The DC Conundrum


Here's what I don't get about the Expos situation: Major League Baseball will bend over backwards to have the team play in Monterrey, Mexico or San Juan, Puerto Rico for 20 or so games to test out those markets, but won't do the same thing for DC.  RFK stadium is in better condition than either of the two latin stadiums, holds more people and is much more agreeable travel-wise for the Expos as it's geographically right in the middle of their division rivals. 

The two biggest complaints by the Expos players are the travel and the playing conditions.  The biggest complaints for the owners is that they don't know which markets will support a new team and they are concerned about how much a DC area team will affect the O's.  Allowing the team to "test" the Washington market at RFK solves all of these issues.  People are always saying that DC can't support a team, that that market has already lost two teams.  Well, why don't we find out for sure?  Let's see if the DC market will support a team.  This would show pretty much exactly how much of Baltimore's fan base would be lost if a team were moved to DC or Northern Virginia and the travel would be much more agreeable to the players.  More importantly to the owners, the Expos could charge regular ticket prices for the games as opposed to third world ticket prices, so the team would make much more money for the 29 owners who have a stake in the franchise.

Is this simply too logical for baseball?