Betting on Baseball

[January 28th, 2004] The smoke signals surrounding the relocation of the Montreal Expos transmitted some surprising news last week: There's a Portlander involved, but he's pushing the team toward Las Vegas.

As the Rose City's dreams of Major League Baseball have stalled, Sin City's have soared, in part because of local real-estate investor Bob Scanlan. For the past nine months, Scanlan has been working with casino interests to site a stadium on the nation's best-known gambling strip.

"My first five or six encounters were for the fun of it," Scanlan says. "Next thing I know, I'm going to meetings with team owners and they're serious."

Las Vegas is a smaller market than Portland, and gambling presents problems for baseball's rulers, who pretend not to know that wagering on the national pastime practically is the national pastime.

Scanlan, who has played in real estate's big leagues for more than 30 years, got involved when competing casinos sought a neutral party to explore building a stadium that all might share.

Rather than counting on local Nevadans to pack the bleachers for baseball, his concept is servicing the mega-conventions and 35 million visitors that Vegas attracts annually.

Scanlan proposes pre-selling use of the park to the casinos, which would host conventioneers and stage entertainment on the 280 nights when the Expos aren't playing. "The big casinos are desirous of having 30 to 40 nights each," Scanlan says.

In addition to baseball's squeamishness about gambling, Scanlan also has to negotiate with casinos jockeying for control. "It's a long way from done, but the project has gone farther than I ever thought it would," Scanlan says.