in Puerto Rico the past two seasons -- games that have drawn much interest but few fans.
Proposals also have been made by Portland, Ore.; Norfork, Va.; and Las Vegas. The commissioner's office, which has run the Expos on behalf of the other 29 teams since 2002, hopes to have the team's sale and relocation complete before the start of next season.