City Officials Leery of Nats Bidder's Silence

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 24, 2006

During a luncheon address before more than 200 business leaders last week, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams noted that he had never met the Theodore N. Lerner family of Bethesda, which is seeking to buy the Washington Nationals.

The mayor then recited his office phone number, in case the Lerners want to give him a call. "Operators are standing by," Williams said, according to people in attendance.

The joke was one Williams (D) has used before. Having cast his support behind a rival group in Major League Baseball's sweepstakes for the Nationals, Williams contends that the Lerner family should have made a stronger effort to get to know city leaders.

Baseball officials have said a decision could be made this week. Eight groups have pledged to meet the $450 million asking price for the franchise.

The Lerners, developers whose projects include White Flint Mall and Tysons Corner, are considered one of two front-runners. With MLB's decision near, Williams has continued promoting the other top contender: the Washington Baseball Club, a conglomerate of local investors headed by businessmen Fred Malek and Jeffrey Zients.

Williams formed a partnership with the group in 2002 to help bring a baseball team to Washington and says it played a role in persuading MLB to relocate the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2004. Williams and other city leaders, including D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), said they meet and talk with members of the group on a regular basis.

But the Lerner family is taking a different approach, having decided to follow an MLB directive last year not to talk with city officials, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the bidding. That has made some city leaders leery.

MLB Commissioner "Bud Selig would do a disservice to D.C. to select the Lerner group," said council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5). "They have not reached out to us in the council or been heavily involved in bringing baseball to the city. I have no idea who they are."

Orange initially supported Washington entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky, but with the field narrowed, he said he would prefer the Malek-Zients group. The Lerner family has not commented on the process, and a family representative declined to comment for this story.

Although city officials won't have a say in who gets the team, they argue that it is important that Selig selects a group that can work cooperatively with the District government to complete the building of a publicly financed $611 million stadium project. Council members also have pledged to ask the new team owners to chip in more money for the project.

William N. Hall, head of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission's baseball committee, said he's never heard from the Lerners. The commission also supports the Washington Baseball Club.

Not everyone at the John A. Wilson Building feels uneasy with selecting the Lerners. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who has not had a formal meeting with them, said their background in building major projects would help ensure that the stadium is completed within budget.

"They have a record of getting things done," Graham said. "You do not have to imagine what they do, you can see it. That means more to me than political connections."

Theodore Lerner and his son Mark, who would help operate the team, attended a Nationals fundraiser for charity in the fall. They are season-ticket holders, and Mark Lerner attended spring training last season and this year.

Evans said he requested and was granted a meeting last fall with Theodore Lerner.

"He said baseball told those guys they shouldn't be talking to anybody," said Evans, who is supporting the Malek-Zients group.

Other would-be team owners have been more active than the Lerners in courting city government support. Members of the Malek-Zients group and members of a conglomerate headed by Indianapolis media executive Jeffrey Smulyan lobbied council members in phone calls and meetings to support the stadium financing package that was approved last month. Two other groups reportedly offered to pay for cost overruns on the stadium.

"My preference would be the Smulyan group," said council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6), who met with Smulyan and one of his District-based partners, Eric H. Holder Jr. "I consider him to be concerned enough about the city to get highly credible local partners."

Smulyan's partners include several African American business and sports figures, including Holder, who was deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton. The Malek-Zients group includes former secretary of state Colin L. Powell.

After MLB officials said the Lerner group was not diverse enough, the Lerners recently added several black investors, including Rodney E. Slater, a Clinton transportation secretary.

Williams is doing what he can to push the Malek-Zients group, lobbying baseball officials in his box during the Nationals' home opener two weeks ago.

"His message was the same: The Malek group has done the most to bring baseball to D.C. and has the deepest roots in D.C.," mayoral spokesman Vince Morris said.