Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Goodman, Jackson discuss MLB bid

By J.M. KALIL
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, left, and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson leave Las Vegas Country Club after having lunch on Monday. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Marty Burger, executive vice president of New York City-based developer The Related Cos., accompanies baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson into Las Vegas Country Club on Monday for lunch with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. The group discussed the possibility of bringing a major league baseball team to Las Vegas. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson has emerged as the front man for a group of wealthy investors attempting to bring major league baseball to Las Vegas.

The former baseball star, known as Mr. October for his stellar postseason performances, met with Mayor Oscar Goodman on Monday to seek support for the group, which hopes to buy a struggling franchise from another market and relocate it here.

Jackson and Goodman met for a 90-minute lunch at the Las Vegas Country Club.

"We are aligned with what our dreams are," Jackson said following the meeting. "I had a dream. That dream is to engage in ownership in some way."

While Jackson, 58, declined to reveal the names of the investors he is representing, he arrived at the meeting with Marty Burger, executive vice president of New York City-based developer The Related Cos.

Related, which has an $8 billion portfolio of properties, is the firm the city has chosen as master developer of its prized 61-acre Union Park parcel downtown, where Goodman envisions an academic research center, performing arts venue and possibly a new City Hall. One of the three versions of plans Related officials are drawing for the property includes land for a proposed baseball stadium, an idea the mayor has endorsed.

Related spokeswoman Dana Pretner said Burger was at the meeting to introduce Jackson to Goodman.

Goodman, who also declined to name the investors Jackson represents, said he has spoken with two members of the group and is confident they have the financial capability to acquire a team.

"They're definitely the real deal," Goodman said. "Mr. Jackson has a real drive to bring baseball to Las Vegas."

The mayor said he supports Jackson and offered him any assistance he could provide, but did not discuss with him specific teams Jackson may be pursuing or possible Las Vegas stadium financing issues.

But the mayor's comments afterward suggested the group is talking to league officials and getting encouragement.

"(Jackson) indicated that he was next in line for a team," Goodman said.

Jackson, a part-time Las Vegas resident, has long aspired to become the first black owner of a major league baseball team. In the late 1990s, he assembled an investment group that made a failed bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, he is not bidding for the Montreal Expos, who are owned by the league. An agreement to move the Expos to the nation's capital and rechristen them the Washington Nationals remains in jeopardy over city officials' reneging on a stadium financing plan. The league is waiting until its contract with Washington expires Dec. 31 to say whether it will look elsewhere to relocate the Expos.

Goodman confirmed that Monday's meeting was at least the third time he has talked to Jackson about landing Las Vegas a big league franchise.

Jackson and two of the investors in his group called Goodman to discuss a possible bid on the morning of Dec. 9, the day the Review-Journal revealed Goodman had met in his office with executives from the Florida Marlins, one of four big league teams reportedly considering relocating.

Jackson and Goodman were hesitant to reveal details of Monday's lunch meeting.

"We talked a little bit about baseball and exchanged ideas," Jackson said.

Asked if he was interested in bringing a baseball team to Las Vegas, Jackson said, "We are in Las Vegas for lunch. I met with the mayor and he bought. We did talk about other cities, but he didn't offer to buy for them."

Jackson went on to emphasize that neither he nor Goodman can do anything to acquire a team or move a team to Las Vegas without baseball's blessing.

"Nothing happens without the approval of Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball is the director. Nothing happens for Oscar or me or the people interested in working with me until (MLB) hands us the OK or the permission to make it happen," Jackson said.

While the identity of the investors remains unclear, Jackson's name first surfaced publicly in connection with the effort to lure a baseball team to Las Vegas in a Sunday column by Las Vegas Sun editor Brian Greenspun, also a multi-millionaire developer.

The subject of the column was Greenspun's predictions for the next year. His first prognostication concerned Goodman's efforts to bring a pro baseball franchise to Las Vegas.

"Sometime in 2005, I predict Las Vegas will move to the top of the list, and the man who will head that effort will give this town a winner long before he fields a team. Someone, say, like Reggie Jackson. Reggie loves baseball, loves Las Vegas and loves the idea of being the first African-American owner of a major league baseball team. How's that for a great Las Vegas story?"

Goodman declined to say if Greenspun was a member of the investment group, and Greenspun did not respond to messages left on his cell phone or reply to e-mails seeking comment.

Jackson's foray into Las Vegas baseball talks follows nearly two weeks of events that city officials say have improved the city's chances of landing a baseball team, including a positive article in Sports Illustrated, the mayor's barnstorming appearance at the league's winter meetings and the meeting with Marlins officials at City Hall, which has fueled relocation rumors in Florida.

The mayor said Monday he will continue his aggressive push to bring a team here, likening his methods to those one would use to approach a potential paramour.

"All I've seen are some pretty legs on a girl in a bar. I'm thinking of what line I'm going to use to pick her up," Goodman said. "We have an awful lot of wooing to do."

Review-Journal writer Frank Geary and Gaming Wire writer Chris Jones contributed to this report.