M’S Interest A Virginia Group

With the Seattle Mariners’ owners announcing the team is for sale, northern Virginia may again try to buy a team and move it rather than wait for the next round of expansion.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday that Bill Collins’ group has $85 million in cash and a $100 million bank note to back up its search for a franchise.

Collins’ group, which would put a team in Washington’s RFK Stadium until a new ballpark is built, has previously failed to land a 1998 expansion team and the Houston Astros.

If the Mariners’ owners do sell, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia, also may make offers.

In Portland, Nike’s Phil Knight has been enlisted as a potential owner in its attempt to develop a stadium plan. A commission has been formed with the support of Portland mayor Vera Katz.

In Vancouver, the Canadians already have what they hope can become a major-league facility, B.C. Place Stadium. Neil Campbell, who once ran the Kingdome, is director of B.C. Place.

Mariners CEO John Ellis doesn’t expect to find a local owner to keep the Mariners in Seattle.

“The offering we will make will be to all,” he said. “And I would be more than totally surprised to find anyone … that would give anything like what this group has given to baseball here.”

However, because of baseball’s lengthy approval process, it is virtually certain no sale could be finalized until late this season at the earliest.