Washington's Major League Divide

The metropolitan region is, by far, the largest market in contention for the Expos. The other contenders are Norfolk, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and Monterrey, Mexico.

With 7.6 million people in the metropolitan statistical area that includes Baltimore, the D.C. region represents the nation's eighth-largest media market. And it is one of the wealthiest in the nation.

Because the District lies at the heart of that market, D.C. officials argue that a downtown stadium would tap its fullest potential, drawing fans from across the region. On any given night, about 5 million people can get to downtown Washington within an hour and 15 minutes, according to statistics compiled by D.C. baseball boosters. Dulles boosters cast the issue differently, saying that when their stadium would open, 1.5 million people would live within an hour's drive at rush hour.

Population projections put together as part of the Dulles bid show swift population growth continuing near the ballpark site. By 2010, two years after the stadium's opening, 1.4 million people would live within a 10-mile radius of the stadium, and 2.3 million would live within 20 miles, according to those projections.

The District stadium would be located, at most, 20 blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress, administration officials, law firms and lobbyists would flock to purchase season tickets and luxury skyboxes, according to city officials. And the view from the stands would be likely to include the Capitol dome, the Washington Monument or the Potomac River, giving the park a cachet no other city could match, they said.

"They're going to build a city around a stadium out there in the middle of nowhere when we have a city right here that already exists," Bullock said.

Laurence E. Bensignor, chairman of Diamond Lake Associates, a partnership of some of the nation's largest home builders that would build the development around the Loudoun stadium, said the Dulles location offered a chance to shake up the trend toward downtown stadiums. "What we're trying to do is marry the energy of an urban environment with the benefits and open space of suburbia," he said.

Some classic urban stadiums were born in gritty downtowns in the early 1900s, he said.

"Life isn't the same as it was 100 years ago," he said. "The automobile plays a different role today. Suburbia plays a different role today. We're looking forward."

"While there is a nice emotional feel to [Baltimore's] Camden Yards going back to the downtown, it would be naive to think that that is the only model, either experientially or financially," Bensignor said.

The wild card in all this is the role of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Angelos, a close ally of baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, has said repeatedly that a team in Washington, 35 miles from Camden Yards, would cut into his profits. D.C. officials argue that any harm to the Orioles could be mitigated by the formation of a regional cable sports network. But Angelos's opposition is a major stumbling block that could push the Expos into Northern Virginia -- or out of the region altogether.

Virginia baseball backers say the Loudoun bid could emerge as the compromise candidate, appeasing Angelos because it is farther from Baltimore but still able to tap the region's wealth.