Virginia Is for Sluggers
The Old Dominion wants a major-league stadium. If you build it in Arlington, we will come.
Cover Story
Ever since Virginia lost its ABA basketball franchise in 1976, the state hasn't had a big-league team, in any major sport, to call its own. The closest it gets is AAA baseball clubs in Richmond and Norfolk, which groom prospects for the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets.
The problem is that the state's money and power are concentrated in Northern Virginia, an overgrown suburb of Washington, D.C., a world-class city that hosts a complement of sports teams. Teams with a "Washington" appellation.
Within Virginia, Northern Virginia suffers from an acute identity crisis. It's a job machine for the Washington area and a revenue generator for Richmond coffers. But it doesn't get much love from D.C. residents, for whom it is merely a suburb with good shopping malls. Nor does it get the love from down-staters, for whom it might as well be Massachusetts.
Now comes baseball with the promise of a cultural anchor for Northern Virginia. Major League Baseball is trying to find a new home for the Montreal Expos, a team that plays to sparse crowds at its current home, Olympic Stadium. Along with D.C. and Portland, Ore., Virginia is lobbying the big leagues for the right to give shelter to the underappreciated Expos.
If baseball behaved rationally, the Expos would already be playing in the Washington area, the eighth-largest media market in America. Instead, Major League officials have the Expos playing some "home" games before less-than-capacity crowds in a 19,000-seat stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and dropping hints that they may stay there.... Continued 
Issue of May. 2 - 8, 2003
News and Features
- Virginia Is for Sluggers
Cover Story - No Free Ride
The City - Firefighters Overpower Garage Blaze
The City - Hammer Time
The City - Raising the Bar
The City - Rubbers Hit the Road
The City - Second Reading
The Mail - Memory Failure?
The Mail - Eat the Rich
The Mail - Various and Sundry Goods
The Mail - Skins Game
The Mail
Columns
- Beer, Wine, Win, Place, Show
Cheap Seats - Adding Insult To Injury
Loose Lips - Repeat Performance
Dept. of Media - Head of Homeland Security
City Desk - Tenants of Justice
City Desk
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- Russian Arcs
Film Review - X Hits the Spot
Film Review - The Real Cancun
Film Review - It Runs in the Family
Film Review
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- 'Water Under the Bridge
Music Review - The Grate Brain
Music Review - Send
Music Review - Up the Bracket
Music Review - Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
Music Review - Seamonsters
Music Review - DJ Drank's Greatest Malt Liquor Hits
Music Review - Untitled EP
Music Review - Bizarre Ride II
Music Review - Our Constant Concern
Music Review - Luminescence
Music Review
Theater
- Death and the Maidens
Theater Review - El Loco y la Triste (Soulmates of the Fringe)
Theater Review - Cheap Laughs
Theater Review
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- Out of the Gray
Art Review - Brave Old World
Arts - Sea-Dogged
Artifacts - Songs in the Key of Peace
Artifacts
City Lights
This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.
- Daniel Bernard Roumain
City Lights - Azar Nafisi
City Lights - Carl Reiner
City Lights - The Beauty of Phenomena: Art in the Communication of Science
City Lights - Pre-Code Cinema
City Lights - Best of Young British Novelists
City Lights - Horns and Halos
City Lights - Thomas Filippi
City Lights - Dorkestra
City Lights - Nick Merrick
City Lights - Measles Mumps Rubella
City Lights - Through the Olive Trees
City Lights - Sherry Austin
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Oct. 3 - 9, 2003
