BALLPARK FIGURES: EXPOS UNVEIL LATEST PLANS FOR NEW FACILITY

          Expos Majority Owner Jeffrey Loria and Exec VP David
     Samson formally unveiled plans for the team's proposed
     C$200M, open-air downtown ballpark, according to Jeff Blair
     of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL.  Loria said that the 36,287-
     seat ballpark will take 22-23 months to build and would be
     ready by opening day in 2002 if ground is broken in March or
     April.  The Olympic Installations Board, which runs Olympic
     Stadium, will own the new facility while the team will
     "operate [it] and not pay any municipal property tax." 
     Samson, on the ballpark: "We will not have a white elephant. 
     We're not going to start until we know that we can finish
     and until we know that we can be successful."  But several
     details still must be finalized, as Loria "expects" the city
     to approve zoning changes by the end of the month and
     negotiations "are going on" with the Canada Land Co. for a
     lease of "no less than" 40 years for land near the Molson
     Centre.  The Expos "want to get a minimum of" C$50M toward
     construction from advance ticket sales or PSLs in addition
     to the C$25-30M they have already raised from a "failed" PSL
     program set up by former Managing General Partner Claude
     Brochu.  The team's new ownership group "would eventually
     put in" C$50M toward construction, but the "final makeup if
     the consortium is not known."  Although Labatt has already
     agreed to pay C$40M for naming rights to the ballpark as
     part of its 20-year, C$100M marketing commitment to the
     team, the new owners "don't think that agreement represents
     market value and they are renegotiating the rights."  At the
     unveiling yesterday, both Loria and Samson "went out of
     their way" to refer to the ballpark as "Expos Downtown
     Stadium" instead of "Labatt Park" (GLOBE & MAIL, 2/9).
          THE SKYLINE'S THE LIMIT: In Montreal, Stephanie Myles
     writes that the ballpark will have few walls and the view of
     downtown Montreal will be "extensive."  Expos VP/Stadium
     Operations Claude Delorme: "Design-and-build, specifying
     exactly the requirements we want in this new facility, leads
     to a locked-in price.  And this is very different from the
     method used in the [U.S.]" (Montreal GAZETTE, 2/9).