Expos Owner Promises Change

December 9, 1999 / 6:36 PM EST / CBS/AP

Jeffrey Loria is promising big changes for the Montreal Expos.

"I will start by saying that it will no longer be business as usual," the incoming owner said Thursday. "We will no longer be the farm system for the major leagues."

The 58-year-old Loria, a New York art dealer who specializes in 20th Century Masters, heads up a new ownership group that replaces the one headed by former team president Claude Brochu.

Baseball owners granted approval to the sale last week. Loria hopes the deal close before opening day.

"I'd like to think that we can make a run for the wild-card this year," Loria said. "I don't want to put things off. I wouldn't say I'm impatient, I am energetic and desirous of making it happen now. And toward that end, we're going to be doing our best to create a winning team for this city."

Expos chairman Jacques Menard and other members of the previous ownership group have seen their interest cut to 30 percent. Loria and his partners will hold 35 percent control of the team, the same percentage as new Canadian investors, who include Stephen Bronfman, the son of the team's original owner, Charles.

Loria, who played second base and shortstop in high school, is familiar with the team's plight over the last decade.

Despite all the players Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker and Moises Alou, to name a few and front office personnel that have passed through the organization only to move on to larger markets, Loria is pleased with realizing his childhood dream of owning a major league baseball team.

"The farm system is an excellent farm system," he said. "And the management of this team has always been spectacular. If you look in the most recent issue of Baseball America, it talks about Baseball University. I mean, all the graduates from this place from the management point of view not only the players has been unbelievable."

One of the biggest challenges facing the team's new owners will be putting fans in the seats at Olympic Stadium. A new downtown ballpark will open in 2002 at the earliest, and the Expos drew just 773,277 this year the lowest attendance in the major leagues.

"I think the fans are going to be very excited with the product we're going to put on the field," Loria said. "We're in this for the long run. We expect people to come and watch this team, and we're very hopeful that they will enjoy what they see. I think they'll stop thinking about whether they should go to Olympic Stadium or not. It's a fine place to play baseball, if the team is exciting."

Loria didn't want to get into ballpark plans.

"That's a subject really for another time, when we can be more specific," he said.